This section is from the book "Materia Medica And Therapeutics - Vegetable Kingdom", by Charles D. F. Phillips. Also available from Amazon: Materia Medica And Therapeutics: Vegetable Kingdom.
Active Ingredients. - The virtues of pimento mainly reside in the pericarp and the seeds, from which are obtained two essential oils, one volatile and the other fixed. The former of these (oleum pimentos) constitutes about six per cent. of the dried berries, and is considered to possess all the active properties of oil of cloves; it is separated by distillation, and on it mainly depend the strong fragrance and the warm and aromatic flavor. The fixed oil is greenish, and has an acrid, burning taste, and a rancid, but somewhat clover-like odor.
Physiological Action. - Very little is known with regard to this, beyond the fact that pimento is an aromatic stimulant, stomachic, and carminative, and that it holds an intermediate place between pepper and cloves. Externally employed, it is a rubefacient.
Therapeutic Action. - Pimento is used as a condiment by persons suffering from exhaustion of the digestive system, and especially by those living in tropical regions. It relieves nausea, flatulency, and griping pains in the bowels. It increases the effects of vegetable tonics, and prevents the griping of purgatives; it is also used to cover the taste of nauseous medicines.
Preparations and Dose. - Pimenta, gr. v.-xxx. (.30 - 2.);
Oleum Pimentae, m i. - iij. (.05 - .15).
 
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