This section is from the book "Recent Materia Medica: Notes On Their Origin And Therapeutics", by F. Harwood Lescher. Also available from Amazon: Recent materia medica.
An organic base, discovered by Fownes, formed from Furfuramide, which is from Furfurol, C4 H3 0. COH, a product of the action of sulphuric acid on wheat bran. Its salts are crystallizable, and very bitter. Galium aparine. Cleavers or Goosegrass. Indigenous. N. 0. Rubiacece.
Has been brought into notice lately as a remedy for ulcers: in many cases we are going back to the old herbs. In America it is used as a diuretic in inflammation of bladder and kidneys. Dose of fluid extract, 1 to 2 drachms; solid extract, 5 to 15 grains.
Characteristics. Alkaloid of the root bark of Gelseminum, in combination with Gelsemic acid. White crystalline bitter powder, scarcely soluble in water, though its salts are so. A second alkaloid is amorphous.
Therapeutics. Febrifuge and Nervine, acting as above, on the dental nerves. Dose, 1/70 to 1/15 grain occasionally, not exceeding 1/5 grain in the day. The hydrochlorate, sulphate, and nitrate are similarly used. The sulphate is recommended in spermatic and neuralgic affections; also in controlling cardiac palpitations: dose, 1/60. to 1/20 grain. [The eclectic resinoid is also called Gelsemine: dose, 1/4 to 1/2 grain.]
Andira Inermis. Cabbage-bark tree. West Indies. N. 0. Zeguminosa;. The bark is a bitter febrifuge, and in large doses is a powerful purging anthelmintic, for lumbricoid worms. Dose, 1/2 drachm of powdered bark: 2 fluid drachms of tincture or decoction; 1 fluid drachm of fluid extract. G. Surinamensis (Andira retusa) is used in Holland, in the form of the dry extract of the bark, as a powerful vermifuge. [Its active principle is the alkaloid Geoffroyine.]
From Geranium maculatum. Cranesbill. N. 0. Geraniace
A resinoid prepared from the root of this plant. Astring diarrhoea, especially of children; dose, 1 to 5 grains.
 
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