INFXN – Hrpeze Powder

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

Calendula. N. F. IV. (U. S. VIII.) Marigold. Mary-bud. Holligold. Flours de Tous les mois, Souci, Fr. Ringelbume, Todtenblume. Gold-blumen, G. Calendula, Sp.—"The dried ligulate florets of Calendula officinalis Linne (Fam. Compositae), without the presence of more than 2 per cent. of other parts of the plant or other foreign matter." N. F. The N. F. drug is described as in "florets from 15 to 25 mm. in length, yellow- or orange-colored, one to three-toothed, four- to five-veined, margin nearly entire, the short hairy tube occasionally enclosing the remnants of a filiform style and bifid stigma. Odor slight, somewhat heavy; taste slightly bitter, faintly saline. The powdered drug is light yellow to orange-yellow and, when examined under the microscope, exhibits a few characteristic, non-glandular hairs, consisting of a double row of thin-walled, more or less collapsed cells, with a one- or two-celled summit, and up to about 0.8 mm. in length; elongated epidermal cells with thin, somewhat wavy walls, a striated surface, and containing irregular chromoplasts and oil-like globules, the latter coalescing when mounted in hydrated chloral T.S.; pollen grains, more or less spherical, with numerous spiniae projections, three pored, and up to 0.04 mm. in diameter; tracheae about 0.009 mm. in width with spiral and annular markings; prisms or rosette aggregates of calcium oxalate from 0.002 to 0.004 mm. in diameter. Calendula yields not more than 11 per cent. of ash." N. F. The odor is much stronger in the fresh than in the dry flowers, and on exposure to light, the orange-red or yellow color fades. Among its constituents are a bitter principle, and an amorphous substance called calendulin (discovered by Geiger most abundantly in the flowers), considered by Berzelius as analogous to bassorin, though soluble in alcohol. French or African Marigold, so called, is very frequently substituted for the official drug. It is the Tagetes patula L., and T. erecta Linn., both of Mexico. The flowers are readily distinguished by the scales of the involucre being united to form a tube, and by the slender, flattish achenes being crowned with a few chaffy or awned scales. The broadly strap-shaped ray-florets are toothed, and of a light or deep orange color sometimes striped with red. Latour and Magnier de la Source isolated from African marigold a yellow crystalline substance, quercetagetin, which Perkin examined and gave the composition C15H10O8. (P. J., 1902, 294.) In the days of therapeutic darkness calendula was thought to be medicinally active, but it has no virtues beyond that of a feeble aromatic. Both the leaves and the flowers were used; but the latter were preferred, and were usually administered in the recent state in the form of tea. Dose, from fifteen to sixty grains (0.9-3.9 Gm.) See Tinctura Calendulae, N. F. (Part III).

The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics Written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D. 1922 - Echinacea

Common Names: Narrow-leaved Purple Coneflower, Purple Coneflower, Coneflower. Principal Constituents.—Minute traces of an unimportant alkaloid and an acrid body (½ to 1 per cent), probably of a resinous character linked with an organic acid. The latter is the chief active principle of the drug. Preparations.—1. Specific Medicine Echinacea. Dose, 1 to 60 drops, the smaller doses being preferred. Usual method of administration: ℞. Specific Medicine Echinacea, 1-2 fluidrachms; Water, enough for 4 fluidounces. Mix. Sig.: One teaspoonful every 1 to 3 hours. 2. Echafolta. (A preparation of Echinacea freed from extractive and most of the coloring matter. It also contains a small added quantity of tincture of iodine. The label states that is iodized). Dose, 1 to 60 drops. Usually administered the same as the specific medicine; except when iodine is contraindicated, or is undesired. 3. Echafolta Cream. An ointment for external use. Specific Indications.—"Bad blood"; to correct fluid depravation, with tendency to sepsis and malignancy, best shown in its power in gangrene, carbuncles, boils, sloughing and phagedenic ulcerations, and the various forms of septicemia; tendency to formation of multiple cellular abscesses of a semi-active character and with pronounced asthenia; foul discharges with emaciation and great debility; dirty-brownish tongue; jet-black tongue; dusky, bluish or purplish color of the skin or mucous tissues, with a low form of inflammation. It is of special value in typhoid states, in which it is indicated by the prominent typhoid symptoms—dry tongue, sordes on tongue and teeth, mental disturbances, tympanites and diarrheal discharges—and in malignant carbuncle, pyosalpinx, and thecal abscesses. Action.—The physiological action of echinacea has never been satisfactorily determined. It has been held to increase phagocytosis and to improve both leukopenia and hyperleucocytosis. That it stimulates and hastens the elimination of waste is certain, and that it possesses some antibacterial power seems more than probable. Upon the mucous tissues echinacea causes a quite persistent disagreeable tingling sensation somewhat allied to, but less severe, than that of prickly ash and aconite. It increases the salivary and the urinary flow, but sometimes under diseased conditions anuria results while it is being administered. In the doses usually given no decided unpleasant symptoms have been produced; and no reliable cases of fatal poisoning in human beings have been recorded from its use. Occasionally bursting headache, joint pains, dry tongue, reduced temperature and gastro-intestinal disturbances with diarrhea are said to have resulted from large doses of the drug. Therapy.—External. Echinacea is a local antiseptic, stimulant, deodorant, and anesthetic. Alcoholic preparations applied to denuded surfaces cause considerable burning discomfort, but as soon as the alcohol is evaporated a sense of comfort and lessening of previous pain is experienced. Its deodorant powers are remarkable, especially when applied to foul surfaces, carcinomatous ulcerations, fetid discharges from the ears, and in gangrene. While not wholly masking the odor of cancer and gangrene it reduces it greatly, much to the comfort of the sick and the attendants. Echinacea is useful as an application where decay is imminent or taking place, reparative power is poor, and the discharges saneous and unhealthy. It is especially valuable in sluggish ulcers, bed sores, stinking tibial ulcers, and ulcers of the nasal mucosa, due either to ozaena or to syphilis. The greater the tendency to lifelessness and dissolution of the tissues and the more pronounced the fetid character of the discharges, the more applicable is echinacea. Used by spray it is effective to remove stench and to stimulate repair in tonsillitis, the angina of scarlatina, and though not alone capable of curing diphtheria, either by external or internal use, it stimulates the near-necrosed tissue to activity and overcomes the fetid odor, thus contributing in a large measure to aid more specific agents. A 10 to 50 per cent solution may be used to cleanse abscess cavities, to apply to ragged wounds from barbed wire, tin, and glass, wounds which for some reason are very painful and heal sluggishly. For this purpose we prefer ℞. Echafolta (or Echinacea), 1 fluidounce; Asepsin, 15 grains; Tincture of Myrrh, 2 fluidrachms; Sterile Water, enough to make 4 fluidounces. Mix. Apply upon sterile gauze, renewing at reasonable periods. This also makes a good mouth wash for foul breath and to remove odor and stimulate repair in pyorrhea alveolaris, spongy and bleeding gums, and aphthous and herpetic eruptions. Echinacea is sometimes of value in eczema, with glutinous, sticky exudation, and general body depravity; to give relief to pain and swelling in erysipelas, mammitis, orchitis, and epididymitis; to allay pain and lessen tumefaction in phlegmonous swellings; and to dress syphilitic phagedena. As a local application to chilblains it has done good service, and in poisoning by Rhus Toxicodendron is relied upon by many as one of the best of local medicines. We have found it especially useful in dermatitis venenata after denudation of the cuticle when ulcers form and the neighboring glands swell. Echinacea has a greater record for success than any single medicine for snake bites and insect bites and stings, and it may be used full strength to relieve the intolerable itching of urticaria. Some have asserted that it will abort boils. For the treatment of carbuncle, after thoroughly incising, a 50 per cent solution to full strength echinacea or echafolta may be freely used, syringing the channels with it. This gives great relief from pain and insures a quicker recovery. For all the above-named purposes either echinacea or echafolta may be used: the latter is usually preferred where a cleanlier appearance is desired. Moreover, in most of the conditions named repair takes place much sooner and in better form if the remedy is given internally concomitantly with its external use. Internal. Echinacea is stimulant, tonic, depurative, and especially strongly antiseptic; it is in a lesser degree anesthetic and antiputrefactive. The necessity for remedies that possess a general antiseptic property and favor the elimination of caco-plastic material is most marked when one is treating diseases which show a depraved condition of the body and its fluids. Such a remedy for "blood depravation," if we may use that term, is echinacea. No explanation of its action has even been satisfactorily given, and that a simple drug should possess such varied and remarkable therapeutic forces and not be a poison itself is an enigma still to be solved, and one that must come as a novelty to those whose therapy is that of heroic medicines only. If there is any meaning in the term alterative it is expressed in the therapy of echinacea. For this very reason has a most excellent medicine been lauded extravagantly and come near to damnation through the extravagant praises of its admirers. Echinacea is a remedy for autoinfection, and where the blood stream becomes slowly infected either from within or without the body. Elimination is imperfect, the body tissues become altered, and there is developed within the fluids and tissues septic action with adynamia resulting in boils, carbuncles, cellular tissue inflammations, abscesses, and other septicaemic processes. It is, therefore, a drug indicated by the changes manifested in a disturbed balance of the fluids of the body resulting in tissue alteration: be the cause infectious by organisms, or devitalized morbid accumulations, or alterations in the blood itself. It is pre-eminently useful in the typhoid state, and many physicians administer it regardless of any other indication throughout enteric fever as an intercurrent remedy. Echinacea is especially to be thought of when there are gangrenous tendencies and sloughing of the soft tissues, as well as in glandular ulcerations and ulcers of the skin. It is not by any means a cure-all, but so important is its antiseptic action that we are inclined to rely largely on it as an auxiliary remedy in the more serious varieties of disease—even those showing a decided malignancy—hence its frequent selection in diphtheria, small-pox, scarlet fever, typhoid fever and typhoid pneumonia, cerebro-spinal meningitis, la grippe, uremia, and the surgical and serpent and insect infections. Foul smelling discharges are deodorized by it and the odor removed from foul smelling ulcers and carcinomata, processes not alone accomplished by its topical use but aided greatly by its internal exhibition. In puerperal fever, cholera infantum, ulcerated sore throat, nasal and other forms of catarrh and in eczema and erysipelas it fulfills important indications for antisepsis. Echinacea was introduced as a potent remedy for the bites of the rattlesnake and venomous insects. It was used both externally and internally. Within bounds the remedy has retained its reputation in these accidents, it probably having some power to control the virulence of the venom, or to enable the body to resist depression and pass the ordeal successfully; nevertheless fatalities have occurred in spite of its use. For ordinary stings and bites its internal as well as external use is advisable. In the acute infectious diseases echinacea has rendered great service. Throughout typhoid fever it may be given without special regard to stated periods, but wherever a drink of water is desired by the patient, from 5 to 10 drops of Specific Medicine Echinacea may be given in it. Having no toxic power, and acting as an intestinal antiseptic, this use of it is both rational and effective. Cases apparently go through an invasion of this disease with less complications and less depression when the drug is so employed. The same is true of it in typhoid, pneumonia, septicaemia, and other septic fevers. It has the credit of regulating the general circulation, and particularly that of the meninges in the slow forms of cerebrospinal meningitis, with feeble, slow, or at least not accelerated pulse, temperature scarcely above normal, and cold extremities; with this is headache, a peculiar periodic flushing of the face and neck, dizziness, and profound prostration (Webster). It is evidently a capillary stimulant of power in this dreaded disease, in which few remedies have any saving effect. Echinacea has aided in the recovery of some cases of puerperal septicemia. Obviously other measures are also required. In non-malignant diphtheria, echinacea, both locally and internally, has appeared to hasten convalescence, but in the light of present day therapeutics it is folly to expect echinacea to cure the malignant type. A wide experience with the drug in such cases convinces us that we are leaning upon a slender reed when we trust alone to such medicines as echinacea and lobelia in malignant diphtheria. As many non-malignant cases tend to quick recovery, the use of good remedies like echinacea undoubtedly hastens the process. But to assume that it will cure every type of the disease because it succeeds in aiding the milder forms to recover is to bring a good medicine into unmerited discredit. Moreover, when these claims were originally made, and probably in good faith, there was no exact means of establishing the bacterial nature of the disease, hence many tonsillar disorders were called diphtheria. The latter were, of course, benefited by it, for in tonsillitis, particularly the necrotic form with stinking, dirty-looking ulcerations, it is an excellent remedy. Echinacea is said to be a good agent in a malignant form of quinsy known as "black tongue"; and in "mountain fever", closely allied to and often diagnosed as typhoid fever. Echinacea is justly valued in catarrhal conditions of the nasal and bronchial tracts, and in leucorrhoea, in all of which there is a run-down condition of the system with fetid discharge, and often associated with cutaneous eruptions, especially of an eczematous and strumous type. Chronic catarrhal bronchitis and fetid bronchitis are disorders in which it has been used with benefit, and it is said to ameliorate some of the unpleasant catarrhal complications of pulmonary tuberculosis, and particularly to render easier expectoration in that form known as "grinder's consumption". Patients suffering from common nasal and bronchial catarrhs have been greatly improved by echinacea when taking the drug for other disorders. Its stimulating, supporting and antiseptic properties would make echinacea a rational remedy for such disorders, particularly if debility and general tissue depravity were coexistent with the catarrh. As a rule echinacea is of little or no value in agues, yet physicians of malarial districts assert it is of benefit in chronic malaria when of an asthenic type. Altogether likely its value, if it has any, lies in the betterment of the asthenia, rather than to any effect it may have upon the protozoal cause of the disease. In so-called typho-malarial fever it does good just in proportion as the typhoid element affects the patient. Both it and quinine would be rational medication. Echinacea possesses no mean anti fermentative power, and by its local anaesthetic effect obtunds pain. When an offensive breath, due to gaseous eructation, and gastric pain are present, it proves a good medicine in fermentative dyspepsia. The symptoms are aggravated upon taking food. It is also serviceable in intestinal indigestion with pain and debility and unusually foul flatus, and has been recommended in duodenal catarrh. We can see no reason why it should not have some salutary effect in both gastric and duodenal ulcer, for it antagonizes putrefaction, tissue solution, and pain. In ulcerative stomatitis and nursing sore mouth, in both of which it is very effectual, it should be used both internally and locally. When dysentery, diarrhea, and cholera infantum occur in the debilitated and the excretions are more than commonly foul, both in odor and shreds of tissue, echinacea is a serviceable adjunct to other treatment. The dose of either specific medicine echinacea or echafolta ranges from 1 to 5 drops; larger doses (even 60 drops) may be employed, but small doses are generally most efficient if frequently repeated. They may be given in water or syrup, or a mixture of water and glycerin, as: ℞ Specific Medicine Echinacea, 1-2 fluidrachms;Water, to make 4 fluidounces. Mix. Sig.: Teaspoonful every ½ or 1 hour in acute cases; every 3 or 4 hours in chronic affections. If these preparations are to be dispensed in hot weather, or are to be used in fermentative gastro-intestinal disorders, the substitution of ½ ounce of pure glycerin for 1 fluidounce of the water is advisable. NOTE: Echafolta (now iodized) should be given internally only when iodine is not contraindicated, or is desirable. Formerly, before being iodized, it was used internally in the same manner and for the same purposes as Echinacea. The Echafolta should be reserved for external use. Echafolta Cream is an admirable form in which to use Echafolta, where an ointment is desired, being a useful unguent in the various skin disorders in which Echafolta or Echinacea is indicated.

King's American Dispensatory By Harvey Wickes Felter and John Uri Lloyd 1898 - Licorice

ILLUSTRATION: Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants, 74. Botanical Source.—The liquorice-plant has a perennial, cylindrical root, running to a considerable length, and depth, grayish-brown externally, yellow internally, succulent, tough, flexible, rapid in growth, and provided with scat tered fibers. The stems are erect, herbaceous, smooth, striated, with few branches, of a dull, glaucous-gray color, growing 2 or 3 feet in height. The leaves are alter nate and unequally pinnate; the leaflets generally about 13, oval, entire, obtuse, slightly emarginate, viscid, and 1 terminal; the stipules are inconspicuous. The flowers are small, bluish or purplish, in axillary, erect Spikes, shorter than the leaves, and borne on long peduncles. Calyx persistent, tubular, bilabiate, and 5-cleft. The corolla is a straight, ovate-lanceolate vexillum; the keel is biparted, acute and straight. Stamens diadelphous; anthers simple and rounded; style filiform; and stigma blunt. The legumes are oblong, compressed, 1-celled, and 1 to 4-seeded; the seeds are small and reniform (L.-Wi.). The variety glandulifera differs in not being smooth like the preceding, but in partaking more or less of a pubescent character, the leaves (beneath) and stem being glandular-pubescent, while the pods are glandular and prickly. History.—This plant inhabits southern Europe, and some parts of Asia, and is cultivated in England, Germany, France, and in the United States to some ex IFig. 122 tent. The so-called Russian liquorice (that produced by the £. 12428. variety glandulifera) grows from Hungary and Turkey into ºr ſº western Asia. Liquorice root is imported chiefly from Spain and Sicily. Commercially considered there are 5 grades, viz.: Italian, the best and sweetest, Spanish or Common liquorice root, Syrian, Turkish and Russian, the bitterest. These grades are preferred in the order named. Description.—“In long, cylindrical pieces, from 5 to 25 Mm. (; to 1 inch) thick, longitudinally wrinkled, externally grayish-brown, warty; internally tawny-yellow; pliable, tough; fracture coarsely fibrous; bark rather thick; wood por ous, but dense, in narrow wedges; medullary rays linear; taste sweet, somewhat acrid. The underground stem, which is often present, has the same appearance, but contains a thin pith. The drug derived from the variety glandulifera (so-called Russian liquorice) consists usually of roots and root branches, 1 to 4 Cn. (# to 1 inch) thick, 15 to 30 Cn. (6 to 12 inches) long, fre quently deprived of the corky layer, the wood rather soft, and usually more or less cleft "-(U. S. P.). Liquorice root has a faint odor and is so dense as to sink in water. It must be kept in a dry place. Those roots are to be preferred which are not worm-eaten or decayed, and whose surfaces of fracture are bright yellow. Chemical Composition.—The characteristic constituent of the root is glycyr thizin, so named by Robiquet (1809) on account of its sweet taste. There are furthernmore present, fatty and resinous matter (0.8 per cent), small amounts of gum, albuminous substances, tannin, starch, yellow coloring matter, a bitter prin ciple (glycyramarin), and asparagin (Plisson, 1828), a substance already recognized by Robiquet, who named it agédoite. Sestini (1878) found from 2 to 4 per cent of this principle present in liquorice root. Glycyrrhiza glabra. GLYCYBRHIZA. 947 Glycyrrhizin was obtained by Gorup-Besanez by making a cold infusion of the root, and heating the solution to boiling, filtering, evaporating to a smaller bulk, and precipitating with sulphuric acid. The yellow flakes thus obtained are washed with water and further purified by means of ether-alcohol (Husemann and Hilger). Z. Roussin (1875) and Habermann (1879) showed that the sweet principle, glycyrrhizin, is the acid ammonium salt of a peculiar nitrogenous tri basic acid, called glycyrrhizic acid (often termed glycyrrhizin), to which Haber mann assigned the formula C, H, NOls. The acid potassium Salt of this acid is remarkable for its intensely sweet taste. The free acid, prepared from the lead salt, forms a brown, gelatinous mass, soluble in hot water, and having a bitter sweet taste and acid reaction. It decomposes carbonates, swells up in cold water, is easily soluble in glacial acetic acid, but not in alcohol or ether. Habermann (1880) found that by boiling with diluted sulphuric acid, it splits into glycyrretin (C, H, NO.), a white, tasteless powder, insoluble in water, alkali and ether, soluble in alcohol; and parasaccharic acid (C, H, Os), which reduces Fehling's solution. Gorup-Besanez believed that dextrose was formed in this reaction. Habermann obtained the acid ammonium glycyrrhizinate (glycyrrhizin proper) by crystallizing the commercial liquorice extract from glacial acetic acid, and subse quent recrystallization. In the purest state it forms yellow crystals of sweet taste, little soluble in cold water. When dissolved in hot water and then cooled, a stiff jelly is formed. This salt is hardly soluble in alcohol or ether. The amount of glycyrrhizic acid contained in liquorice root is varying. Sestini (1878) obtained 3.3 per cent from air-dried root; H. J. Möller, in 1880, obtained 7.5 per cent from Russian root (Flückiger, 1891). Mr. L. McCullough (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1890, p. 389), found 7.18 per cent. In commercial liquorice extract glycyrrhizin was found by Kremel (Archiv der Pharm., 1889, p. 511) to vary from 5.8 to 11.9 per cent. Peltz (Pharm. Zschr. f. Russland, 1876, p. 257) records the results of 10 analyses of com mercial extracts of liquorice root. Glycyrrhizin was found to vary from 1.33 to 18.14 per cent, starch from 1.33 to 35 per cent. Sestini (1878) found water, 48.7; glycyrrhizin, 3.27; carbohydrates, 29.62; asparagin, 1.25; ash, 2.08. (For methods of valuation of commercial liquorice extracts, see Flückiger, Pharmacognosie, 3d ed., 1891, and Alfred Mellor, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1898, p. 136.) Glycyrrhizin is stated (Flückiger) to occur in other plants, e.g., Abrus precatorius (Berzelius), Astragalus glycyphyllos, Polypodium vulgare (Guignet, 1885), Myrrh is odorata (Schroeder, 1885), Gulielma speciosa, Martius, and Momcsia bark (Peckolt, Pharm. Rundschau, 1888, pp. 31, 203, 206), but these statements, according to Flückiger, require verification. Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Liquorice root is emollient, demul cent, and nutritive. It acts upon mucous surfaces, lessening irritation, and is Consequently useful in coughs, catarrhs, irritation of the wrimary organs, and pain of the intestines in diarrhoea. It is commonly administered in decoction, sometimes alone, at other times with the addition of other agents, and which is the prefer able mode of using it. As a general rule, the acrid bark should be removed pre vious to forming a decoction. When boiled for some time the water becomes impregnated with its acrid resin ; hence, in preparing a decoction for the purpose of sweetening diet drinks, or covering the taste of nauseous drugs, it should not be boiled over 5 minutes. The efficiency of the root in old bronchial affections may be due to this acrid resin. The powdered root is also employed to give the proper solidity to pills, and to prevent their adhesion; the extract for imparting the proper viscidity to them. The extract, in the form of lozenge, held in the mouth until it has dissolved, is a very popular and efficient remedy in coughs and pectora! (ſections. An excellent troche or lozenge, very useful in ordinary cough, may be |Made by combining together 6 parts of refined liquorice, 2 parts of benzoic acid, # parts of pulverized alum, and a part of pulverized opium. Dissolve the liquor lcº in Water, and evaporate to the proper consistence, then add the powders with a few drops of oil of anise, and divide it into 3 or 6-grain lozenges. The bitter ness of quinine, quassia, aloes, and the acrid taste of Senega, guaiacum, mezereon and ammonium chloride are masked by liquorice.

The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics Written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D. 1922 - Oregon Grape

Botanical name: Mahonia aquifolium Related entry: Berberis vulgaris The root of Berberis aquifolium, Pursh (Nat. Ord. Berberidaceae). Western United States from Colorado to the Pacific coast; cultivated also for ornament among shrubbery. Common Names: Oregon Grape, Mountain Grape. Principal Constituents.—Berberine, the yellow alkaloid (see Hydrastis) and two white alkaloids—berbamine and oxyacanthine. Preparation.—Specific Medicine Berberis. Dose, 1 to 30 drops. Specific Indications.—Syphilitic dyscrasia; chronic skin diseases, with blood dyscrasia with or without syphilitic taint; profusely secreting tumid mucous membranes; indigestion, with hepatic torpor. Action and Therapy.—This agent is alterative, tonic, and probably corrective to syphilitic constitutions, but without any proved specific action upon treponema. It stimulates secretion and excretion, improves digestion and assimilation; it activates the lymphatic system and ductless glands; and augments the renal secretion. It is a corrector and eliminator of depraved body fluids and assists thereby in good blood-making. In this way most likely its good effects are produced in such grave constitutional disorders as syphilis. Certainly the ravages of this disease are lessened under these circumstances and aggravated by general ill-conditions. If then syphilitic dyscrasia is benefited by this drug, and clinical results seem to show that it is, it is probably due to its general alterative effects in maintaining good elimination and good metabolic action of the organs vital to nutrition. Like hydrastis, Berberis aquifolium is an excellent peptic bitter and tonic to the gastric function, and is, therefore, a drug of much value in atonic dyspepsia, with hepatic torpor. Upon the mucosa its effects are like those of hydrastis controlling catarrhal outpouring and erosion of tissue. For this purpose it is useful in stomatitis and gastric and intestinal catarrh. Remotely it sometimes controls leucorrhoea. If these are associated with syphilis, it helps the latter to the extent that it controls these disorders. Berberis aquifolium has won its reputation chiefly as a remedy for the syphilitic taint. The more chronic the conditions or results of the disease, the more it has been praised. Some claim that if given early it will abort the tertiary stage, but this of course depends in most cases upon the resisting powers of the body and the care the patient takes of himself. Apparently berberis fortifies the resisting powers by its alterative and reparative action. The bone, mucosa, and cutaneous disorders following in the wake of syphilis seem to clear up under its persistent use, when given in appreciable doses. Whether it has any effect on the nervous damage from this taint is not yet apparent. It does, however, relieve the night pains and the shin pain of syphilitic periostitis. Syphilitic phagedena disappears under its use, and sometimes the anemia of syphilis yields to its nutritional improvement. It should be given freely in syphilitic leucoplakia of the tongue, mouth, and throat, where the mucosa is tumid and secreting excessively, and when emaciation and weakness with yellowish parchment-like skin are evident. At all events, though probably not a direct antisyphilitic, its general effect upon waste and nutrition is so beneficial that it should invariably be associated with other treatment in chronic syphilitic diathesis. Other dyscrasiae seem to be influenced by this drug. It aids to some degree to mitigate the miseries of the consumptive, and in chronic skin diseases its internal use has hastened the effects from external medication. Eczema, psoriasis (temporarily at least), and herpetic eruptions have disappeared under its persistent use. The specific medicine should be given in doses of from 10 to 20 drops well diluted, every 3 or 4 hours.

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

Scutellaria. N. F. IV. Skullcap. Scullcap. Hoodwort. Madweed. Mad-dog or Sideflowering Scullcap. Blue Pimpernel. Hooded Willow-herb. Scutellaire, Fr. Helmkraut, Schildkraut, G.—"The dried plant of Scutellaria lateriflora Linné (Fam. Labiatae)." N. F. Scutellaria was official in the U. S. P. VIII, but was introduced into the N. F. IV. Several species of scutellaria have attracted attention. Scutellaria galericulata L., which grows in wet places from Newfoundland to North Carolina and west to Nebraska, has a feeble, somewhat alliaceous odor, and a bitterish taste. It has been employed in intermittents, and externally in old ulcers. S. integrifolia L. is intensely bitter, and might probably be found useful as a tonic. Scutellaria lateriflora is an indigenous, perennial herb, with a stem erect, much branched, quadrangular, smooth, and one or two feet high. The leaves are ovate, acute, dentate, subcordate upon the stem, opposite, and supported upon long petioles. The flowers are small, of a pale blue color, and disposed in long, lateral, 1-sided, leafy racemes. The plant grows in wet shaded places in the United States and Canada. The dried tops are described as "about 50 cm. in length, smooth; stem quadrangular, branched; leaves opposite, petiolate, about 5 cm. in length, ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, serrate; flowers about 6 mm. in length, in axillary one-sided racemes, with a pale blue corolla and bilabiate calyx, closed in fruit, the upper lip helmet-shaped. Odor slight; taste slightly bitter. Scutellaria yields not more than 12 per cent. of ash." N. F. H. Molisch and G. Goldschmidt (Ph. Ztg; Dec. 4, 1901, 965) obtained from scutellaria and a number of other labiates an identical body, to which they gave the name scutellarin. It is present in all of the different scutellarias, being most abundant in the upper epidermis of the leaf, but found also in the roots, stems and flowers of the plant. It was further obtained from the leaves of Galeopis Tetrahit L., and of Teucrium Chamaedrys L.. In Scutellaria altissima L., the presence of cinnamic and fumaric acids were also established. Scutellarin is obtained by boiling freshly gathered leaves for fifteen minutes in ten times their weight of water, filtering the decoction and adding from 1 to 2 per cent. of hydrochloric acid, which causes an abundant precipitate of scutellarin. If precipitation is effected from the hot solution, the scutellarin separates in the form of light yellow crystals. The formula C10H8O3 has been assigned to scutellarin. Its alcoholic solution gives a red precipitate with lead acetate and an intense green color with ferric chloride, changing on heating to a red color if the reagent is not present in great excess; alcoholic potassium or sodium hydroxides, as also alkali acetates, produce reddish-yellow precipitates, which change to green on exposure to the air. Solution of barium hydroxide has the same effect. The green color is produced immediately if an oxidizing agent, such as chlorine or bromine water, is added. Scullcap is as destitute of medicinal properties as a plant may well be (every so often Remington's anti-botanical elitism gets SOOO tiresome....MM), not even being aromatic. When taken internally, it produces no very obvious effects, and probably is of no remedial value, although at one time it was esteemed as a remedy in hydrophobia. It has also been used in neuralgia and convulsive affections, chorea, delirium tremens, and nervous exhaustion from fatigue or over-excitement. (A. J. P., xxiii, 370; N. J. M. R., v; M. S. Rep., 1870.) Dose, thirty to ninety grains (2.0-5.8 Gm.)

The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics Written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D. 1922 - St John’s Wort

Botanical name: Hypericum perforatum The leaves and flowering tops of Hypericum perforatum, Linné (Nat. Ord. Hypericaceae). Europe and America. Common Name: St. John's Wort. Principal Constituents.—Volatile oil, a resin, tannin, and hypericum red, a resinous red coloring principle. Preparation.— Tinctura Hyperici, Tincture of Hypericum (herb, 8 ounces; Alcohol, 76 per cent, 16 fluidounces). Dose, 1/4 to 30 drops. Specific Indications.—Spinal injuries, shocks, and concussions; throbbing of the body without fever; spinal irritation, eliciting tenderness and burning pain upon slight pressure; spinal injuries and lacerated and punctured wounds of the extremities, with excruciating pain; hysteria. Locally as a vulnerary. Action and Therapy.—External. St. John's Wort is valued by many practitioners as a vulnerary, much as arnica is employed. Therefore it has been used extensively as a local application to bruises, contusions, sprains, lacerations, swellings, ecchymoses, and in acute mammitis. Internal. Hypericum is said to be diuretic and sedative, and as such has been used in chronic urinary disorders, particularly suppression of urine. It undoubtedly has a strong influence upon the nervous system. Used according to the indications named above, many physicians believe it useful to relieve the painful effects of spinal concussion, shocks, etc., and to prevent tetanic complications. It will take pretty strong proof to convince most practitioners of the present day of any such virtue as true antitetanic properties in this simple drug. The internal uses as given above are based chiefly upon homeopathic symptomatology, and the drug has gained little favor in the Eclectic school of practice. It has, without question, a value in nervous disorders and should be more fully studied and tested, but miraculous powers should not be hoped for from it.