The pharmacopoeia of the United States of America, 1850.

  • General Medical Convention.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pharmacopoeia of the United States of America, 1850. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    22/1902
    ABSINTHIUM. U.S. Wormwood. The tops and leaves of Artemisia Absinthium. U. S. Absinthe. Fr.; Gemeiner Wermuth, Germ.: Assenzio, Ital.; Artemisio Axenjo, Span. Artemisia. Sex. Syst. Syngenesia Superflua. — Nat. Ord. Composite Senecio- nideae. De Cand. Asteracese. Bindley. Gen. Ch. Receptacle sub-villous, or nearly naked. Seed-down none. Calyx imbricate, with roundish converging scales. Corollas of the ray none. WiUd. Several species of Artemisia have enjoyed some reputation as medicines. The leaves of A. Abrotanum, or southernwood, have a fragrant odour, and a warm, bitter, nauseous taste; and were formerly employed as a tonic, deobstruent, and anthel- mintic. Similar virtues have been ascribed to A. Santonica. A. pontica has been occasionally substituted for common wormwood, but is weaker. A. vulgaris, or mugwort, formerly enjoyed considerable reputation as an emmenagogue, and some years since came into notice, in consequence of the recommendation of its root in epilepsy by Dr. Burdach, of Germany. For this purpose it should be collected in autumn or early in the spring, and only the side roots dried for use. These should be powdered as they are wanted, the ligneous portion being rejected. The dose is about a drachm, to be administered in some warm vehicle in anticipation of the paroxysm, and to be repeated once or twice, at intervals of half an hour, till perspi- ration is produced, the patient being confined to bed. In the intervals, it may be given every second day. This is merely the revival of an old practice in Germany. Dr. Neumeister, of Arneburg, has used mugwort, in connection with assafetida, successfully in chorea. He adds a pound of the tops to a gallon of water, digests for three days, then strains, adds three ounces of assafetida, and gives a teacupful for a dose. The proportion of assafetida might be reduced to one-third, if well mixed. A. mdgaris of this country is thought by Nuttall to be a distinct species. A. hudoviciana, a native of the S. Western regions of the U. States, is thought, when applied to the head in the state of infusion, to favour the growth of the hair. (Maisch, Am. Journ. of Rharm., May, 1872, p. 106.) In China, moxa is said to be prepared from the leaves of Artemisia Chinensis and A. Indica. The medicine known in Europe by the name of wormseed, is the product of different species of Artemisia. The only species which requires particular description here is A. Absinthium. Artemisia Absinthium. Willd. Sp. Plant, iii. 1844; Woodv. Med. Bot. p. 54, t. 22. Wormwood is a perennial plant, with branching, round, and striated or furrowed stems, which rise two or three feet in height, and are panicled at their summit. The lower portion of the stem lives several years, and annually sends up herbaceous shoots, which perish in the winter. The radical leaves are triply pinnatifid, with lanceolate, obtuse, dentate divisions; those of the stem, doubly or simply pinnatifid, with lan- ceolate, somewhat acute divisions; the floral leaves are lanceolate; all are hoary. The flowers are of a brownish-yellow colour, hemispherical, pedicelled, nodding, and in erect racemes. The florets of the disk are numerous, those of the ray few. The plant is a native of Europe, where it is also cultivated. It is among our garden herbs, and has been naturalized in the mountainous districts of New England. The leaves and flowering summits are employed; the larger parts of the stalk being rejected. They should be gathered in July or August, when the plant is in flower. They preserve their peculiar sensible properties long when dried. Wormwood has a strong odour, and an intensely bitter, nauseous taste, which it imparts to water and alcohol. It yields by distillation a volatile oil (oleum absinthii), usually dark-green, sometimes yellow or brownish, having a strong odour of the plant, an acrid peculiar taste, and the sp. gr. 0-972. It is sometimes adulterated with alco- hol, oil of turpentine, &c., which lessen its specific gravity. The dried herb yields much more than the fresh. (Zeller.') The other constituents, according to Bracon- not, are a very bitter, and an almost insipid azotized matter, an excessively bitter resinous substance, chlorophyll, albumen, starch, saline matters, and lignin. The cold infusion becomes olive-green and turbid on the addition of sesquichloride of iron.