Materia medica and therapeutics : for physicians and students / by John B. Biddle.

  • Biddle, John B. (John Barclay), 1815-1879.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Materia medica and therapeutics : for physicians and students / by John B. Biddle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    100/572 (page 90)
    influence is, however, strikingly shown in certain deranged conditions of the nervous system, particularly in those forms of spasm which depend upon idiopathic or primary nervous disorder, and are known under the designation of hysteria. They are also useful in many varieties of mental disturbance, as wakefulness, hypochondriasis, and even insanity, and are often preferable to narcotics in the treatment of these cases, from their comparative freedom of action on the brain. They are all distinguished by a powerful odour. ASAFCETIDA—ASAFETIDA. Asafetida is a gum resin obtained from the root of Ferula Narthex and Ferula Scorodosma {Nat, Ord. Umbelliferae), and is derived from Southern Persia and Afghanistan. The plant has a long tapering root, the size of a man's leg, and an erect stem, from six to nine feet in height, rising from the midst of the leaves. It is thought by some botanists that the plant from which Persian asafetida is obtained is Scorodosma foeti- dum. The drug is obtained from incisions made into the root, or by taking successive slices of it. The exuded juice is scraped off, hardened in the sun, and afterwards packed for exportation. It occurs in masses of varying size, consistence, and colour, but is usually whitish, intermixed with darker spots, and becomes reddish, and finally brown, by exposure to the air. It is sometimes soft and adhesive, at other times hard and brittle, and is not readily powdered except at a low tem- perature. It breaks with a waxy lustre, and the best samples appear to be composed of irregularly-shaped tears. Its taste is unpleasant, bitter, and acrid; its odour powerful, alliaceous, and fetid. Asafetida is a gum-resin united to an alliaceous volatile oil. The gum is dissolved by water, and the mucilage thus formed suspends the resin and volatile oil. The resin and volatile oil are soluble in alcohol; but the tincture becomes milky on the addition of water, owing to the separation of the resin. The resin contains fendaic acid [C-^qYI-^qO^ and lunbelliferon (CgHgOg), and, when fused with potassa, yields resorcin. Physiological Effects.—Asafetida, when taken into the stomach,