Origin

it is the fruit of Daucus Carota, or the common wild carrot of Europe and this country, which is designated by the name at the head of this article. The plant is biennial, herbaceous, and umbelliferous, and botanically identical with the carrot of the gardens, which differs from it only by cultivation. Tho whole umbels of the plant are usually gathered, and kept with the fruit attached in the shops.

Properties

The fruits, commonly called seeds, of the wild carrot are small, oval, flat on one side and convex on the other, and characterized by having, on their convex surface, four longitudinal ridges to which stiff hairs or bristles are attached. They are very light, brownish, of an agreeable aromatic odour, and a warm, pungent, bitterish taste. These properties, as well as their medical virtues, belong to a volatile oil, which may be separated by distillation with water. They yield their virtues to boiling water.

The root of the wild carrot is whitish, hard, coriaceous, of a strong aromatic odour, and a disagreeable, acrid taste. its activity probably depends on a volatile oil, and it may be used for the same purposes as the fruit.

Medical Effects and Uses

The wild carrot is a gentle stimulant and carminative, analogous to the aromatics in its properties, but superadding a peculiar tendency to the kidneys, the secretion of which it promotes. it is used chiefly as an adjuvant to stronger diuretics, particularly the saline, when the stomach is enfeebled; and by its stomachic properties serves to obviate the depressing effects of these medicines. it is applicable under similar circumstances with the juniper berries, and may be substituted for them, in the form of infusion, as a vehicle for cream of tartar, when more agreeable to the patient, or better received by the stomach. it is also used in chronic nephritic diseases, in which it operates, like the oil of turpentine, by coming into contact with the diseased surfaces through the urine, and stimulating or acting as an alterative upon them. The dose of the seeds, in powder or bruised, is half a drachm or a drachm. But the medicine is more commonly given in infusion, prepared by macerating half an ounce in a pint of boiling water, the whole of which may be taken during the day.

I have thus briefly described as many of these secondary diuretics as seem to require particular notice. Many other medicines possess also more or less of the diuretic property, for which they have been occasionally used.

The root of our indigenous indian hemp, or Apocynum Cannabinum, has emetic, cathartic, and diuretic properties, which are said to have rendered it useful in dropsy.

Cahinca, the root of Chiococca racemosa and other species of the same genus, Brazilian plants, has very similar properties, which a few years since gave it a short-lived reputation in the treatment of dropsy and other diseases; but it is scarcely in use at present.

The roots, tops of the young shoots, and unripe fruit of Asparagus officinalis, or common garden asparagus, have gentle diuretic properties, for which they have sometimes been used with relief, in cases of cardiac disease with effusion.

The reader will find the above medicines more fully described in the U. S. Dispensatory. There are others, described elsewhere in this work, which, uniting diuretic powers with those on account of which they are generally used, may sometimes be employed incidentally as diuretics with advantage. Such are pipsissewa or chimaphila (i. 133), tobacco (II. 125), and colchicum (II. 419), for an account of which the reader may consult the several articles under these names.

There are yet two divisions of diuretics undescribed, which, from their peculiarity of character, could not be thrown indiscriminately with the others, and will be most conveniently considered in separate groups. These are the refrigerant and stimulating diuretics.