MALE FERN,
577
Hie presence of starch, particles of which may be recognized by the'Microscope. In a transverse section of the rhizome we observe five ors 'x or more bundles of woody fibres and scalariform ducts. These bundlesare arranged in a circle, are of a reddish white colour in the recent rhi-2 °me, but yellow in the dried one.
The dried root has a feeble, earthy, somewhat disagreeable odour.Its taste is at first sweetish, then bitter astringent, and subsequentlyNauseous, like rancid fat.
Collection. —The rhizome should be collected in the month of July,■August, or September. The black portions, fibres, and scales, are to bere moved, and the sound parts carefully dried and reduced to powder:this is of a yellowish colour, and is to be preserved in well-stopperedtattles. Both the whole rhizome and powder deteriorate by keeping.
Composition.— Fern rhizome was analysed in 1805 by Vauquelin^nn. Chim. lv. 31), in 1821 by Gebhard (Diss. inaug. in Pfaff’s Syst. d.Wat. Med. 7" Bd. 219), in 1824 by Morin ( Journ. de Pharm. x. 223', inl%26 by Wackenroder (Be Anthelm. regni Vegetab.), and by Geigeryfandb. d. Pharm. 1829). Subjoined are the results of the analyses oft* e iger and of Morin:—
Geiger.
Green fat oil ....
■-resin.
Uncrystallizable sugar )Easily oxidizable tannin (Gum and salts, with sugarand tannin ....Ligneous fibre and starch
6-9
41
22’9
9-850 3
1000
Th,
Morin.
Volatile oil.
Fixed oil (stearin and olein).
Tannin.
Gallic and acetic acids.
Uncrystallizable sugar.
Gelatinous matter, insoluble in water
Ligneous fibre.
Ashes (carbonate, sulphate, and hy-drochlorate of potash, carbonate andphosphate of lime, alumina, silica,and oxide of iron).
ne anthelmintic property of the rhizome resides in the oil ( oleum filicislp r ^ s )- Batso (Inaug. Diss. 1826, quoted in Goebel and Kunze’s Pharm.. Qarenk.) found a peculiar acid ( acidum filiceum) and an alkali ( filicina)'•j'e rhizome.
c Characteristics. —The presence of tannic acid in the aqueous de-j c hon of fern rhizome is shown by the sesquisalts of iron producing a^ rlc green colour (tannate of iron), and by a solution of gelatin causingYellowish precipitate ( tannate of gelatin). No indication of the pre-Ce of a vegetable alkali in the decoction, can be obtained by tinctureVi' Ut ?alls. the rhizome be digested in alcohol, and afterwards^ ,} e d in water, the decoction when cold forms, with a solution of iodine,J n gy blue precipitate ( iodide of starch).
Y s i° l°gt t; A l Effects. —These are not very obvious ; but they are,
astringents.
Large doses
tjj : M ' 0l y, similar to those caused by othernausea and vomiting.
Hi} SEs '—If I s on ly employed as an anthelmintic. Theophrastus , Diosco-ti^’ Pliny, and Galen, used it as such. The attention of modern prac-l^i 11618 has been directed to it principally from the circumstance of itsVi ° ne °f fhe remedies employed by Madame Nouffer, the widow of aSs surgeon, who sold her secret method of expelling tape-worm to
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