An introduction to the study of materia medica : being a short account of the more important crude drugs of vegetable and animal origin designed for students of pharmacy and medicine / by Henry G. Greenish.

  • Greenish, Henry G. (Henry George), 1855-1933.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the study of materia medica : being a short account of the more important crude drugs of vegetable and animal origin designed for students of pharmacy and medicine / by Henry G. Greenish. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lUTTKR ALMONDS 140 .^•c, not only in the seed, but also in tlic youiif,' shoots and flowt'r-buds. Aniyf,'dalin is closely allied to, hut not identical with, lauro cerasin! and is also distinct from a similar glucoside that occui-s in the hark of Pruniis serutina, Ehrh. Uses.—J^itter almonds are sedative, but as the poisonous hydrocyanic acid yielded by them varies in quantity they are unreliable. They are also employed for flavonrinf(, but they should for a similar reason be used with caution. STROPHANTHUS SEEDS (Semina Stroplianthi) Source &c.—The official strophanthus seeds are obtained from Strophanthus Koiiihe, Oliver (N.O. ApocynacccB), a climb- ing plant of considerable size, indigenous to eastern tropical Africa, notably the valley of the Shire river, the Nyanza district, and the Kombe country. An extract prepared from them (and possibly other species of strophanthus) is used in Africa as an arrow j)oison, specimens of which were sent to England in 1861-64 and recognised by Sharpey (1862) to contain a cardiac poison. The seeds were examined by Eraser (1885), who isolated the active principle strophanthin, and subsequently recommended the seeds as a substitute for fox- glove. The fruit of the plant consists of two follicles about \-l inches in length and 1 inch in breadth, sHghtly narrowed at the base and tapering at the apex. Each foUicle contains, closely packed together, a large number of seeds provided with long awns. The fruits are collected when ripe, and are sometimes exported after having been freed from their epicarp and fleshy mesocarp. More commonly the seeds, separated from the fruits and deprived of their awns, are sent into commerce, beinij exported chiefly from Somba, Quilimane, Inhambane. and other east African ports. Description.—These very beautiful seeds are remarkal)le for the long plumose awn of white silky hairs that is attached to them. The integuments of the seed are prolonged at the apex to a slender brittle extension, which is terminated bv a handsome feathery tuft of hairs about '2 inches long and L