Pharmacographia / A history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin, met with in Great Britain and British India

RADIX INULÆ.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

SANTONICA.

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.

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.

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 alreadybeen 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.

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.

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

boiling at about 235°.

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.

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.

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]

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.

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.

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 6s. to 14s. 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]

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]