Nux Vomica. The seeds of Strychnos Nux Vomica. Nux vomica, or Koochla Tree; Lin. Syst., Pentandria monogynia; growing in the East Indies.

Strychnia. Strychnia, an alkaloid obtained from Nux Vomica.

Description of Nux vomica. The fruit is a round berry, like an orange, filled, when ripe, with a jelly-like pulp, and containing the seeds, which are round, flattened, and concavo-convex, from half an inch to an inch in diameter, very tough and horny, covered with a velvety down consisting of fine hairs; their colour is yellowish-grey, with no odour, but of an intensely bitter taste.

Prop. & Comp. Nux vomica contains two alkaloids, strychnia and urucia, united with a peculiar acid. Strychnia (C42 H22 N2 O4), crystallizes in four-sided prisms or octahedra; it requires about 1,000 parts of water to dissolve it, but communicates to it an intensely bitter taste; soluble in boiling rectified spirit, in ether and chloroform; it forms crystallizable salts with acids. Strychnia yields a colourless solution with pure sulphuric acid, which on the addition of bichromate of potash, acquires an intensely violet colour. It is not reddened by nitric acid. Brucia (C46 H26 N2 O8) crystallizes with eight equivalents of water; much more soluble in water, but less bitter than strychnia; soluble in alcohol; forms salts with acids; it is coloured red by nitric acid, but does not give the test with the bichromate of potash. Igasuric or Strych-nic acid is united with the alkaloids; its solution precipitates copper salts bright green; it can be crystallized. A third alkaloid, Igasuria, has been stated to exist in nux vomica, which is more soluble in water than strychnia or brucia: recently Schut-zenberger has asserted that many bases, allied to brucia in being reddened by nitric acid, are contained in the seeds of nux vomica; he detected them in the so-called Igasuria.

Off. Prep. - Of the Seeds of Nux Vomica. Extractum Nucis Vomicae. Extract of Nux Vomica. (Prepared by first softening the seeds by steam, reducing them to powder and subsequently macerating in rectified spirit and evaporating to a proper consistence.)

Tinctuba Nucis Vomicae. Tincture of Nux Vomica. (Nux vomica, two ounces; rectified spirit, twenty fluid ounces. Prepared by maceration and percolation.) [U. S. Two pints of tincture are prepared by digestion and percolation from eight troy ounces of nux vomica.]

Of the Alkaloid Strychnia.

Liquor Strychniae. Solution of Strychnia. [Not officinal in U. S. P.] (Strychnia, four grains; dilute hydrochloric acid, six min.; rectified spirit, two fluid drachms; distilled water, six fluid drachms.) A solution of strychnia in rectified spirit and water, slightly acidulated with hydrochloric acid; one grain of strychnia is contained in two fluid drachms.

Strychnia is prepared by the following process. Nux vomica is reduced to powder; this is accomplished by submitting it to steam, and then drying in a vapour bath or hot air chamber, and grinding it in a coffee mill. The powder is digested with a gentle heat in spirit and water, the spirit distilled off, and a solution of acetate of lead added, by which the colouring matters, etc, are precipitated. The precipitate is separated by filtration, and to the filtered liquid ammonia is added in slight excess; it is allowed to stand for twelve hours, and then the precipitate is collected on a filter, washed and dried. The dried product is boiled in rectified spirit till the fluid ceases to taste bitter, the greater part of the spirit distilled off, and the liquid evaporated to a small bulk and set aside to cool. The yellowish mother liquor is poured off from the white crust of strychnia, the white crust thrown on a filter and washed with two parts of rectified spirit and one of water, till the washings no longer become red with nitric acid. The strychnia is finally dissolved by boiling in rectified spirit, and the solution set aside to crystallize.

Therapeutics. Nux vomica is a powerful stimulant to the spinal cord, causing, in large doses, twitching of the muscles, followed by tetanic rigidity and death from asphyxia; paralysed parts are more readily affected than sound ones. It acts also as a bitter stomachic, and in some forms of dyspepsia, as in pyrosis, often relieves; its chief use, however, is in the treatment of paralysis, more especially when depending on lead poisoning, or in other forms of local paralysis; sometimes, however, it is employed in paraplegia, and even in hemiplegia, when all inflammatory symptoms have subsided. The alkaloid strychnia acts exactly in the same manner as the nux vomica, of which it is the active ingredient; it should be given with great caution. Brucia is almost inert; from the author's experience it does not, when pure, produce any of the effects of strychnia, even in large doses; perhaps it is tonic and antiperiodic.

Dose. Of powdered nux vomica, 1 gr. to 3 gr.; of the extract, 1/4 gr. to 2 gr.*; of the tincture, 10 min. to 30 min.; [5 min to 10 min. U. S.] of strychnia, 1/32 to 1/8 gr. or 1/4 gr. cautiously increased; of the solution, 5 min. to 15 min. or more.

Adulteration of strychnia. The presence of brucia, in varying, sometimes large, quantities, rendering the alkaloid much less powerful; detected by the red colour produced by nitric acid. The bark of strychnos nux vomica contains the same alkaloids as the seeds; it is known as False Angustura Bark, being sometimes employed to adulterate the true Angustura Bark; for the method of distinguishing this adulteration, vide Cusparia.

Falba Sancti Ignatii. [Ignatia. U. S.] St. Ignatius' Bean. The seed of the Strychnos Ignatii; Lin. Syst., Pentandria monogynia; inhabiting the Philippine Islands. (Not officinal.)

[Extractum Ignatiae Alcoholicum. Alcoholic Extract of Ignatia. U. S. A tincture is obtained by percolation and evaporated to form an extract.]

Description. The seeds are of a brown colour, semitransparent, of a tough horny texture; convex on one side; somewhat triangular, with irregular facets on the other.

Prop. & Comp. These beans are remarkable for the large proportion of /Strychnia they contain, the quantity being greater than that yielded by the nux vomica seeds. They yield about 1.2 per cent. of the alkaloid, and their activity is due to the presence of this substance. An extract has been made from them, which is thought by some to differ in its properties from that of nux vomica, but there can be no doubt the difference is in degree only, strychnia being the active ingredient.

* Two grains of good extract of nux vomica is a very large dose. More than half a grain can not commonly be given without risk of producing unpleasant symptoms. - Ed.

[Dose of the extract 1/4 of a gr. carefully increased.]