part 3

(1568) 76; Langham, _Garden of Health_, 1633. 598.

[1404] H. Jenssen-Tusch, _Nordiske Plantenavne_, Kjöbenhavn, 1867. 258.

[1405] _Physica_, Argent. 1533. 62.

[1406] The morphological peculiarities of valerian root are well explained in Irmisch, _Beitrag zur Naturgeschichte der einheimischen Valeriana-Arten_, Halle, 1854, 44 pages, 4°, 4 plates.

[1407] The structure of the rhizomes and root of the different species of valerian has been discussed by Joannes Chatin in his _Etudes sur les Valérianées_, Paris, 1872, illustrated by 14 beautiful plates.

The parenchyme of the drug is loaded with small starch granules, brownish grains of tannic matter and drops of essential oil. Numerous oil ducts are met with in the outer layer of the tissue.

=Chemical Composition=—Volatile oil is contained in the dry root to the extent of ½ to 2 per cent., yet on an average appears scarcely to exceed ⁴/₅ per cent. This variation in quantity is partly explained by the influence of locality, a dry, stony soil yielding a root richer in oil than one that is moist and fertile. In the latter the plant may be distinguished as the variety _sambucifolia_, which has a less vigorous root, devoid of runners.

Schoonbroodt[1408] has shown that the most important influence is the recent condition of the root. He states that if the root is submitted to distillation when perfectly fresh, it yields a neutral water and a large quantity of essential oil. The latter has but a very faint odour, but by exposure to the air it slowly acidifies, especially if a little alkali is added, and acquires a strong smell. _Valerianic Acid_ which is thus formed amounts to 6 per mille of the fresh root. The dried root yields a distillate of decided valerian odour, containing valerianic acid, but in proportion not exceeding 4 per mille of the root calculated as fresh.

The oil of valerian is of a very peculiar yellowish or brownish, sometimes even almost a little greenish hue, and possessing the characteristic odour of the drug. We found it to deviate the plane of polarization from 11° to 13° to the left when examined by Wild’s Polaristrobometer in a column of 50 millimetres. By submitting it to fractional distillation we noticed[1409] that it affords a magnificent blue fraction. A superb violet or blue colour is produced if one drop of the _crude oil_ dissolved in about 20 drops of bisulphide of carbon is mixed with 1 drop of nitric acid 1·20 sp. gr. Other colorations are produced if bromine or concentrated sulphuric acid are used;[1410] even the tincture of valerian displays similar reactions.

Bruylants (1878) has isolated from oil of valerian—1st. A hydrocarbon, C₁₀H₁₆, boiling at 157° C., yielding a crystallized compound with HCl. 2nd. The liquid compound C₁₀H₁₈O, which by means of chromic acid affords common camphor and formic, acetic and valerianic acids, which are met with in old valerian root, owing no doubt to the slow oxidation of the compound C₁₀H₁₈O. 3rd. There is also present a crystallizable compound of the same composition, which is probably identical with the camphor of Dryobalanops aromatica (see our article on Camphora). It would appear that this substance is of alcoholic nature, being combined in the root with the 3 organic acids mentioned under 2nd. On distilling, these compound ethers are resolved partly into the alcohol C₁₀H₁₈O (borneol) and the acids. This decomposition is fully performed, if the root is macerated with alkaline water, and then, on distilling, a slight excess of sulphuric acid is added. 4th. At about 300° a greenish portion is coming over, which can be obtained colourless by again rectifying it. This oil assumes intense colorations if it is shaken with concentrated mineral acids; it becomes blue by distilling it over potash.

[1408] _Journ. de Médecine de Bruxelles_, 1867 and 1868; _Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers and Husemann, 1869. 17.

[1409] _Archiv der Pharmacie_, 209 (1876).

[1410] _Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers and Husemann, 1871. 462.

Valerianic acid as afforded by the root is not agreeing with normal valerianic acid. It is, more exactly, _isovalerianic acid_, or isopropyl-acetic acid: (CH₃)₂CH·CH₂COOH, which is produced by Valeriana as well as by Archangelica officinalis and Viburnum Opulus. The same acid also may be obtained from the fat of Dolphinus globiceps.

After the root has been submitted to the distillation of the oil, there is found a strongly acid residue containing malic acid, resin, and sugar,—the last capable, according to Schoonbroodt, of reducing cupric oxide.

=Uses=—Valerian is employed as a stimulant and antispasmodic.

=Substitutes=—In the London market there has been offered “_Kesso_” the root of _Patrinia scabiosaefolia_ Link,[1411] a Japanese herb of the order Valerianaceæ. This drug consists of a very short rootstock giving off a large number of rootlets about 5 inches long and ⅒ of an inch in diameter. By the absence of a well-marked upright rhizome in this _Japanese Valerian_ it is widely differing from our Valerian, although at first sight it agrees to some extent with it. As to the odour and taste we find Kesso almost identical with true Valerian.

The less aromatic and now disused root of _Valeriana Phu_ L. consists of a thicker rhizome which lies in the earth obliquely; it is less closely annulated and rooted at the bottom only. It resembles by no means true Valerian.

[1411] According to Holmes, _Ph. J._ x. (1879) 22.

COMPOSITÆ.

RADIX INULÆ.

_Radix Enulæ_, _Radix Helenii_; _Elecampane_;[1412] F. _Racine d’Aunée_; G. _Alantwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Inula Helenium_ L.—This stately perennial plant is very widely distributed, occurring scattered throughout the whole of central and southern Europe, and extending eastward to the Caucasus, Southern Siberia and the Himalaya. It is found here and there apparently wild in the south of England and Ireland, as well as in Southern Norway and in Finland (Schübeler).

Elecampane was formerly cultivated in gardens as a medicinal and culinary plant, and in this manner has wandered to North America. In Holland and some parts of England and Switzerland, it is cultivated on a somewhat larger scale, most largely probably near Cölleda (see p. 377).

[1412] A corruption of _Enula Campana_, the latter word referring to the growth of the plant in Campania (Italy).

=History=—The plant was known to the ancient writers on agriculture and natural history, and even the Roman poets were acquainted with it, and mention Inula as affording a root used both as a medicine and a condiment. Vegetius Renatus, about the beginning of the 5th century, calls it Inula Campana, and St. Isidore in the beginning of the 7th names it as _Inula_, adding—“quam _Alam_ rustici vocant.” It is frequently mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon writings on medicine current in England prior to the Norman Conquest; it is also the “marchalan” of the Welsh Physicians[1413] of the 13th century and was generally well known during the middle ages. Not only was its root much employed as a medicine, but it was also candied and eaten as a sweetmeat.

=Description=—For pharmaceutical use, the root is taken from plants two or three years old; when more advanced, it becomes too woody. The principle mass of the root is a very thick short crown, dividing below into several fleshy branches of which the larger are an inch or two in diameter, covered with a pale yellow bark, internally whitish, and juicy. The smaller roots are dried entire; the larger are variously sliced, which occasions them to curl up irregularly. When dried, they are of a light grey, brittle, horny, smooth-fractured. Cut transversely the young root exhibits an indistinct radiate structure, with a somewhat darker cambial zone separating the thick bark from the woody nucleus. The pith is not sharply defined, and is often porous and hollow. In the older roots the bark is relatively much thinner, and the internal substance is nearly uniform. Elecampane root has a weak aromatic odour suggestive of orris and camphor, and a slightly bitter, not unpleasant, aromatic taste.

=Microscopic Structure=—The medullary rays, both of the woody column and the inner part of the bark (_endophlœum_), exhibit large balsam-ducts. In the fresh root they contain an aromatic liquid, which as it dries deposits crystals of helenin, probably derived from the essential oil. The parenchymatous cells of the drug are loaded with inulin in the form of splinter-like fragments, devoid of any peculiar structure.

=Chemical Composition=—It was observed by Le Febvre, as early as 1660, that when the root of elecampane is subjected to distillation with water a crystallizable substance collects in the head of the receiver from which it speedily passes on as the operation proceeds. Similar crystals may also be observed after carefully heating a thin slice of the root, and are even found as a natural efflorescence on the surface of root that has been long kept. They can be extracted from the root by means of alcohol and precipitated with water. Kallen (1874, 1876) showed that the crystals chiefly consist of the _anhydride_, C₁₅H₂₀O₂, of _alantic acid_, melting at 66° C. The anhydride, which is very little aromatic, can easily be sublimed, although it begins to boil only at 275°, yet not without decomposition. Alantic anhydride dissolves in caustic lye, but on saturating the solution with an acid, alantic acid, C₁₅H₂₂O₃, separates. It is not present in the root.

The anhydride is accompanied by a small quantity of _Helenin_, C₆H₈O, and _Alantcamphor_ (i.e. Elecampane-camphor). The crystals of helenin have a slightly (?) bitterish taste, but no odour, and melt at 110°. The camphor, occurring in but very small amount, has not yet been analyzed; it agrees probably with the formula C₁₀H₁₆O; it melts at 64° C., and in taste and smell is suggestive of peppermint. It is very difficult entirely to remove helenin from alantcamphor, these substances being soluble to nearly the same extent in alcohol or ether. By distilling the second of them with pentasulphide of phosphorus, _Cymene_, C₁₀H₁₄, was obtained.

[1413] _Meddygon Myddfai_, p. 61. 284. 311 (see Appendix).

By distilling the root under notice with water, the alantic anhydride is chiefly obtained, but impregnated with _Alantol_, C₁₀H₁₆O (probably). The latter can be removed from the crystals by pressing them between folds of bibulous paper. On submitting this again to distillation, alantol is obtained as an aromatic liquid, boiling at 200°.

The substance most abundantly contained in elecampane root is _Inulin_, discovered in it by Valentine Rose at Berlin in 1804. It has the same composition as starch, C₆H₁₀O₅, but stands to a certain extent in opposition to that substance, which it replaces in the root-system of _Compositæ_. In living plants, inulin is dissolved in the watery juice, and on drying is deposited within the cells in amorphous masses, which in polarized light are inactive, and are not coloured by iodine. There are various other characters, by which inulin differs from starch. Thus for instance, inulin readily dissolves in about 3 parts of boiling water; the solution is perfectly clear and fluid, not paste-like; but on cooling deposits nearly all the inulin. The solution is levogyre and is easily transformed into uncrystallizable sugar. With nitric acid, inulin affords no explosive compound as starch does.

Sachs showed in 1864 that by immersing the roots of elecampane, or _Dahlia variabilis_ or of many other perennial _Compositæ_, in alcohol or glycerin, inulin may be precipitated in a crystalline form. Its globular aggregates of needle-shaped crystals (“sphæro-crystals”) then exhibit under the polarizing microscope a cross similar to that displayed by starch grains.

The amount of inulin varies according to the season, but is most abundant in the autumn. Of the various sources for it, the richest appears to be elecampane. Dragendorff, who has made it the subject of a very exhaustive treatise,[1414] obtained from the root in October not less than 44 per cent., but in spring only 19 per cent.

In the roots of the _Compositæ_ inulin is accompanied, according to Popp,[1415] by two closely allied substances, _Synanthrose_, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + H₂O, and _Inuloïd_, C₆H₁₀O₅ + H₂O. Synanthrose is soluble in dilute alcohol, devoid of any rotatory power, and deliquescent. Inuloïd is much more readily soluble in water than inulin. Both these substances are probably present in elecampane.

Inulin is widely distributed in the perennial roots of compositæ, and has also been met with in the natural orders Campanulaceæ, Goodenovieæ (or Goodeniaceæ), Lobeliaceæ, Stylidieæ, and lastly by Kraus (1879) in the root of _Ionidium Ipecacuanha_ St. Hilaire, Violaceæ; the formerly so-called _Ipecacuanha alba lignosa_ (see p. 375, note 4).

=Uses=—Elecampane is an aromatic tonic, but as a medicine is now obsolete. It is chiefly sold for veterinary practice. In France and Switzerland (Neuchâtel), it is employed in the distillation of _Absinthe_.

=Substitutes=—Dioscorides in speaking of _Costus_ root states that it is often mixed with that of elecampane of Kommagene (north-western Syria). The former, derived from _Aplotaxis[1416] auriculata_ DC. (_A. Lappa_ Decaisne, _Aucklandia Costus_ Falconer), is remarkably similar to elecampane both in external appearance and structure. Costus is an important spice, incense and medicine in the east from the antiquity down to the present day;[1417] it would be of great interest to examine it chemically with regard to elecampane.

[1414] _Materialien zu einer Monographie des Inulins_, St. Petersburg, 1870. 141 pages—See also _Prantl’s_ paper on Inulin, as abstracted in _Pharm. Journ._ Sept. 1871. 262.

[1415] Wiggers and Husemann, _Jahresbericht_ for 1870. 68.

[1416] Bentham and Hooker unite this plant with _Saussurea_.

[1417] See Cooke, _Pharm. Journ._ viii. (1877) 41; Flückiger, _ibid._ 121.

RADIX PYRETHRI.

_Pellitory Root_, _Pellitory of Spain_; F. _Pyrèthre-salivaire_; G. _Bertramwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Anacylus Pyrethrum_ DC. (_Anthemis Pyrethrum_ L.), a low perennial plant with small, much divided leaves, and a radiate flower resembling a large daisy. It is a native of northern Africa, especially Algeria, growing on the high plateaux that intervene between the fertile coast regions and the desert.

=History=—The πύρεθρον of Dioscorides was an umbelliferous plant, the determination of which must be left to conjecture. The pellitory of modern times was familiar to the Arabian writers on medicine, one of whom, Ibn Baytar, describes it very correctly from specimens gathered by himself near the city of Constantine in Algeria. The plant, says he, called by the Berbers _sandasab_, is found nowhere but in Western Africa, from which region it is carried to other countries.[1418]

Pellitory root is a favourite remedy in the East, and has long been an article of export by way of Egypt to India. An Arabic name for it is _Aāqarqarhā_ or _Akulkara_[1419], a word which, under slight variations, is found in the principal languages of India. In Germany, pellitory was known as early as the 12th century; it is named in the oldest printed works on materia medica. In the 13th century “pellitory of _Spain_” (Pelydr ysbain) was a proved “remedy for the toothache” with the Welsh physicians.[1420]

=Description=—The root as found in the shops is simple, 3 to 4 inches long by ⅜ to ⁴/₈ of an inch thick, cylindrical, or tapering, sometimes terminated at top by the bristly remains of leaves, and having only a few hair-like rootlets. It has a brown, rough, shrivelled surface, is compact and brittle, the fractured surface being radiate and destitute of pith. The bark, at most ¹/₂₅ of an inch thick, adheres closely to the wood, a narrow zone of cambium intervening. The woody column is traversed by large medullary rays in which, as in the bark, numerous dark resin-ducts are scattered. The root has a slight aromatic smell, and a persistent, pungent taste, exciting a singular tingling sensation, and a remarkable flow of saliva. The drug is very liable to the attacks of insects.

=Microscopic Structure=—The cortical part of this root is remarkable on account of its suberous layer, which is partly made up of sclerenchyme (thick-walled cells). Balsam-ducts (oil-cells) occur as well in the middle cortical layer as in the medullary rays. Most of the parenchymatous cells are loaded with lumps of inulin; pellitory in fact is one of those roots most abounding in that substance.

[1418] Sontheimer’s translation, ii. (1842) 179.

[1419] _Haq’recarcha_; see Steinschneider, in Rohlfs’ Archiv für Geschichte der Medicin (1879) 342.

[1420] _Meddygon Myddfai_ (see Appendix) 184. 292. 374.

=Chemical Composition=—Pellitory has been analysed by several chemists, whose labours have shown that its pungent taste is due in great part to a resin, not yet fully examined. The root also contains a little volatile oil besides, sugar, gum, and a trace of tannic acid. The so-called _Pyrethrin_ is a mixed substance.

=Commerce=—The root is collected chiefly in Algeria and is exported from Oran and to a smaller extent from Algiers. But from the information we have received from Colonel Playfair, British Consul-General for Algeria, and from Mr. Wood, British Consul at Tunis, it appears that the greater part is shipped from Tunis to Leghorn and Egypt. Mr. Wood was informed that the drug is imported from the frontier town of Tebessa in Algeria into the regency of Tunis, to the extent of 500 _cantars_ (50,000 lb.) per annum.

Bombay imported in the year 1871-72, 740 cwt. of this drug, of which more than half was shipped to other ports of India.[1421]

=Uses=—Chiefly employed as a sialogogue for the relief of toothache, occasionally in the form of tincture as a stimulant and rubefacient.

=Substitute=—In Germany, Russia and Scandinavia, African pellitory is replaced by the root of _Anacyclus officinarum_ Hayne, an annual herb long cultivated in Prussia and Saxony.[1422] Its root of a light grey is only half as thick as that of _A. Pyrethrum_, and is always abundantly provided with adherent remains of stalks and leaves. It is quite as pungent as that of the perennial species.

FLORES ANTHEMIDIS.

_Chamomile Flowers_; F. _Fleurs de Camomille Romaine_; G. _Römische Kamillen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Anthemis nobilis_ L., the Common or Roman Chamomile, a small creeping perennial plant, throwing up in the latter part of the summer solitary flowerheads.

It is abundant on the commons in the neighbourhood of London, and generally throughout the south of England; and extends to Ireland, but is not a native of Scotland, except the islands of Bute and Cumbrae, where Anthemis is stated to grow wild. It is plentiful in the west and centre of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Dalmatia; and occurs as a doubtful native in Southern and Central Russia.

=History=—The identification of the chamomile in the classical and other ancient authors seems to be impossible, on account of the large number of allied plants having similar inflorescence.

The chamomile has been cultivated for centuries in English gardens, the flowers being a common domestic medicine. The double variety was well known in the 16th century.

The plant was introduced, according to Gesner, into Germany from Spain about the close of the middle ages. Tragus first designated it _Chamomilla nobilis_,[1423] and Joachim Camerarius (1598), who had observed its abundance near Rome, gave it the name of _Roman Chamomile_.

[1421] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay_ in 1871-72, pt. ii. 19. 98.

[1422] For further information on the medicinal species of _Anacyclus_, see a paper by Dr. P. Ascherson in _Bonplandia_, 15 April 1858.

[1423] _De Stirpium_ ..., 1552. 149.—In Germany the epithet _edel_ (= _nobilis_) is frequently used in popular botany to designate useful or remarkable plants. Tragus may have been induced to bestow it on the species under notice, on account of its superiority to _Matricaria Camomilla_, the so-called _Common Chamomile_ of the Germans.

Porta, about the year 1604,[1424] states that 100 pounds of _Flores Chamœmeli_ yielded 2 drachmæ of a green volatile oil; we suppose he distilled the flowers under notice.

=Production=—The camomile is cultivated at Mitcham, near London, the land applied to this purpose being in 1864 about 55 acres, and the yield reckoned at about 4 cwt. per acre. The flowers are carefully gathered, and dried by artificial heat; and fetch a high price in the market.[1425]

The plant is grown on a large scale at Kieritzsch, between Leipzig and Altenburg, and near Zeiz and Borna, all in Saxony; and likewise to some extent in Belgium and France.

=Description=—The chamomile flowers found in commerce are never those of the wild plant, but are produced by a variety in which the tubular florets have all, or for the greater part been converted into ligulate florets. In the flowers of some localities this conversion has been less complete, and such flowers having a somewhat yellow centre, are called by druggists _Single Chamomiles_; while those in which all the florets are ligulate and white, are known as _Double Chamomiles_.

Chamomile flowers have the general structure found in the order _Compositæ_. They are ½ to ¾ of an inch across, and consist of a hemispherical involucre about ⅜ of an inch in diameter, composed of a number of nearly equal bracts, scarious at the margin. The receptacle is solid, conical, about ¼ of an inch in height, beset with thin, concave, blunt, narrow, chaffy scales, from the bases of which grow the numerous florets. In the wild plant, the outer of these, to the number of 12 or more, are white, narrow, strap-shaped, and slightly toothed at the apex. The central or disc florets are yellow and tubular, with a somewhat bell-shaped summit from which project the two reflexed stigmas. In the cultivated plant, the ligulate florets predominate, or replace entirely the tubular. The florets which are wholly destitute of pappus are reflexed, so that the capitulum when dried has the aspect of a little white ball. Minute oil-glands are sparingly scattered over the tubular portion of the florets of either kind. The flowers of chamomile, as well as the green parts of the plant, have a strong aroma, and a very bitter taste.

In trade, dried chamomile flowers are esteemed in proportion as they are of large size, very double, and of a good white—the last named quality being due in great measure to fine dry weather during the flowering period. Flowers that are buff or brownish, or only partially double, command a lower price.

=Chemical Composition=—Chamomile flowers yield from 0·6 to 0·8 per cent. of essential oil,[1426] which is at first of a pale blue, but becomes yellowish-brown in the course of a few months.

At Mitcham, oil of chamomile is usually distilled from the _entire plant_, after the best flowers have been gathered. The oil has a shade of green, to remove which it is exposed to sunlight; it thus acquires a brownish-yellow colour, at the same time throwing down a considerable deposit.

[1424] _De distillatione_, Romæ, 1608. 83.

[1425] About £9 per cwt., Foreign Chamomiles being worth from £3 to £4.

[1426] Information obligingly given by Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig. The oil distilled by them was examined in Prof. Fittig’s laboratory, Strassburg.

The investigations of several chemists, performed in 1878-79 in Fittig’s laboratory, have shown the oil to contain the following constituents:—At 147-148° C. _isobutylic ethers_ and hydrocarbons are distilling, at 177° _angelicate_ of _isobutyl_, at 200°-201° _angelicate_ of _isamyl_, at 204°-205° _tiglinate_ of _isamyl_ (both these compound ethers answering to the formula C₅H₇O·OC₅H₁₁). In the residual portion hexylic alcohol, C₆H₁₃OH, and an alcohol of the formula C₁₀H₁₆O, are met with, both probably occurring in the form of compound ethers. By decomposing the angelicates and the tiglinate above named with potash, angelic acid, C₅H₈O₂, and tiglinic (or methylcrotonic) acid, isomeric to the former, are obtained to the extent of about 30 or more per cent. of the crude oil. In the oil examined by Fittig, angelic acid was prevailing; from another specimen E. Schmidt (1879) obtained but very little of it, tiglinic acid was by far prevailing (see also article Oleum Crotonis).

We have performed some experiments in order to isolate the _bitter principle_, but have not succeeded in obtaining it in a satisfactory state of purity; it forms a brown extract, apparently a glucoside. We can also confirm the statement that no alkaloid is present.

=Uses=—An infusion or an extract of chamomile is often used as a bitter stomachic and tonic.

=Adulteration and Substitution=—The flowerheads of _Matricaria Chamomilla_ L., designated in Germany _Common Chamomiles_ (_gemeine Kamillen_), are sometimes asked for in this country. In aspect as well as in odour, they are very different from the chamomiles of English pharmacy; they are quite single, not bitter, and have the receptacle devoid of scales and hollow.

A cultivated variety of _Chrysanthemum Parthenium_ Pers., or Feverfew, with the florets all ligulate, and some scales on the receptacle (not having the receptacle _naked_, as in the wild form), common in gardens,[1427] has flowerheads exceedingly like double chamomiles. But they may be distinguished from the latter by their _convex_ or _nearly flat_ receptacle, with the scales lanceolate and acute, and less membranous.

The chamomiles of the Indian bazaars which are brought from Persia and known as _Bābūnah_, are (as we infer from the statement of Royle) the flowers of _Matricaria suaveolens_ L., a slender form of _M. Chamomilla_, growing in Southern Russia, Persia, Southern Siberia, also in North America.

The fresh wild plant of _Anthemis nobilis_ L., pulled up from the ground, is sold in London for making extract, a proceeding highly reprehensible supposing the extract to be sold for medicinal use.

[1427] Is not this plant the _Anthemis? parthenioides_ Bernh., of which De Candolle says (_Prod._ vi. 7)—“ ... simillima _Mat. Parthenio_, sed paleis inter flores instructa. Ferè semper plena in hortis occurrit, et forte ideo paleæ receptaculi ex luxuriante statu ortæ ut in _Chrysanthemi indico et sinensi_ ...”?

SANTONICA.

_Flores Cinæ_, _Semen Cinæ_,[1428] _Semen Santonicæ_, _Semen Zedoariæ_, _Semen Contra_, _Semen Sanctum_; _Wormseed_; F. _Semen-contra_, _Semencine_, _Barbotine_; G. _Wurmsamen_, _Zitwersamen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Artemisia maritima_, var. _a. Stechmanniana_ Besser[1429] (_A. Lercheana_ Karel. et Kiril, in Herbb. Kew, et Mus. Brit.; _A. maritima_ var. _a. pauciflora_ Weber, quoad Ledebour, _Flor. Ross._ ii. 570).

_Artemisiæ_ of the section _Seriphidium_ assume great diversity of form:[1430] they have been the object of attentive study on the part of the Russian botanists Besser (1834-35) and Ledebour (1844-46), whose researches have resulted in the union of many supposed species, under the head of the Linnæan _Artemisia maritima_. This plant has an extremely wide distribution in the northern hemisphere of the old world, occurring mostly in saltish soils. It is found in the salt marshes of the British Islands, on the coasts of the Baltic, of France and the Mediterranean, and on saline soils in Hungary and Podolia; thence it extends eastward, covering immense tracts in Southern Russia, the regions of the Caspian, and Central Siberia, to Chinese Mongolia.

The particular variety which furnishes at least the chief part of the drug, is a low, shrubby, aromatic plant, distinguished by its very small, erect, ovoid flowerheads, having oblong, obtuse, involucral scales, the interior scales being scarious. The stem in its upper half is a fastigiate, thyrsoid panicle, crowned with flowerheads. The localities for the plant are the neighbourhood of the Don, the regions of the lower Volga near Sarepta and Zaritzyn, and the Kirghiz deserts.

The drug, which consists of the minute, unopened flowerheads, is collected in large quantities, as we are informed by Björklund (1867), on the vast plains or steppes of the Kirghiz, in the northern part of Turkestan. It was formerly gathered about Sarepta, a German colony in the Government of Saratov, but from direct information we have (1872) received, it appears to be obtained there no longer.

The emporium for wormseed is the great fair of Nishnei-Novgorod (July 15th to Aug. 27th), whence the drug is conveyed to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Western Europe.

Wormseed is found in the Indian bazaars. A specimen received by us from Bombay does not materially differ in form from the Russian drug, but is slightly shaggy and mixed with tomentose stalks. It is probably brought from Afghanistan and Cabul.[1431]

Wilkomm[1432] has described, as mother plant of wormseed, an _Artemisia_ which he calls _A. Cina_. It was obtained in Turkestan by Prof. Petzholdt, who received it from the people gathering the drug. The specimen kindly communicated to us by Prof. Willkomm has flowerheads which do not entirely resemble the wormseed of trade, in that they have fewer scales, but their number may be somewhat varying.

[1428] From the Italian _semenzina_, the diminutive of _semenza_ (seed).

[1429] W. S. Besser in _Bulletin de la Soc. imp. des Naturalistes de Moscou_, vii. (1834) 31.—A specimen of the plant in question labelled in Besser’s handwriting, with a memorandum that it is collected for medicinal use, is in the Herbarium of the Royal Gardens, Kew. It completely agrees with the _Semen Cinæ_ of Russian and German commerce. This remark also applies to a specimen of _A. Lercheana_ Karel. et Kiril. in the same herbarium.

[1430] “Si aliæ Artemisiæ multùm variant, Seriphidia inconstantiâ formarum omnes superant....”—Besser.

[1431] _Artemisia_ No. 3201, Herb. Griffith, Afghanistan, in the Kew Herbarium has capitules precisely agreeing with this Bombay drug.

[1432] _Bot. Zeitung_, 1 März 1872. 130; _Pharm. Journ._ 23 March 1872. 772 (abstract).

=History=—Several species of _Absinthium_ are mentioned by Dioscorides, one of which called Ἀψίνθιον Θαλάσσιον or Σέριϕον, having very small seeds (capitules), and growing in Cappadocia, he states to be taken in honey as a remedy for ascarides and lumbrici: one can hardly doubt but that this is the modern wormseed. Another species is described by the same author as being called Σαντόνιον, from its growing in the country of the Santones in Gaul (the modern Saintonge); he asserts it to resemble σέριϕον in its properties.

In an epistle on intestinal worms attributed to Alexander Trallianus,[1433] who practised medicine with great success at Rome in the 6th century, the use is recommended of a decoction of _Absinthium marinum_ (θαλασσία ἀψίνθη) as a cure for ascarides and round worms.

_Semen sanctum vel Alexandrinum_ is mentioned as a vermifuge for children by Saladinus about A.D. 1450, and by Ruellius, Dodonæus, the Bauhins, and other naturalists of the 16th century. Tragus[1434] mentions that it is imported by way of Genoa. Its ancient reputation has been fully maintained in modern times, and in the form partly of _Santonin_, the drug is still extensively employed.

=Description=—Good samples of the drug consist almost exclusively of entire, unopened flowerheads or capitules, which are so minute that it requires about 90 to make up the weight of one grain. In samples less pure, there is an admixture of stalks, and portions of a small pinnate leaf. The flowerheads are of an elliptic or oblong form, about ⅒ of an inch long, greenish yellow when new, brown if long kept; they grow singly, less frequently in pairs, on short stalks, and are formed of about 18 oblong, obtuse, concave scales, closely imbricated. This involucre is much narrowed at the base in consequence of the lowermost scales being considerably shorter than the rest. The capitule is sometimes associated with a few of the upper leaves of the stem, which are short, narrow, and simple. Notwithstanding its compactness, the capitule is somewhat ridged and angular,[1435] from the involuclar scales having a strong, central nerve or keel. The middle portion of each scale is covered with minute, yellow, sessile glands, which are wanting on the transparent scarious edge. The latter is marked with extremely fine striæ and is quite glabrous; in the young state the keel bears a few woolly colourless hairs, but at maturity the whole flowerhead is shining and nearly glabrous.[1436] The florets number from 3 to 5; they have (in the bud) an ovoid corolla, glandular in its lower portion, a little longer than the ovary, which is destitude of pappus.

[1433] Contained in a work by Hieronymus Mercurialis, entitled _Variarum Lectionum libri quatuor_, Venet. 1570; also in Puschmann’s edition of _Alexander_ (see Appendix), i. 238. 240.

[1434] In Brunfels (_De vera herbarum cognitione_), Argentorati, 1531. 196.

[1435] Maceration in water, which restores the natural shape of the flowerheads, shows that this shrunken, angular form is not found in the growing plant.

[1436] Yet too much stress must not be laid on this character, for as Besser remarks—“_periclinii squamæ in uno loco tomento brevi plus minusve canæ, in aliis nudæ, imo nitidæ_.”

Wormseed when rubbed in the hand exhales a powerful and agreeable odour, resembling cajuput oil and camphor; it has a bitter aromatic taste.

=Chemical Composition=—Wormseed yields from 1 to 2 per cent. of essential oil, having its characteristic smell and taste. The oil is slightly levogyrate and chiefly consists of the liquid C₁₀H₁₈O, accompanied by a small amount of hydrocarbon. The former has the odour of the drug, yet rather more agreeable; sp. gr. 0·913 at 20° C. It boils without decomposition at 173°-174°, but in presence of P₂O₅ or P₂S₅ abundantly yields cymol (see p. 333). The latter had already been observed by Völckel (1854) under the name of _cinene_ or _cynene_, yet he assigned to it the formula C₁₂H₉; Hirzel (1854) called it cinæbene.

The water which distills over carries with it volatile acids of the fatty series, also _angelic acid_ (see pp. 313, 386).

The substance to which the remarkable action of wormseed on the human body[1437] is due is _Santonin_, C₁₅H₁₈O₃. It was discovered in 1830 by Kahler, an apothecary of Düsseldorf, who gave a very brief notice of it in the _Archiv der Pharmacie_ of Brandes (xxxiv. 318). Immediately afterwards Augustus Alms, a druggist’s assistant at Penzlin in the grand duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, knowing nothing of Kahler’s discovery, obtained the same substance and named it _Santonin_. Alms recommended it to the medical profession, pointing out that it is the anthelminthic principle of wormseed.[1438] Santonin constitutes from 1½ to 2 per cent. of the drug, but appears to diminish in quantity very considerably as the flowers open. It is easily extracted by milk of lime, for, though not an acid and but sparingly soluble in water even at a boiling heat, it is capable of combining with bases. With lime it forms then santoninate of calcium, which is readily soluble in water. On addition of hydrochloric acid, santoninic acid, C₁₅H₂₀O₄, separates, but parts with OH₂, santonin being thus immediately reproduced. Similar facts have been recorded with regard to alantic acid (see p. 381).

Santonin forms crystals of the orthorhombic system, melting at 170°, which are inodorous, but have a bitter taste, especially when dissolved in chloroform or alcohol.[1439] They are colourless, but when exposed to daylight, or to the blue or violet rays, but not to the other colours of the spectrum, they assume a yellow hue, and split into irregular fragments. This change, which takes place even under water, alcohol or ether, is not accompanied by any chemical alteration. This behaviour of santonin when exposed to light, resembles that of erythrocentaurin, C₂₇H₂₄O₈. The latter has been obtained by means of ether, from the alcoholic extract of _Erythræa Centaurium_, and of some other _Gentianaceæ_. Méhu (1866) has shown that the colourless crystals of that substance when exposed to sunlight, assume a brilliant red colour, _without_ undergoing any chemical alteration. The _colourless_ solutions of this body in chloroform or alcohol yield the original substance. Yet as to santonin, Sestini and Cannizzaro (1876) have shown, that its dilute alcoholic solution, on long exposure to sunlight, affords a compound ether of photosantonic acid, namely C₁₅H₁₃O₄(C₂H₅)₂.

[1437] As the affected vision, so that objects appear as if seen through a yellow medium. Other effects are recorded by Stillé (_Therapeutics and Mat. Med._ ii. 641).

[1438] The paper of Alms being contained in the very same periodical (p. 319) as that of Kahler (and further in vol. xxxix. 190), affords additional evidence of the independence of the discovery.

[1439] Its ready solubility in 3 or 4 parts of chloroform renders its estimation easy when mixed with sugar, as in a santonin lozenge.

Wormseed contains, in addition to the above described bodies, resin, sugar, waxy fat, salts of calcium and potassium, and malic acid; when carefully selected and dried, it yielded us 6·5 per cent. of ash, rich in silica.

=Commerce=—Ludwig of St. Petersburg has stated that the imports of wormseed into that city were about as follows:—In 1862, 7400 cwt.; in 1863, 10,500 cwt.; in 1864, 11,400 cwt. The drug was brought from the Kirghiz steppes by Semipalatinsk and by Orenburg.

=Uses=—The drug is employed exclusively for its anthelminthic properties, partly in the form of santonin. It proves of special efficacy for the dislodgement of _Ascaris lumbricoides_.

RADIX ARNICÆ.

_Rhizoma Arnicæ_, _Arnica Root_; F. _Racine d’Arnica_; G. _Arnicawurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Arnica montana_ L., a perennial plant growing in meadows throughout the northern and central regions of the northern hemisphere, but not reaching the British Islands. In western and central Europe it is an inhabitant of the mountains, but in colder countries it grows in the plains.

In high latitudes, as in Arctic Asia and America, a peculiar form of the plant distinguished by narrow, almost linear leaves has been named _A. angustifolia_ Vahl; but numerous transitional forms prove its identity with the ordinary _A. montana_ of Europe.

=History=—The older botanists as Matthiolus, Gesner, Camerarius, Tabernæmontanus, and Clusius were acquainted with Arnica and had some knowledge of its medicinal powers, which appear to have been expressly recommended, towards the end of the 16th century, by Franz Joël, professor of Greifswald, Germany.[1440] All parts of the plant were no doubt popular remedies in Germany at an early period, but Arnica was only introduced into regular medicine on the recommendation of Johann Michael Fehr of Schweinfurt and of several other physicians.[1441] But for enthusiastic laudation of the new remedy, all these writers fall far short of Collin of Vienna, who imagined that in Arnica he had found a European plant possessing all the virtues of Peruvian Bark.[1442] In his hands fevers and agues gave way under its use, and more than 1000 patients in the Pazman Hospital were alleged to have been cured of intermittents by an electuary of the flowers, between 1771 and 1774. Such happy results were not obtained by other physicians.

[1440] Sprengel, _Geschichte der Arzneykunde_, iv. (1827) 546.

[1441] Fehr, _De Arnica lapsorum panacea, in Ephemerid. nat. cur._ Dec. 1, (1678, 1679) No. 2. p. 22 (“usus est in _radice_, _foliis_ et _floribus_”).—G. A. de la Marche, _Dissertatio_, Halæ Magdeburg, 1744.

[1442] Heinrich Joseph Collin, _Heilkräfte des Wolverley_, Breslau, 1777 (translation); also _Arnicæ, in febribus et aliis morbis putridis vires_,—in the _Anni Medici_ of Störck and Collin, ed. nov., Amstel., iii. (1779) 133.

Arnica (_herba_, _flos_, _radix_) had a place in the London Pharmacopœia of 1788, but it soon fell out of notice, so that Woodville writing in 1790, remarks that he had been unable to procure the plant from any of the London druggists. Of late years it has gained some popular notoriety as an application in the form of tincture, for preventing the blackness of bruises, but in England it is rarely prescribed internally.

=Description=—The arnic root of pharmacy consists of a slender, contorted, dark brown rootstock, an inch or two long, emitting from its under side an abundance of wiry simple roots, 3, 4 or more inches in length; it usually bears the remains of the rosette of characteristic, ovate, coriaceous leaves, which are 3-to 5-nerved, ciliated at the margin, and slightly pubescent on their upper surface. It has a faintly aromatic, herby smell, and a rather acrid taste.

=Microscopic Structure=—On a transverse section, the rootstock exhibits a large pith surrounded by a strong woody ring. In the innermost part of the cortical layer, large oil-ducts are found corresponding to the fibro-vascular bundles. Neither starch granules, inulin, or oxalate of calcium are visible in the tissue. The rootlets are of a different structural character, but also contain oil-ducts.

=Chemical Composition=—Several chemists have occupied themselves in endeavouring to isolate the active principle of arnica. Bastick described (1851) a substance which he obtained in minute quantity from the flowers and named _Arnicine_. He states it to possess alkaline properties, to be non-volatile, slightly soluble in water, more so in alcohol or ether; when neutralized with hydrochloric acid, it forms a crystalline salt.

The _Arnicin_ extracted by Walz (1861) both from the root and flowers of arnica is a different substance; it is an amorphous yellow mass of acrid taste, slightly soluble in water, freely in alcohol or ether, and dissolving also in alkaline solutions. It is precipitable from its alcoholic solution by tannic acid or by water. Walz assigns to arnicin the formula C₂₀H₃₀O₄; other chemists that of C₃₅H₅₄O₇. Arnicin has not yet been proved a glucoside, although it is decomposed by dilute acids.

Sigel (1873) obtained from dried arnica root about ½ per cent. of essential oil, and 1 per cent. from the fresh; the oil of the latter had a sp. gr. of 0·999 at 18° C. The oil was found to be a mixture of various bodies, the principle being _dimethylic ether of thymohydroquinone_

{OCH₃ C₁₀H₁₂ { , boiling at about 235°. {OCH₃

The water from which the oil separates contains _isobutyric acid_, probably also a little _angelic_ and _formic acid_; but neither capronic nor caprylic acid, which had been pointed out by Walz.

Arnica root contains _inulin_, which Dragendorff extracted from it to the extent of about 10 per cent.

=Uses=—Arnica is used chiefly in the form of tincture as a popular application to bruises and chilblains; internally it is occasionally prescribed as a stimulant and diaphoretic.

=Adulteration=—Arnica root has been met with[1443] adulterated with the root of _Geum urbanum_ L., a common herbaceous plant of the order _Rosaceæ_. The latter is thicker than the rhizome of arnica, being ³/₁₀ to ⁴/₁₀ of an inch in diameter; it is a true _root_, furnished on all sides with rootlets, and has an _astringent_ taste. The leaves of _Geum_ are pinnate and quite unlike those of arnica.

[1443] Holmes in _Pharm. Journ._, April 11, 1874. 810.

FLORES ARNICÆ.

=Botanical Origin=—See preceding article.

=History=—The flowers probably in the first line attracted the attention of popular medicine in Germany, as we pointed out, page 390.

=Description=—_Arnica montana_ produces large, handsome, orange-yellow flowers, solitary at the summit of the stem or branches. The involucral scales of the capitulum (20 to 24) are of equal length, but are imbricated, forming a double row. They are very hairy, the shorter hairs being tipped with viscid glands. The receptacle is chaffy, ¼ of an inch in diameter, with about 20 ligulate florets, and of tubular a much larger number. The ligulate florets, an inch in length, are oblong, toothed at the apex, and traversed by about 10 parallel veins. The achenes are brown and hairy, crowned by pappus consisting of a single row of whitish barbed hairs.

The receptacle is usually inhabited by a fly, _Trypeta arnicivora_ Löw[1444]; the Pharmacopœia Germania (1872) therefore ordered the florets to be deprived of the involucre and receptacle—“flosculi a peranthodio liberati.” From a chemical point of view the usefulness of this direction may be doubted.

[1444] Figured in Nees von Esenbeck’s _Plantæ medicinales_, Düsseldorf, ii. (1833) fol. 39.

Arnica flowers have a weak, not unpleasant odour; they were formerly used in making the tincture, but as the British Pharmacopœia now directs that preparation to be made with the root, they have almost gone out of use in Great Britain.

=Chemical Composition=—The flowers appear to be rather richer in arnicin than the root, and are said to be equal if not superior to it in medicinal powers; yet the essential oil they contain is not the same. It is obtained in but extremely small amount and has a greenish or blue coloration. Hesse (1864) has proved that the flowers are devoid of a peculiar volatile alkaloid which had been supposed to be present in them.

RADIX TARAXACI.

_Dandelion Root_, _Taraxacum Root_; F. _Pissenlit_; G. _Löwenzahnwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Taraxacum officinale_ Wiggers _T. Dens-leonis_ Desf., _Leontodon Taraxacum_ L., a plant of the northern hemisphere, found over the whole of Europe, Central and Northern Asia, and North America, extending to the Arctic regions. It varies under a considerable number of forms, several of which have been regarded as distinct species. In many districts it is a troublesome weed.

=History=—Though the common Dandelion is a plant which must have been well known to the ancients, no indubitable reference to it can be traced in the classical authors of Greece and Italy; it is thought that ἀθάκη of Theophrast and others means it. The word _Taraxacum_ is however usually regarded as of Greek origin;[1445] we have first met with as _Tarakhshagun_ in the works of the Arabian physicians, who speak of it as a sort of _Wild Endive_. It is thus mentioned by Rhazes in the 10th, and by Avicenna in the 11th century.

The name _Dens Leonis_, an equivalent of which is found in nearly all the languages of Europe, is stated in the herbal of Johann von Cube[1446] to have been bestowed on this plant by one Wilhelm, a surgeon, who held it in great esteem; but of this personage and of the period during which he lived we have sought information in vain, and we may remember that Dens Leonis (“Dant y Llew”) is already met with in the Welsh medicine of the 13th century.[1447]

Dandelion was also much valued as medicine in the time of Gerarde and Parkinson, and is still extensively employed.

=Collection=—In England, taraxacum root is considered to be in perfection for extract in the month of November, the juice at that period affording an ampler and better product than at any other. Bentley contends that it is more bitter in March, and most of all in July, and that at the former period at least it should be preferred.

=Description=—The root is perennial, and tapering, simple, or slightly branched, attaining in a good soil a length of a foot or more, and half an inch to an inch in diameter. Old roots divide at the crown into several heads. The root is fleshy and brittle; externally of a pale brown, internally white, and abounding in an inodorous milky juice of bitter taste. It shrinks very much in drying, losing in weight about 76 per cent.[1448]

Dried dandelion root is half an inch or less in thickness, dark brown, shrivelled with wrinkles running lengthwise often in a spiral direction; when quite dry, it breaks easily with a short corky fracture, showing a very thick white bark, surrounding a woody column. The latter is yellowish, very porous, without pith or rays. A rather broad but indistinct cambium-zone separates the wood from the bark, which latter exhibits numerous well-defined concentric layers. The root has a bitterish taste.

=Microscopic Structure=—On the longitudinal section, especially in a tangential direction, the brownish zones are seen to contain laticiferous vessels, only about 2 mkm. in diameter. These traverse their zones in a vertical direction, giving off numerous lateral branches, which however remain always confined to their zone. Within each of these zones, the lacticiferous vessels form consequently an anastomosing net. We may say that the root is thus vertically traversed by about 10 to 20 concentric rings of lacticiferous vessels.[1449] They may be made beautifully evident by means of anilin-blue, with which a thin longitudinal section of the fresh root may be moistened. The root must be allowed to partially dry, but only till the milky juice coagulates; the thin slice then energetically absorbs the colouring matter.[1450]

[1445] Perhaps from τράζυνον or τρόξμνον signifying _Wild Lettuce_; according to some, from τάραξις, a disease of the eye which the plant was used to cure, or from the verb τάρασσω, _I disturb_.

[1446] _Herbarius zu teutsch und von aller handt kreuteren_, Augspurg, 1488. cap. clii.

[1447] The _Physicians of Myddvai_, 284 (see Appendix).

[1448] Thus 5496 lb. of the washed root afforded of dry only 1277 lb., or 23·2 per cent.—Information communicated by Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, London.

[1449] For further particulars about them, see Vogl, _Sitzungsber. der Wiener Akademie_, vi. (1863) 668 with plate; Hanstein, _Milchsaftgefässe und verwandte Organe der Rinde_, Berlin, 1864. 72. 73. pl. ix.

[1450] The reader who is not familiar with this process may refer to a paper by Pocklington in _Pharm. Journ._ April 13, 1872. 822.

The tissue of the dried root is loaded with inulin, which does not occur in the solid form in the living plant. The woody part of taraxacum root is made up of large scalariform vessels accompanied by parenchymatous tissue, the former much prevailing.

=Chemical Composition=—The fresh milky juice of dandelion is bitter and neutral, but it soon acquires an acid reaction and reddish brown tint, at the same time coagulating with separation of masses of what has been called by Kromayer (1861), _Leontodonium_. This chemist, by treating this substance with hot water, obtained a bitter solution yielding an active (?) principle to animal charcoal, from which it was removed by means of boiling spirit of wine. After the evaporation of the alcohol, Kromayer purified the liquid by addition of basic acetate of lead, saturation of the filtered solution with sulphuretted hydrogen and evaporation to dryness. The residue then yielded to ether an acrid resin, and left a colourless amorphous mass of intensely bitter taste, named by Kromayer _Taraxacin_. Polex (1839) obtained apparently the same principle in warty crystals; he simply boiled the milky juice with water and allowed the concentrated decoction to evaporate.

The portion of the “_Leontodonium_,” not dissolved by water, yields to alcohol a crystalline substance, Kromayer’s _Taraxacerin_, C₈H₁₆O. It resembles lactucerin and has in alcoholic solution an acrid taste. How far the medicinal value of dandelion is dependent on the substances thus extracted, is not yet known.

Dragendorff (1870) obtained from the root gathered near Dorpat in October and dried at 100° C., 24 per cent. of _Inulin_ and some sugar. The root collected in March from the same place yielded only 1·74 per cent. of inulin, 17 of uncrystallizable sugar and 18·7 of _Levulin_. The last named substance, discovered by Dragendorff, has the same composition as inulin, but dissolves in cold water; the solution tastes sweetish, and is devoid of any rotatory power. Inulin is often to be seen as a glistening powder when extract of taraxacum is dissolved in water.

T. and H. Smith of Edinburgh (1849) have shown that the juice of the root by a short exposure to the air undergoes a sort of fermentation which results in the abundant formation of _Mannite_, not a trace of which is obtainable from the perfectly fresh root. Sugar which readily underwent the vinous fermentation was found by the same chemists in considerable quantity.

The leaves and stalks of dandelion (but not the roots) were found by Marmé (1864) to afford the _Inosite_, C₆H₁₂O + 2 OH.

The root collected in the meadows near Bern immediately before flowering, carefully washed and dried at 100° C., yielded us 5·24 per cent. of ash, which we found to consist of carbonates, phosphates, sulphates, and in smaller quantity also of chlorides.

=Uses=—Taraxacum is much employed as a mild laxative and tonic, especially in hepatic disorders.

=Adulteration=—The roots of _Leontodon hispidus_ L. (Common Hawkbit) have occasionally been supplied by fraudulent herb-gatherers in place of dandelion. Both plants have runcinate leaves, but those of hawkbit are hairy, while those of dandelion are smooth. The (fresh) root of the former is tough, breaking with difficulty and rarely exuding any milky juice.[1451]

The dried root of dandelion is exceedingly liable to the attacks of maggots, and should not be kept beyond one season.

HERBA LACTUCÆ VIROSÆ.

_Prickly Lettuce_; F. _Laitue vireuse_; G. _Giftlattich_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Lactuca virosa_ L.,[1452] a tall herb occurring on stony ground, banks and roadsides, throughout Western, Central and Southern Europe. It is abundant in the Spanish Peninsula and in France, but in Britain is only thinly scattered, reaching its northern limit in the south-eastern Highlands of Scotland.

=History=—The introduction of this lettuce into modern medicine is due to Collin (the celebrated physician of Vienna, mentioned in our article on Rad. Arnicæ, p. 390), who about the year 1771 recommended the inspissated juice in the treatment of dropsy. In long standing cases, this extract was given to the extent of half an ounce a day.

The College of Physicians of Edinburgh inserted _Lactuca virosa_ L. in their pharmacopœia of 1792, while in England its place was taken by the Garden Lettuce, _L. sativa_ L. The Authors of the _British Pharmacopœia_ of 1867 have discarded the latter, and directed that _Extractum Lactucæ_ shall be prepared by inspissating the juice of _L. virosa_.

=Description=—The plant is biennial, producing in its first year depressed obovate undivided leaves, and in its second a solitary upright stem, 3 to 5 feet high, bearing a pinacle of small, pale yellow flowers, resembling those of the Garden Lettuce. The stem, which is cylindrical and a little prickly below, has scattered leaves growing horizontally; they are of a glaucous green, ovate-oblong, often somewhat lobed, auricled, clasping, with the margin provided with irregular spinescent teeth, and midrib white and prickly. The whole plant abounds in a bitter, milky juice of strong, unpleasant, opiate smell.

=Chemical Composition=—We are not aware of any modern chemical examination having been made of _Lactuca virosa_. The more important constituents of the plant are those found in _Lactucarium_, to the article on which the reader is referred.

=Uses=—The inspissated expressed juice of the fresh plant is reputed narcotic and diuretic, but is probably nearly inert.

[1451] Giles, _Pharm. Journ._ xi. (1851) 107.

[1452] Bentham unites this plant with _L. Scariola_ L., but in most works on botany they are maintained as distinct species.

LACTUCARIUM.

_Lactucarium_, _Lettuce Opium_, _Thridace_;[1453] F. and G. _Lactucarium_.

=Botanical Origin=—The species of _Lactuca_ from which lactucarium is obtained, are three or four in number, namely—

1. _Lactuca virosa_ L., described in the foregoing article.

2. _L. Scariola_ L., a plant very nearly allied to the preceding and perhaps a variety of it, but having the foliage less abundant, more glaucous, leaves more sharply lobed, much more erect and almost parallel with the stem. It has the same geographical range as _L. virosa_.

3. _L. altissima_ Bieb., a native of the Caucasus, now cultivated in Auvergne in France for yielding lactucarium. It is a gigantic herb, having when cultivated a height of 9 feet and a stem 1½ inches in diameter. Prof. G. Planchon believes it to be a mere variety of _L. Scariola_ L.

4. _L. sativa_ L., the common Garden Lettuce.[1454]

=History=—Dr. Coxe of Philadelphia was the first to suggest that the juice of the lettuce, collected in the same manner as opium is collected from the poppy, might be usefully employed in medicine. The result of his experiments on the juice which he thus obtained from the garden lettuce (_L. sativa_ L.), and called _Lettuce Opium_, was published in 1799.[1455]

The experiments of Coxe were continued some years later by Duncan, Young, Anderson, Scudamore and others in Scotland, and by Bidault de Villiers and numerous observers in France. The production of lactucarium in Auvergne was commenced[1456] by Aubergier, pharmacien of Clermont-Ferrand, about 1841.

=Secretion=—All the green parts of the plant are traversed by a system of vessels, which when wounded, especially during the period of flowering, instantly exude a white milky juice. The stem, at first solid and fleshy but subsequently hollow, owes its rigidity to a circle of about 30 fibro-vascular bundles, each of which includes a cylinder of cambium. At the boundary between this tissue and the primary cortical parenchyme, is situated the system of milk-vessels, exhibiting on transverse section a single or double circle of thin-walled tubes, the cavities of which contain dark brown masses of coagulated juice. In longitudinal section, they appear branched and transversely bound together, as in the milk-vessels of taraxacum. The larger of these tubes, 35 mkm. in diameter, correspond pretty regularly in position with the vascular bundles. Each of the latter is also separated from the pith by a band or arch of cambium, in the circumference of which isolated smaller milk-vessels occur.

The system of milk-vessels[1457] is therefore double, belonging to the pith on the one side, and to the bark on the other, the two being separated by juiceless wood. The milk-vessels of the bark are covered by only 2 to 6 rows of parenchyme-cells of the middle bark, rapidly decreasing in size from within outwards, and these are protected by a not very thick-walled epidermis. Hence it is easy to understand how the slightest puncture or incision may reach the very richest milk-cells.

[1453] The term Thridace is also applied to _Extract of Lettuce_.

[1454] The authors of the French _Codex_ of 1866 name as the source of lactucarium that form of the garden lettuce which has been called by DeCandolle _Lactuca capitata_. Maisch has obtained lactucarium from _L. elongata_ Mühl. (_Am. Journ. of Pharm._ 1869. 148).

[1455] Inquiry into the comparative effects of the _Opium officinarum_, extracted from the _Papaver somniferum_ or _White Poppy_ of Linnæus, and that procured from the _Lactuca sativa_ or _Common cultivated Lettuce_ of the same author.—_Transact. of the American Philosophical Society_, iv. (1799) 387.

[1456] _Comptes Rendus_, xv. (1842) 923.

[1457] Beautifully delineated by Hanstein in the work referred to at p. 352, note 2; see also Trécul, _Ann. des Sciences nat. Bot._ v. (1866) 69; Dippel, _Entstehung der Milchsaftgefässe_, Rotterdam, 1865. tab. 1. fig. 17.

The drops of milky juice, when exposed to the air, quickly harden to small yellowish-brown masses, whitish within.

=Collection and Description=—Lactucarium has been especially collected since about the year 1845, in the neighbourhood of the small town of Zell on the Mosel between Coblenz and Trèves in Rhenish Prussia. The introduction of this industry is due to Mr. Goeris, apothecary of that place, to whom we are indebted for the following information, and for some further particulars, to Mr. Meurer of Zell.

The plant is grown in gardens, where it produces a stem only in its second year. In May just before it flowers, its stem is cut off at about a foot below the top, after which a transverse slice is taken off daily until September. The juice, which is pure white but readily becomes brown on the surface, is collected from the wounded top by the finger, and transferred to hemispherical earthen cups, in which it quickly hardens so that it can be turned out. It is then dried in the sunshine until it can be cut into four pieces, when the drying is completed by exposure to the air for some weeks on frames.

At Zell, 300 to 400 kilogrammes (661 to 882 lb.) of lactucarium are annually produced; the whole district furnishes at best but 20 quintals annually. The price the drug fetches on the spot varies from 4 to 10 thalers per kilogramme (about 6_s._ to 14_s._ per lb.) In the Eifel district, where lactucarium was formerly collected, none is now produced.

As found in trade, German lactucarium consists of angular pieces formed as already described, but rendered more or less shrunken and irregular by loss of moisture and by fracture. Externally they are of a dull reddish-brown, internally opaque and wax-like, and when recent, of a creamy white. By exposure to the air, this white becomes yellow and then brown. Lactucarium has a strong unpleasant odour, suggestive of opium, and a very bitter taste.

The lactucarium produced by Aubergier of Clermont-Ferrand is of excellent quality, but does not appear to differ from that obtained on the Mosel, except that it is in circular cakes about 1½ inches in diameter, instead of in angular lumps.

Scotch lactucarium, which was formerly the only sort found in the market, is still (1872) met with. Mr. Fairgrieve, who produces it in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, collects the juice into little tin vessels, in which it quickly thickens; it is then turned out and dried with a gentle heat, the drug being broken up as the process of drying goes on. It is thus obtained in irregular earthy-looking lumps of a deep brown hue, of which the larger may be about an inch in length. In smell, it exactly resembles the drug collected on the Continent.[1458]

[1458] We are indebted to Mr. H. C. Baildon for a specimen of Scotch lactucarium collected about the year 1844, and to Messrs. T. and H. Smith for a sample of Mr. Fairgrieve’s article.

We have also before us Austrian lactucarium, prepared at Waidhofen on the Thaya, where about 35 kilogrammes are annually produced. It is in fine tears of vigorous smell.

We are unacquainted with Russian lactucarium, which has been quoted at a very high price in some continental lists.

=Chemical Composition=—Lactucarium is a mixture of very different organic substances, together with 8 to 10 per cent. of inorganic matter. It is not completely taken up by any solvent, and when heated merely softens but does not melt. Nearly half the weight of lactucarium consists of a substance called _Lactucerin_ or _Lactucon_, which in our opinion is closely allied to if not identical with similar substances occurring in numerous milky juices. Lactucerin as afforded by the drug under examination is probably a mixture of several bodies. It may be obtained by exhausting lactucarium with boiling alcohol sp. gr. 0·830; it is deposited in crystals, which when duly purified have the form of slender colourless, microscopic needles. Lactucerin is an inodorous, tasteless substance, insoluble in water, but dissolving in ether and in oils both fixed and volatile, not quite so readily either in benzol, or in bisulphide of carbon. We found it to melt at 232° C. and to agree with the formula C₁₉H₃₀O; Franchimont (1879) assigns to it the formula C₁₄H₂₄O, melting point 296°.

Euphorbon (see Euphorbium), echicerin (see Cortex Alstoniæ), taraxacerin (p. 394), the cynanchol, C₁₅H₂₄O, extracted in 1875 by Buttleroff from _Cynanchum acutum_ L., are remarkably analogous to lactucerin.

In the lactucarium of Zell, we further met with a large amount of a substance which is readily soluble in bisulphide of carbon. It is an amorphous mass, melting below 100°, separating from alcohol as a syrupy mass.

Cold alcohol, as well as boiling water, takes out of lactucarium about 0·3 per cent. of a crystallizable bitter substance, _Lactucin_, C₁₁H₁₂O₃H₂O, which although it reduces alkaline cupric tartrate, is not a glucoside. It may be best obtained by means of dialyse. Lactucin forms white pearly scales, readily soluble in acetic acid, but insoluble in ether. It loses its bitterness when treated with an alkali.

From the mother-liquors that have yielded lactucin, Ludwig, in 1847, obtained _Lactucic Acid_, as an amorphous light yellow mass, becoming crystalline after long standing. Lastly lactucarium has further afforded in small quantity an amorphous substance named _Lactucopicrin_, C₄₄H₆₄O₂₁, apparently produced from lactucin by oxidation; it is stated by Kromayer (1862) to be soluble in water or alcohol, and to be very bitter.

Of the widely diffused constituents of plants, lactucarium contains caoutchouc (40-50 per cent.), gum, oxalic, citric, malic and succinic acids, sugar, mannite, and asparagin, together with potassium, calcium and magnesium salts of nitric and phosphoric acids. We obtained crystals of nitrate of potassium by concentrating the aqueous decoction of lactucarium. On distillation with water, a volatile oil having the odour of lactucarium passes over in very small quantity.

=Uses=—The soporific powers universally ascribed in ancient times to the lettuce are supposed to exist in a concentrated form in lactucarium. Yet numerous experiments have failed to show that this substance possesses more than very slight sedative properties, if indeed it is not absolutely inert.[1459]

LOBELIACEÆ.

HERBA LOBELIÆ.

_Lobelia_, _Indian Tobacco_; F. _Lobelie enflée_; G. _Lobeliakraut_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Lobelia inflata_ L., an annual herb, 9 to 18 inches high, with an angular upright stem, simple or more frequently branching near the top, widely diffused throughout the eastern part of North America from Canada to the Mississippi, growing in neglected fields, along roadsides, and on the edges of woods, and thriving well in European gardens.

=History=—_Lobelia inflata_ was described and figured by Linnæus[1460] from specimens cultivated by him at Upsala about 1741, but he does not attribute to the plant any medicinal virtues.

The aborigines of North America made use of the herb, which from this circumstance and its acrid taste, came to be called _Indian Tobacco_. In Europe it was noticed by Schöpf,[1461] but with little appreciation of its powers. In America it has long been in the hands of quack doctors, but its value in asthma was set forth by Cutler in 1813. It was not employed in England until about 1829, when, with several other remedies, it was introduced to the medical profession by Reece.[1462]

=Description=—The leaves are 1 to 3 inches long, scattered, sessile, ovate-lanceolate, rather acute, obscurely toothed, somewhat pubescent. The edge of the leaf bears small whitish glands, and between them isolated hairs which are more frequent on the under than on the upper surface. They are usually in greater abundance on the lower and middle portions of the stem.

The stem of the growing plant exudes when wounded a small quantity of acrid milky juice, contained in laticiferous vessels running also into the leaves. The inconspicuous blossoms are arranged in a many-flowered, terminal, leafy raceme. The five-cleft, bilabiate corolla is bluish with a yellow spot on the under lip, its tube being as long as the somewhat divergent limb of the calyx.

The capsule is ovoid, inflated, ten-ribbed, crowned by five elongated sepals which are half as long as the ripe fruit. The latter is two-celled, and contains a large number of ovate-oblong seeds about ¹/₅₀ of an inch in length, having a reticulated, pitted surface.

The herb found in commerce is in the form of rectangular cakes, 1 to 1¾ inches thick, consisting of the yellowish-green chopped herb, compressed as it would seem while still moist, and afterwards neatly trimmed. The cakes arrive wrapped in paper, sealed up and bearing the label of some American druggist or herb-grower.

[1459] Stillé, _Therapeutics and Mat. Med._ i. (1868) 756. Garrod (_Med. Times and Gazette_, 26 March, 1864), gave lactucarium in drachm doses, repeated 3 or 4 times a day, without being able to perceive that it had any effect either as an anodyne or hypnotic.

[1460] _Acta Soc. Reg. Scient. Upsal._ 1746. 23.

[1461] _Mat. Med. Americana_, Erlangæ, 1787. 128.

[1462] _Treatise on the Bladder-podded Lobelia_, Lond. 1829.

Lobelia has a herby smell and, after being chewed, a burning acrid taste resembling that of tobacco.

=Chemical Composition=—Lobelia has been examined by Procter, Pereira (1842), Reinsch (1843), Bastick (1851), also by F. F. Mayer.[1463] The first-named chemist[1464] traced the activity of the plant to an alkaloid which he termed _Lobelina_, and his observations were confirmed by the independent experiments of Bastick.[1465] Lewis (1878) obtained it by mixing the drug with charcoal and exhausting the powder with water containing a little acetic acid. The liquid is cautiously evaporated to the consistency of an extract and triturated with magnesia, from the excess of which the aqueous solution of lobeline is separated by filtration. It is agitated with amylic alcohol (or ether), which by spontaneous evaporation affords the alkaloid. The latter is again dissolved in water and filtered through animal charcoal; from the dried powder lobeline is to be removed by ether.

Lobeline is an oily, yellowish fluid with a strong alkaline reaction, especially when in solution. In the pure state it smells slightly of the plant, but more strongly when mixed with ammonia. Its taste is pungent and tobacco-like, and when taken in minute doses, it exercises in a potent manner the poisonous action of the drug. Lobeline is to some extent volatile, but its decomposition begins when it is heated to 100° C. either pure or in presence of dilute acids or caustic alkalis. Lobeline dissolves in water, but more readily in alcohol or ether, the latter of which is capable of removing it from its aqueous solution. It neutralizes acids, forming with some of them crystallizable salts, soluble in water or alcohol.

The herb likewise contains traces of essential oil (the _Lobelianin_ of Pereira?), resin and gum. The seeds afforded Procter about 30 per cent. of fixed oil, sp. gr. 0·940, which was found to dry very rapidly. The _Lobeliin_ of Reinsch appears to be an indefinite compound.

In 1871 Enders at our request performed some researches on Lobelia in order to isolate the acrid substance to which the herb owes its taste. He exhausted the drug with spirit of wine and distilled the liquid in presence of charcoal, which then retained the acrid principle. The charcoal was washed with water, and then treated with boiling alcohol. This on evaporation yielded a green extract, which was further purified by means of chloroform. Warty tufts were thus finally obtained, yet always of a brownish colour. The tufts are readily soluble in ether and chloroform, but only slightly in water; they possess the acrid taste of lobelia. This substance, which we may term _Lobelacrin_, is decomposed if merely boiled with water; by the influence of alkalis or acids it is resolved into sugar and _Lobelic Acid_. The latter is soluble in ether, water, and alcohol, and is non-volatile; it yields a soluble salt with baryum oxide, whereas its plumbic salt is insoluble in water.

[1463] _American Journ. of Pharm._ xxxvii. (1866) 209; also _Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers and Husemann, 1866. 252.

[1464] _Am. Journ. of Pharm._ iii. (1838) 98; vii. (1841) 1; _Pharm. Journ._ x. (1851) 456.

[1465] _Pharm. Journ._ x. (1851) 270.

Lewis suggests that lobelacrin is nothing else than _lobeliate of lobeline_, which he believes to exist ready formed in the plant. From a decoction of the drug, on addition of sulphate of copper, lobeliate of copper is precipitated. By decomposing the latter with sulphuretted hydrogen, concentrating the solution and shaking it with warm ether, Lewis obtained a yellow solution affording on evaporation a crystalline mass of lobelic acid.

=Uses=—Lobelia is a powerful nauseating emetic; in large doses an acro-narcotic poison. It is prescribed in spasmodic asthma.

ERICACEÆ.

FOLIA UVÆ URSI.

_Bearberry Leaves_; F. _Feuilles de Busserole_; G. _Bärentraubenblätter_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi_ Sprengel (_A. officinalis_ Wimmer et Grabowsky, _Arbutus Uva-ursi_ L.), a small, procumbent, evergreen shrub, distributed over the greater part of the northern hemisphere. It occurs in North America, Iceland, Northern Europe, and Russian Asia, and on the chief mountain chains of Central and Southern Europe. In Britain it is confined to Scotland, the north of England, and Ireland.

=History=—The bearberry was used in the 13th century by the Welsh “Physicians of Myddfai,” described by Clusius in 1601, and recommended for medicinal use in 1763 by Gerhard of Berlin and others.[1466] It had a place in the London Pharmacopœia for the first time in 1788.

=Description=—The leaves are dark green, ¾ to 1 inch in length by ²/₈ to ⅜ of an inch in breadth, obovate, rounded at the end, gradually narrowed into a short petiole. They are entire, with the margin a little reflexed, and in the young state slightly pubescent, otherwise the whole leaf is smooth, glabrous, and coriaceous; the upper surface shining, deeply impressed with a network of veins; the under minutely reticulated with dark veins.[1467] The leaves have a very astringent taste, and when powdered a tea-like smell.

=Chemical Composition=—Kawalier (1852) has shown that a decoction of bearberry treated with basic acetate of lead yields a gallate of that metal, thus proving that gallic acid exists ready-formed in the leaves. When the filtrate, freed from lead by sulphuretted hydrogen, is properly concentrated, it deposits acicular crystals of _Arbutin_, a bitter neutral substance, easily soluble in hot water, less so in cold, dissolving in alcohol, but sparingly in ether.

By contact for some days with emuslin, or by boiling with dilute sulphuric acid, arbutin is resolved, according to Hlasiwetz and Habermann (1875), as follows:—

C₂₅H₃₄O₁₄ + 2 OH₂ = C₆H₁₂O₆ · C₆H₄(OH)₂ · C₆H₄(OH·OCH₃) Arbutin. Glucose. Hydrokinone. Methyl-hydrokinone.

Yet possibly arbutin is a mixture of the glucoside compounds of both hydrokinone and methyl-hydrokinone.

[1466] Murray, _Apparatus Medicaminum_, ii. (1794) 64-81.

[1467] Microscopic structure of the leaves, see Pocklington, _Pharm. Journ._ v. (1874) 301.

By heating arbutin with peroxide of manganese and dilute sulphuric acid, on the other hand, _Kinone_, C₆H₄O₂, and formic acid are produced. If a concentrated decoction of the leaves is allowed to stand for some months, a decomposition of the arbutin takes place, and a certain quantity of hydrokinone can be isolated by shaking the liquid with ether.

Arbutin is apparently widely distributed among the plants belonging to the order Ericaceæ. Maisch in 1874 showed it to occur in _Arctostaphylos glauca_ Swindley, _Gaultheria procumbens_ L. (Wintergreen) and several other allied American plants. Kennedy (1875) isolated arbutin from _Kalmia latifolia_ L. (Spoonwood), where it occurs in smaller quantity than in bearberry leaves.

Kinic acid (see p. 363) is probably absent in all these plants containing arbutin.

Uloth (1859) had already noticed pyrocatechin (p. 244) and hydrokinone among the products of the distillation of an aqueous extract of bearberry leaves. Arbutin itself also yields hydrokinone by means of dry distillation. Hydrokinone forms colourless crystals, melting at 169° C.

In the mother-liquor from which the arbutin has crystallized, there remains a small quantity of the very bitter substance called _Ericolin_, occurring in greater abundance in Calluna, Ledum, Rhododendron, and other _Ericaceæ_. _Ericolin_ is an amorphous yellowish mass, softening at 100° C. and resolved, when heated with dilute sulphuric acid, into sugar and _Ericinol_, a colourless, quickly resinifying oil of a peculiar, not disagreeable odour; its composition[1468] agrees with the formula C₁₀H₁₆O. The same, or C₂₀H₃₂O₂, is to be assigned to _Ursone_, which H. Trommsdorff, in 1854, obtained from bearberry leaves by exhausting them with ether (in which however it is but slightly soluble). Ursone is a colourless and tasteless crystallizable substance. It melts at 200° C., and sublimes apparently unchanged. Tonner (1866) met with it in the leaves of an Australian _Epacris_, a plant of the same order as the bearberry.

[1468] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xvi. (1864). 28.

Lastly, tannic acid is present in the leaves under notice; their aqueous infusion is nearly colourless, but assumes a violet hue on addition of ferrous sulphate. After a short time a reddish precipitate is produced, which quickly turns blue. By using ferric chloride, a bluish black precipitate immediately separates.

=Adulteration=—The leaves of _Vaccinium Vitis-idæa_ L., called _Red Whortleberry_ or _Cowberry_, have been confounded with those of bearberry, which in form they much resemble. But they are easily distinguished by being somewhat crenate towards the apex, dotted and reticulate on the under surface and more revolate at the margin.

=Uses=—An astringent tonic used chiefly in affections of the bladder.

EBENACEÆ.

FRUCTUS DIOSPYRI.

_Indian Persimmon._

=Botanical Origin=—_Diospyros Embryopteris_ Pers. (_Embryopteris glutinifera_ Roxb.), a middle-sized or large evergreen tree, native of the western coast of India, Ceylon, Bengal, Burma, Siam, and also Java.[1469]

=History=—The tree, which is mentioned in the earliest epic poems of the Sanskrit literature under the name of _tinduka_,[1470] was also known about the year 1680 to Rheede, and was figured in his _Hortus Malabaricus_.[1471] The circumstance that the unripe fruit abounds in an astringent viscid juice which is used by the natives of India for daubing the bottoms of boats, was communicated by Sir William Jones to Roxburgh in 1791. The introduction of the fruit into medicine, which is due to O’Shaughnessy,[1472] has been followed by its admission to the _Pharmacopœia of India_, 1868.

=Description=—The fruit is usually solitary, subsessile or pedunculate, globular or ovoid, 1½ to 2 inches long, and as much as 1½ inch in diameter, surrounded at the base by a large and deeply 4-lobed calyx. It is of a yellowish colour, covered with a rusty tomentum; internally it is pulpy, 6-to 10-celled, with thin flat solitary seeds. The fruit is used only in the unripe and fresh state; the pulp is then excessively astringent. At maturity, in the month of April near Bombay, the fruit becomes eatable, but is very little appreciated.

=Chemical Composition=—No analysis has been made of this fruit, but there can be no doubt that in common with that of other species of _Diospyros_, it is, when immature, rich in tannic acid. Charropin (1873),[1473] who has examined the fruit of the American _D. virginiana_ L., found it to contain a tannic acid which he considered identical with that of nutgalls, besides an abundance of pectin, glucose, and a yellow colouring matter insoluble in water but dissolving freely in ether.

=Uses=—The inspissated juice has been recommended as an astringent in diarrhœa and chronic dysentery.

[1469] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_,