1118

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

dried root to be as follows:— volatile oil 0 039, resin 4, tannin solub ealcohol and water 10, tannin insoluble in alcohol and ether, with traoichlorides, 31 , gum 15 - 8, bassorin 9'2, ligneous fibre 30 [excess 0'03 J-Physiological Effects . —Aromatic, tonic, and astringent. .

It has been

Uses. —Scarcely employed as a medicine in this country,used in chronic diarrhoea and dysentery, leucorrhcea, chronic llc "'j J j erhages, and intermittents. It is put into ale, to communicate an ag reca j n

clover-like flavour, and to prevent the liquor turning sour. Inlu sewine it has been used as a stomachic.

Administration.-four times a day.

-Dose 3ss. to 5j., in powder or decoction, three

ot

-Common Tormentih

or

lobesor

Potentil’la Tormenlil'la, Sibthorpe, L. E.

Septfioil.

Tormentilla officinalis, Smith , D. —Tormentilla erecta, Linn,

Sex, Syst. Icosandria, Polygynia.

(Radix, Root, E.) , *g

History. —Sprengel {Hist. Rei Herb. i. 43,93, and 170) consider*plant to be the TrtvTatj>v\\ov of Hippocrates, Theophrastus , andcorides. But Sibthorpe {Prodr. FI. Graces, i. 352) considers the aplant to have been the Potentilla reptans. r vC -

Botany. Gen. Char. —Tube of the calyx concave; limb four- ° r ^cleft, externally four- or five-bracteolate. Petals four or five.numerous. Carpels numerous. Style lateral. Receptacle procuin .persistent, juiceless, capitate. Seed appended.— Herbs or under-* ,Leaves compound. Stipules adnate to the petioles. Flowers white*)low, rarely red (D. C.) . ft.

Sp. Char. —Multiform, hairy. Root tuberous. Stem ascendingcliotomous. Leaves ternate-palmatisect, the caulinar ones sessile ,obovate-wedge-shaped, more or less deeply toothed. Stipule* n °„ „ c tsthree-toothed. Flowers axillary, solitary, with long peduncles. - 0 t j )epalmate-incised. Segments of the calyx lanceolate-linear, as long acorolla. Carpels rugose. Receptacles villose (D. C.) ee ii,

Stems weak, slender, often procumbent, branched. Leaves dark-gsomewhat hairy, especially the veins. Flowers bright-yellow. jj U shyHab. —Indigenous; growing on barren pastures, heaths, andplaces. j %v ith

Description. —The root (radix tormentilla) is large, comp are j Sthe size of the plant. Its external form is very irregular: sornetnn urmore or less cylindrical, at others tuberculated and knobby, ° tasteexternally is dark red-brown, internally flesh-red or brownish. 1 na f e ofis astringent. Its watery infusion is coloured blackish-green (t (tn re .iron) by the sesquicliloride of iron. A solution of gelatine causescipitate (tannate of gelatine) in it. By iodine, starch is detecteroot. igat-

Composition. —Neumann ( Works by Lewis, p. 3(52) and I ta rat ioii-Med. ii. 210) submitted tormentilla root to a chemical inves ]b ^Meissner (Gmelin, Handb. d. Chem. ii. 12(59-70) made an anal)and found the constituents to be as follows:— volatile oil a lraCC ’- p-5'17 4, colouring matter 18 - 05, ditto altered 2 57, resin ft'42, cert ,myricin 0'20, gummy extracliv7'70, woody fibre 15‘0, and water

8'05, ditto altered 2 57, resin 0'42, certtractive 4 32, gum (pectin?) 28"20, eXd water (545 (excess 0'82).