5. Flemin'Gia Rhodocar'Pa, Wars, Wurrus

Flemin'Gia Rhodocar'Pa, Wars, Wurrus. Ar. for saffron; Papil-ionaceae; E. Africa. This is a deep purple powder, coarser than kamala, consisting of cylindrical glands and long hairs, turning black in water, odor slight; contains flemingin (resembling rottlerin), 2 resins; used as vermifuge, in skin affections, as a dye. Many fruits, as Soria, Satze (Tatze), Embelia, etc., are employed as taeniafuges, in India, Abyssinia, etc., and also the bark of Albiz'zia (Acacia) Anthelmin'tica, usually known as Mesenna, Mussena, Busenna - the Abyssinian names for acacia bark.

6. Rhus' Gla'Bra, Sumach

Rhus' Gla'Bra, Sumach. Anacardiaceae. The dried fruit, official 1820-1910; N. America, barren, waste fields. Woody shrub 1.5-4.6 M. (5-15°) high; stem branched, pith large, wood white, bark smooth, grayish, warty; leaves imparipinnate, leaflets 11-31, lanceolate, acuminate, serrate, light green, whitish beneath, red in autumn; flowers terminal panicles, greenish-red. Fruit drupes, clusters of crimson berries, 3-4 Mm. (1/8-1/6') thick, glandular-tomentose, endocarp light yellow, smooth, shining; solvent: diluted alcohol; contains acid calcium and potassium malates, tannin (gallo-tannic acid) 2 p. c, gallic acid, coloring matter; galls - tannin 60-70 p. c. Astringent, refrigerant, diuretic; catarrh of stomach and bowels, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, mercurial aphthae, spongy gums, ulcers, wounds (wash). Dose, 3ss-l (2-4 Gm.); fluidextract (alcohol 50, water 40, glycerin 10), 3ss-l (2-4 Ml. (Cc.)); decoction and infusion, each 5 p. c, ℥j-2 (30-60 Ml. (Cc.)). R. aromat'ica, Fragrant {Sweet-scented) Sumach, 1.5-2.5 M. (5-8°) high; given in extract, fluidextract (alcoholic), tincture, and for haematuria, leucorrhoea, but mainly for incontinence of urine (enuresis). Dose, gr. 10-30 (.6-2 Gm.). R. copalli'na, Black, Dwarf, Mountain Sumach, 1-2.5 M. (3-8°) high; downy branches; leaflets entire; excels all in yield of tannin. R. hir'ta (typhi'na), Staghorn Sumach, 4.5-9 M. (15-30°) high; hairy; leaflets serrate. All three indigenous to N. America. R. Coria'ria, European Sumach, Mediterranean Basin; leaflets elliptic, woolly, serrate. R. semiala'ta and R. japon'ica, China, Japan; these furnish galls which are used in Germany largely for obtaining tannic and gallic acids (see page 153). The fruits of all these are red, hairy, and acidulous, while the leaves are astringent.

7. R. rad'icans, Rhus Toxicodendron, Poison Ivy. - The fresh leaflets, official 1830-1900; N. America. Climbing plant over fences, rocks, trees, etc.; flowers small; fruit smooth drupe. Leaflets, collected May-June, trifoliate, petiolate, entire, glabrous, the 2 lateral nearly sessile, 10 Cm. (4') long, obliquely ovate and pointed; when dry brittle, inodorous, astringent, when fresh with acrid juice blackening on exposure, applied to skin produces swelling, inflammation, etc. - hence should not handle ungloved or confound with the harmless Pte'lea trifolia'ta, Three-leaved Hoptree, whose leaflets are sessile, thicker, paler green; contains toxicodendrol 3.3 p. c, tannin, acetic acid (formerly considered toxicodendric acid); toxicodendrol, the active, irritating, poisonous principle, is a viscid, non-volatile oil (or freed fat acid, or complex glucoside), agreeably odorous, soluble in alcohol, benzene, ether, chloroform, decomposed by heat. Irritant, rubefacient, narcotic, poisonous; internally produces gastro-intestinal inflammation, vertigo, nausea, muscular debility, delirium, mydriasis, convulsions, death. Poisoning: The fresh leaves, juice or flying pollen produce external itching, burning, redness, tumefaction, vesication, desquamation, lasting 1-2 weeks. Apply at once soap and water with scrubbing-brush, lead water, alkaline solutions (sodium bicarbonate - 8 p. c. solution 3-4 times daily, sulphite, chlorinated, diluted ammonia, soapsuds, alum curd), tincture or infusion of lobelia, grindelia, or sassafras, cocaine solution 4-8 p. c. (to relieve burning

Fig. 245. - Rhus radicans: leaf one-half natural size.

and itching), aristol, glycerite of phenol, opium - no oils, vaselin, alcohol, these being solvents of poison serve to disseminate it, low diet, saline purgatives, quietness. Used in chronic eczema, skin diseases, erysipelas, rheumatism, incontinence of urine, etc. Dose, gr. 2-5-15 (•13 - .3 - 1 Gm.); tincture (fresh leaves bruised and macerated with equal weight of alcohol), e1/10-1 (.006-06 Ml. (Cc.)); juice (expressed from leaves and preserved with alcohol) is soluble in ether and possesses all the virtues of the plant; fluidextract, ev-30 (.3-2 Ml. (Cc.)). R. Toxicodendron, properly more or less shrubby, .6-1 M. (2-3°) high, erect, leaflets crenately lobed, pubescent, called also Poison Ivy

(Oak) - merely a variety of R. radicans. R. diversi'loba, Pacific coast; leaves with 3-5-lobed, pinnatifid leaflets. R. Ver'nix (venena'ta), Canada, United States, swamps, 3-6 M. (10-20°) high; leaves of 7-13 entire leaflets; fruit yellow; called poison-sumach, -dogwood, -elder, and yields most toxicodendrol. R. pu'mila, S. Carolina, procumbent shrub; leaves pinnate with 11 toothed acuminate leaflets; fruit red, hairy. All of these are poisonous, but R. Vernix the most so, as when in flower it so taints the surrounding air that sensitive persons become poisoned by simple exposure to the effluvium.