Hemorrhoid Capsules

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, Edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others. - Hyssop

Hyssopus. Hyssopus officinalis L. Hyssop. Hysope, Fr. Isop, Ysop, G.—This is a European labiate plant, found along roadsides in this country, whose flowering summits and leaves have been used in medicine. They have an agreeable aromatic odor, and a warm, pungent, bitterish taste, due to the presence of a volatile oil. This oil is colorless or greenish-yellow, of peculiar odor, sharp camphor-like taste, and neutral reaction. It has a sp. gr. from 0.88 to 0.98, distils between 142° and 162° 0. (287.6°-323.60 F.), and is soluble in its own bulk of alcohol of 0.85 sp. gr. The acid found in the oil has been identified as l-pinonic acid, and the ketone l-pinocamphene. Hyssop is a warm, gently stimulant aromatic, applicable to the same cases as the other labiate plants.

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, Edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others. - Burdock

Lappa. N. F. IV (U. S. P. VIII). Burdock Root. Radix Bardanae. Bassies. Beggars' Buttons. Cuckoo Button. Harebur. Bardane, Fr. Cod. Glouteron, Fr. Klettenwurzel, G. Bardana, It.—" The dried root of Arctium Lappa Linné, or of other species of Arctium (Fam. Compositae), collected from plants of the first year's growth." N.F. The stem of the burdock is succulent, pubescent, branching, and three or four feet in height, bearing very large, cordate, denticulate leaves, which are green on their upper surface, whitish and downy on the under, and stand on long footstalks. The flowers are purple, with heads globose, and in terminal panicles. The involucre consists of imbricated scales, with hooked extremities, by which they adhere to the clothing of man and the coats of animals. The achemes are oblong, somewhat compressed and three-angled, ribbed, truncate. Although a native of Europe, burdock is abundant in the United States, where it grows on the roadsides, among rubbish, and in cultivated grounds. There are three recognized species of Arctium in North America—viz., A. tomentosum (Lam.) Schk. (Woolly or Cottony Burdock); A. Lappa L. (Burdock, Clotbur or Great Bur); and A. minus Schk. (Common Burdock). It is described by the N. F. as "nearly simple, fusiform, of variable length from 5 to 20 mm. in diameter near the crown; frequently split or in broken pieces; externally grayish-brown, longitudinally wrinkled, the crown somewhat annulate, sometimes surmounted by a woolly tuft of leaf remains; fracture somewhat horny; a dark cambium separating the thick brownish bark from the yellowish porous and radiate wood, centrally hollow or containing a white, pith-like tissue. Odor slight; taste mucilaginous, sweetish, and slightly bitter. The powder is light brown and, when examined under the microscope, exhibits parenchyma cells of the cortex; the medullary rays and wood containing amorphous masses or sphere-crystals of inulin; yellow resin cells occur in the cortical parenchyma of young roots; wood fibers few; no starch and no calcium oxalate. Lappa yields not more than 6 per cent. of ash." N. F. Inulin has been found in it by Guibourt, and sugar by Fee, while F. E. Hendershott believes that it contains a glucoside, besides arabin and pectin and extractives. (Proceedings of Mich. Pharm. Assoc., 1887.) Trimble also obtained from the root a bitter, crystalline glucoside. (Ph. Era, 1888, p. 133.) Thos. Donaldson (A. J. P., 1890, p. 123) found 8.6 per cent. of yellow fixed oil and about 1 per cent. of white waxy matter. A small quantity of volatile oil (0.065 per cent.) has been found in burdock root according to Haensel's Report, Oct., 1902. The inulin usually exists in parenchymatous cells in a different state, but if sections of the green root be dehydrated by soaking in 95 per cent. alcohol, the inulin will be found in spheroidal form. An interesting account of burdock and its use as an edible vegetable in Japan, by Inazo Nitobe, may be found in A. J. P., 1897, 416. Uses.—Burdock root has been employed as a diuretic and diaphoretic alterative, especially useful in the gouty, scorbutic, and syphilitic and scrofulous diatheses; also in various chronic skin diseases, especially in psoriasis, prurigo, and acne. (M. S. Rep., 1868.) The fresh leaves have been employed both externally and internally in cutaneous eruptions and ulcerations. There is no sufficient reason, however, to believe it has any medicinal virtue. This fluidextract is recognized by the N. F. (see Part III). Dose, thirty to ninety grains (2.0-5.8 Gm.).

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, Edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others. - Cranesbill

Botanical name: Geranium maculatum Geranium. N. F. IV (U. S. VIII). Cranesbill. Cranesbill Root. Spotted or Wild Cranesbill, or Storksbill. Alum Root. Racine de Bec-de-Orue tachete, Racine de Pied-de-Comeille, Fr. Fleck-storchschnabelwurzel, G.—"The dried rhizome of Geranium maculatum Linne (Fam. Geraniaceae)." N. F. Geranium was deleted from the U. S. Pharmacopoeia but is now official in the National Formulary IV. The stem is erect, round, dichotomously branched, from one to two feet high, of a grayish-green color, and thickly covered, in common with the petioles and peduncles, with reflexed hairs. The leaves are deeply divided into three, five, or seven lobes, which are variously incised at their extremities, hairy, and of a pale green color, mottled with still paler spots. Those which rise from the root are supported on foot-stalks eight or ten inches long; those of the stem are opposite, the lower petiolate, the upper nearly sessile, with lanceolate or linear stipules. The flowers are large, and usually of a rose-purple color. The peduncles spring from the forks of the stem, and severally support two flowers upon short pedicles. The calyx is composed of five oblong, ribbed, cuspidate leaves; the petals are five, obovate, and entire; the stamens ten, with oblong, deciduous anthers, the five alternate filaments being longer than the others, and having glands at their base; the ovary is ovate, supporting a straight style as long as the stamens, and surmounted by five stigmas. The fruit consists of five aggregate, one-seeded capsules, attached by a beak to the persistent style, curling up and scattering the seeds when ripe. The plant is indigenous, growing throughout the United States in moist woods, thickets, and hedges, and generally in low grounds. It flowers from May to July. The root should be collected in autumn. Geranium is described as: "Rhizome cylindraceous, somewhat branched, bent, flattened and strongly tuberculated, from 2.5 to 10 cm. in length and from 3 to 15 mm. in diameter; surface marked with root scars and remnants of slender roots, longitudinally wrinkled; externally dark purple-brown; internally light purple-brown; fracture short, non-fibrous, the section shows a thin bark, a distinct cambium, irregular in outline, large central pith, wood indistinct, the fibro-vascular bundles few and at unequal distances. Odorless; taste strongly astringent. The powder is purplish-brown and, when examined under the microscope, exhibits tangentially elongated cork cells; parenchyma containing starch, scattered cells of pith and bark parenchyma containing tannin both in the content and walls of the cells' and colored bluish-black by ammonio-ferric alum T.S.; tracheae small, with scalariform markings; characteristic starch more or less abundant, grains smooth, mostly single, ovate, up to 0.035 mm. in length, hilum near the larger end, inner lamellae concentric with hilum, the outer excentric. Geranium yields not more than 8 per cent. of ash." N. F. Water and alcohol extract the virtues of geranium. According to Edward Staples, it contains tannic and gallic acids, mucilage, red coloring matter, resin, and a crystallizable vegetable principle. (A. J. P., 1829, p. 171.) Tilden found, besides tannic and gallic acids, gum, pectin, sugar, starch, albumen, resin soluble in alcohol, oleoresin soluble in ether only, coloring matter, chlorophyll, lignin, and various salts. (P. J., 1863, p. 22.) Tannic and gallic acids are probably the sole active ingredients. Henry Trimble and J. C. Peacock (A. J. P., 1891, p. 265) collected the plant at periods of the year ranging from January to October, and determined the percentage of tannin as calculated for the perfectly dry drug to vary from 9.72 to 27.85 per cent. They also determined that it belonged to the class of tannins analogous to gallo-tannic acid, yielding pyrogallol on heating. They decomposed the tannin by the action of hydrochloric acid, obtaining gallic acid, glucose, and geranium red as products. Geranium is one of our best indigenous astringents, and may be employed for all the purposes to which these medicines are applicable. The absence of unpleasant taste and of other offensive qualities renders it peculiarly serviceable in the case of infants and of persons of very delicate stomach. Diarrhea, chronic dysentery, cholera infantum in the later stages, and the various hemorrhages, are the forms of disease in which it is most commonly used and with greatest advantage. As an application to indolent ulcers, an injection in gleet and leucorrhea, and a gargle in relaxation of the uvula and aphthous ulcerations of the throat, it answers the same purpose as kino, catechu, and other medicines of the same class. It is a popular domestic remedy in various parts of the United States, and is said to be employed by the Indians. It may be given in substance, decoction, tincture, or extract. (See Fluidextractum Geranii, N. F. IV, Part III.) Dose, fifteen to thirty grains (1-2 Gm.).

Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick. - Ginkgo

aloba Ginkgo biloba Linn. Coniferae. Ginko. Maiden-Hair Tree. China and Japan. The fruit of the ginko is sold in the markets in all Chinese towns and is not unlike dried almonds, only whiter, fuller and more round. The natives seem very fond of it, although it is rarely eaten by Europeans. In Japan, the seeds furnish an oil used for eating and burning. The fruit of the maiden-hair tree is called in China pa-kwo. The Chinese consume the nuts of this tree at weddings, the shells being dyed red; they have a fishy taste. This tree is largely cultivated as an ornamental in Europe, Asia and North America.