A gum-resin obtained from Dorema Ammoniacum Don (nat. ord. Umbelliferiae).

Habitat

Eastern Persia and Turkestan.

Characters

In roundish tears, from 2 to 6 mm. or more in diameter; externally pale yellowish-brown, internally milk-white, brittle when cold, and breaking with a flat, conchoidal, and waxy fracture; or the tears are superficially united into irregular masses without any intervening, dark-colored substance. It has a peculiar odor, and a bitter, acrid and nauseous taste. Resembling Ammoniacum. - Asafoetida, Galbanum, Benzoin, known by their odor.

Composition

The chief ingredients are - (1) Volatile oil, 10 per cent. (2) Resin, 70 per cent (3) Gum, 20 per cent.

Dose, 5 to 30 gr.; .30 to 2.00 gm.

Preparations

1. Emplastrum Ammoniaci cum Hydrargyro. - See Mercury, p. 210.

2. Emulsum Ammoniaci. - Emulsion of Ammoniac. Ammoniac, 40; water added gradually to 1000.. It forms a milk-like emulsion.

Dose, 1/2 to 1 fl. oz.; 15. to 30. c.c.

Action And Therapeutics Of Ammoniacum

The action of ammoniacum is precisely the same as that of volatile oils generally. It is employed externally to aid, by its mildly irritating effects, the absorption of chronic inflammatory products, and internally in chronic bronchitis with offensive expectoration for the sake of the remote disinfectant expectorant effect that it has, in the course of its excretion through the bronchial mucous membrane.