Ignatia. The seed of Strychnos Ignatii Bergius (Nat. Ord. Loganiaceae). St. Ignatius's bean; Féve de Saint-Ignace, Fr.; Ignazbohnen, Ger. (Not official.)

Tinctura Ignatiae

Tincture of ignatia (10 parts of ignatia to 10C parts of menstruum). Dose, τη ij—τη x.

Composition

Ignatia has the same composition as nux-vomica, but yields relatively larger proportions of the alkaloids strychnine and brucine. These principles exist in the bean in combination with iga-suric acid. Formerly, the bean of St. Ignatius was the principal source of commercial strychnine, but the abundance and low price of nux-vomica now compensate for the difference in strength. The preparations of ignatia are stronger than the corresponding ones of nux-vomica.

Antagonists, Incompatibles, and Synergists are the same as for nux-vomica.

Actions and Uses

Ignatia, containing the same principles as nux-vomica, must have the same physiological actions and corresponding therapeutical properties.

The tincture of ignatia, the most useful preparation, has a powerful and persistent bitter taste, and, in common with bitters, has the effect known as stomachic tonic. It is a very effective stimulant of the gastric mucous membrane, promotes the flow of gastric juice, and hence increases the activity of the stomach digestion, and may therefore be used with advantage in atonic dyspepsia, and in the nausea and vomiting of gastric and cerebral anaemia. It is also often highly serviceable in the gastralgia of nervous women having impoverished blood. The migraine or sick-headache of such subjects, also, may be relieved by ignatia. It may be very useful in the various disturbances belonging to chronic gastric catarrh, but it is contraindicated in all acute inflammatory affections. It is in these stomachal affections more especially that ignatia is preferred to nux-vomica by many practitioners.

Ignatia affects the nervous system of animal life in the same way, but more energetically in the same dose, that nux-vomica does. It exalts in the same way the reflex function of the spinal cord, and similarly arrests respiration by a tetanic fixation of the respiratory muscles. It is, however, not used in affections of the nervous system, the alkaloid strychnine being now universally employed.