780
ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.
upon a short peduncle, of a greenish brown colour and coriaceous sU ,stance. Segment of the calyx incurved. Capsule coriaceous.ovate, with horny albumen.
Hab. —Indigenous. Perennial. Flowers in May.
Description. —The whole plant (root-fibres, rhizome, and ae ° 0 fstems, with leaves and flowers) are kept in the shops under the na®®asarabacca (radix cum herba asari ), but the leaves only are directedbe used in the Phramacopceia. Dr. Batty {Eng. FI.) states that the P ais gathered for medicinal uses in the woods near Kirkby Lonsda *Westmorland. The rhizome is about as thick as a goose-quill, gr* 1 .')'; ’quadrangular, knotted. It has a pepper-like odour and an acrid taste- aleaves are almost inodorous, but have an acrid, aromatic, and bitter ,Composition. —Goerz (Pfaff, Mat. Med. Bd. iii. S. 229) publis®^an analysis of the root in 1784 ; Lassaigneand Fenuelle another in 1“',
Pharm. t. xiv. p. 200)
; and Grager a fourth in 1830 (Goebel
Pharm. Waarenk).
Griiger's
Analysis.
Herb.
Volatile oil x
Asarin
Asarum-Camphor > .
. 0-630
Tannin
Asarin Asaritej }
Extractive
Asarin
. 1-172
Chlorophylle
Tannin
. 1072
Albumen
Extractive .
. 3-972
Citric acid .
Resin
. 0-156
Ligneous fibre
Starch
. 2-048
Water
Gluten and albumen .
. 1010
Loss ....
Citric acid
. 0-316
Ligneous fibre
. 12-800
f resh Herb of Asarabacca
Salts, (citrates, chloride, st
ilphate,
and phosphates)
. 3-042
VV ater
. 74-600
100-818
0-10
o-(d
1
()M
15 - 01 )
74-frt
0-3o
100 '
,00
1. Volatile Oily Matters. —By submitting asarabacca root to distillation with '
three volatile oily matters are obtained; one liquid and two solid, at ordinary 1peratures. , er ,
a. Liquid Volatile Oil (Oleum Asari). It is yellow, glutinous, lighter than[ ]t jyand has an acrid, burning taste, and a penetrating valerian-like odour. It is s * goii-soluble in water, more so in alcohol, ether, and the oils (volatile and fixed). l ts Cstituents are Cs IH Ol. aI1 J
j8. Asarite of Griiger. — In small needles, of a silky lustre. It istasteless. It is fusible and volatilizable by heat; its vapour being white ? n , a ter-irritating. It is soluble in alcohol, ether, and the volatile oils, but not in " , jfBoth nitric and sulphuric acids dissolve the crystals without the evolution of £ aS 'water be added to the sulphuric solution, the asarite is thrown down unchanged- .
y. Asarum-camphor. —Is distinguished from asarite by the following characteWater throws it down from its alcoholic solution in cubes or six-sided prisms, "asarite is precipitated in delicate flexible needles. It dissolves in nitric acid " l jn.effervescence. Water added to its sulphuric solution throws down a brown, ^ ; sAfter fusion it has the form of a crystalline, striated mass. Its compos® 0C8 H5 02. Blanchet and Sell regard it as the hydrate of the liquid volatile oil. j 0 -
2. Litter principle of Asarabacca (Asarin of Grager and of some other pbarin*
gists),—Brownish, very hitter, soluble in alcohol. , ^
Physiological Effects. — Every part of the plant possesses aC ^properties. Applied to the mucous membrane of the nose, it exC