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.
From Calabar Bean.
This alkaloid is now obtained in a crystalline powder, turning red on exposure, little soluble in water; its salts are used {which see).
Eseridine is another alkaloid, white crystalline powder, with similar but weaker qualities.
Yellowish powder, soluble in water. Contracts pupil of eye, acting in the opposite way to Atropine and Hyoscyamine. Dose, 1/100 to 1/20 grain. The Hydrochlorate, Nitrate, and Tartrate are used also in similar doses.
Colourless, shining, needle-shaped crystals, soluble in warm water and absolute alcohol. Similar use and dose to the above. In Pharm. Germ., 1882. A solution of 1 per cent, works well in contracting the pupil of the eye: dose, 1/100 grain, very cautiously increased.
Brazils, Mexico, and Algeria. N. 0. Phytolaccaceæ. Fleshy, greenish clusters of sweet edible berries; little used.
Poke Root. N. America.
Root and berries; a cleansing alterative. In diphtheria, reported to have a specific effect on thyroid and parotid glands of the throat. It has a reputation in the United States in chronic rheumatism. Dose of fluid ext., 10 to 30 minims. Phytolaccin, a hepatic stimulant; dose, 1 to 3 grains.
Nectandra Puchury. Sassafras Nuts. S. America. N. 0. Lauracea.
Aromatic from presence of a volatile oil: these cotyledons are used to flavour chocolate, etc.
C12 H140 though formula uncertain. From the seeds of Anamirta paniculata. (Menispermum Cocculus. Cocculus indicus.) N. 0. Menisper-mace<e. In the 1890 additions to B. P.
White shining needle-shaped crystals, neutral, odourless, very bitter. Soluble in hot water and alcohol. For Epilepsy, night-sweating, and spinal irritation. Dose, 1/150 to 1/50 grain.
Abies Canadensis. Hemlock Spruce. N. America. N. 0. Coniferæ.
The Hemlock Spruce is one of the great timber trees of N. America.
Chaeacteeistics. The bark is both flat and in quill, with terebinthinate odour. Between the thin, dark (often absent) greyish outer, and the thick, pale brown inner bark, is a purple layer, well developed in old, slab-like flat bark.
TheRapeutics. The inner bark is a strong astringent, and the fluid extract, diluted, is used as an injection in leucorrhoea. Dose fluid ext., 1 to 2 fluid drachms. Its volatile oil acts on the uterus like savine.
 
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