878
ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.
. is
brown, the taste hot and pungent, the odour none. The e P^ er ^ g C e littough and leathery: the seeds are flattened and whitish, 1 11(3 ., forfruit, called capsicum or chillies, grown in this country, and ® 0 ^ ef , n •.pickling, is, when ripe, yellow or red, but it is frequently gathered aits size and shape are variable : the oblong varieties are from one to ^or four inches long; the round variety (cherry chilly) is about as la »a cherry.
Composition. —The fruit was analyzed, in 1816, by Mauracn ^Jahrb. Bd. xvii. S. 63); in the same year by Bucholz (Gmelin, q/^ 0-Chem. ii. 1310); and in the year following by Braconnot (Ann. dePhys. vi. 122).
Bucholz's Analysis.
Acrid soft resin ( capsicin) . 4 0
Wax. 7-6
Bitter aromatic extractive. 8 6
Extractive with some gum .21 0
Gum. 9-2
Albuminous matter .. 8'2
Woody fibre. 28'0
Water. 120
Loss. 6’4
Fruit of Capsicum annuum without
seeds.KXH)
Braconnot's Analysis. g
Acrid oil . 0'9
Wax with red colouring matter ••• g o
Brownish starchy matter . fi t)
Peculiar gum. 59
Animalized matter ..
Woody fibre .
Salts (citrate of potash 6'0, P hoS j-phate of potash, and chloride ®potassium 3'4)
Capsicin , Bucholz (Acrid Soft Resin j Acrid Oil, Braconnot).—Obtainedthe alcoholic extract in ether, and evaporating the etherial solution. It is aof a yellowish-red or reddish-brown colour, which becomes very fluid when .- c .* 1 j in *at a higher temperature, is dissipated in fumes. Half a grain of it, volatm e ^t-large room, causes all who respire the air of the room to cough and sneeze. g 0 lubl esure to air and light it solidifies. It is decolorized by chlorine. It is sligu 1 and d' ein water and in vinegar; but very much so in alcohol, ether, oil of turpentine,caustic alkalies. With baryta it forms a solid acrid combination.
Physiological Effects. —Capsicum belongs to the acrid aro(see p. 72), and is more closely allied, hy its effects, to the P e P? e n( jeliap. 752) than to any other article of the Materia Medica. • 50 to(Handb. d. sp. Heilm. Bd. ii. S. 44, 3 tte Aufl.) however, considersbe more related to pyrethrum. Its active principle is more P xe jj’ 0 rsO'its operation is more permanent and violent, than mustard orradish. g kin,
Its hot and fiery taste is familiar to every one. Applied to tn jtcapsicum proves rubefacient and vesicant. Swallowed in small a° nl jJcreates a sensation of warmth in the stomach, and in torpid andhabits proves a valuable stimulant, and a promoter of the digestivetions. Taken in somewhat larger quantities, it produces a glow ° v j Sbody, excites thirst, and quickens the pulse: the latter effect, hovve ^ et ,not in proportion to its local effect. Like the peppers, it is said t0 ‘ s h<ecise a stimulant influence over the urino-genital organs. I n eX . a pddoses, we can easily believe that vomiting, purging, abdominal pa> ’-gf,gastric inflammation, ascribed to it by Vogt ( Pharmakodyn . Bd. ii- ‘ an v2" Aufl.), may be induced by it, though I am not acquainted wicases in which these effects have occurred. Richter (Ausf. At j, aBd. ii. S. 179) mentions, in addition to the symptoms just mentxoparalyzed and altered condition of the nervous influence, an aw