Tooth Abzez Tincture

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

Botanical name: Calendula officinalis The florets of Calendula officinalis, Linné (Nat. Ord. Compositae). Southern Europe and the Orient; largely cultivated as a garden flower. Dose, 1 to 60 grains. Common Names: Marigold, Garden Marigold, Marygold. Principal Constituent.—A tasteless yellow body, calendulin. Preparations.—1. Specific Medicine Calendula. Dose, 1 to 60 drops. For local use, from full strength to 10 per cent aqueous solutions. 2. Borated Calendula (Boric Acid, 1 ounce; Specific Medicine Calendula, 1 drachm. Mix). Freely as a dusting powder. Action and Therapy.—External. Calendula is believed to stimulate vaso-motor contraction and selectively to influence the skin and mucous tissues. After the manner of using arnica it is employed largely as a vulnerary. It is non-irritating and non-poisonous. Its advocates claim that it reduces the probability of gangrene occurring, prevents or lessens the formation of pus, and promotes the prompt healing of wounds, with the least possible cicatrization. It has been applied after the removal of epitheliomata with asserted benefit, and as an application to gangrenous and indolent ulcers, with capillary impairment, it is said to have stimulated replacement by healthy tissues. A wash (1 part of Specific Medicine Calendula to 4 parts of sterile water) has been advised as very effective to promote reconstruction or to reduce tumefaction and discharges, as indicated, in abscess cavities, burns and scalds (to lessen scarring), acne, ulcerative skin diseases, vaginitis, cervicitis, endometritis, vaginal abrasions, erosion of the os uteri, non-specific urethritis, gonorrhea, leucorrhoea, lacerated perineum, and uterine subinvolution. As a rule, in most of these disorders, its internal use has been advised at the time of using it locally. Ecchymoses are reputed to have been quickly removed by it, and it is claimed that it opposes varicoses. Diluted with rose water to suit the purpose, it may be employed in mild conjunctivitis and in some aural inflammations. In purulent otitis media the borated calendula is preferred. The powder should be lightly insufflated but not packed into the canal, so as to insure free drainage. Borated Calendula may be dusted upon excoriations and sore nipples; and an oil solution of calendula (Calendula, 1 or 2 drachms to Liquid Petrolatum, 1 fluidounce) may be sprayed into the nose for the relief of nasal catarrh, with raw and tender membranes, or irritable throat. Thomas cured an inveterate case of crural ulcer in an old man by the use of zinc oxide ointment into which was incorporated Specific Medicine Calendula. Zinc ointment alone failed to achieve results. Internal. Through its supposed action as a local and general vasomotor stimulant it has been advised internally to reinforce its local action, particularly in old ulcers, varicose veins, capillary engorgement of tissues, and chronic suppurative and catarrhal conditions. Splenic and hepatic congestion are said to have been benefited by it. While of unquestioned value in all of the local conditions named it has been much overrated, and its real medicinal worth obscured by extravagant praise.

The Family Herbal, 1812, was written by John Hill. - Cleavers

Botanical name: Galium aparine Aparine. A WILD herb common in all our hedges, and known by sticking to people's clothes as they touch it. The stalks are square and very rough, two feet long, but weak and unable to support them selves; they climb among bushes. The leaves are long and narrow, and of a pale green; they grow several at every joint, encompassing the stalk in the manner of the rowel of a spur; they are rough in the same manner with the stalk, and stick to every thing they touch. The flowers are small and white; the seeds grow two together, and are roundish and rough like the rest of the plant; the root is fibrous. The juice of the fresh herb is used; it cools the body, and operates by urine; it is good against the scurvy, and all other outward disorders. Some pretend it will cure the evil, but that is not true.

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

Echinacea. N. F. IV. Nigger-head. Sampson-root. Pale Purple Cone-flower.—"The dried rhizome and roots of Brauneria pallida (Nuttall) Britton (Echinacea angustifolia De Candolle. (Fam. Compositae)." N. F. IV. This composite plant, a native of the prairie region of America west of Ohio, has been introduced by the so-called eclectic physicians as a remedy in divers dissimilar diseases. The root is described by the N. F. as "nearly entire, cylindrical, very slightly tapering and sometimes slightly spirally twisted, from 10 to 20 cm. in length and from 4 to 13 mm. in diameter, externally grayish-brown, light brown or purplish-brown, slightly annulate in the upper portion, with occasional V-shaped stem scars, somewhat longitudinally wrinkled, or furrowed; fracture short, fibrous, bark less than 1 mm. in thickness, wood thick and composed of alternate light yellowish and black wedges; the rhizome with a circular pith. Odor faint, aromatic; taste sweetish, followed by a tingling sensation suggesting aconite, but lacking the persistent and benumbing effect produced by that drug. Under the microscope, sections show the presence of intercellular (schizogenous) oil and resin cavities or reservoirs in both the wood and bark, numerous stone cells distinguished by the presence of a blackish, resinous substance in the intercellular spaces between them and some of the adjoining parenchyma, the latter containing masses or aggregates of inulin. The walls of the tracheae or vessels are marked with simple slit-like pores or annular and reticulate thickenings; bast fibers occur in the stem, and in some specimens true libriform or wood fibers are found. Echinacea yields not more than 6 per cent. of ash." N. F. Kraemer and Sollenberger (A. J. P., 1911, p. 315) have described the physical characteristics of the drug. Lloyd (Eclectic Med. Journ., 1897) obtained minute quantities of an inert alkaloid and believed that the active substance was a resin. Heyl and Hart (J. Am. C. S., 1915, xxxvii, p. 1769) found the drug to contain inulin, 5.9 per cent.; inuloid, 6; sucrose, 7; laevulose, 4; betaine, 0.1, and resins, 1.9 per cents.; the latter consisting of two isomeric phytosterols, phytosterolin, and the following fatty acids, oleic, linolic, cerotic and palmitic, but could find no physiologically active substance. Echinacea has been attributed with the property of increasing the resistance of the body to infection and is consequently used in boils, septicemia, cancer, and other infective conditions. It is also attributed with aphrodisiac and analgesic powers, but is probably without therapeutic value. The recommended dose of the fluidextract is from ten to thirty minims (0.6-1.8 mils). Hale (Lancet Clinic, March, 1901) injects an extract into the rectum in the treatment of hemorrhoids. Brauneria purpurea D.G. Britton (Rudbeckia purpurea L., Echinacea purpurea Moench), Black Sampson, Purple Cone-flower (Virginia to Illinois and southward to Louisiana), has similar properties to B. pallida, and is similarly used.