Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1888-08-09
NATURES MEDICINE CHEST.
INTERESTING FACTS CONCERNING
IMPORTANT MEDICAL PLANTS.
The Poppy that Grants Man Forget
fulness-Deadiy Nux Vomica and
Cinchona the Febrifuge.

Enthusiastically Nux Vomica and
Cinchona the Febrifuge.
In lecture before the st. Louis Botan-
lcal Society, DIR. Vasey made the follow
! ing statements concerning important
i medical plants: The Opium Poppy is a
native of Asia and the south of Europe,
and is still found wild in the countries
/ bordering the Mediterranean Sea. 1t is
an annual plant, two or three feet in
height, or higher under favorable cir
cumstances. The process of procuring
the opium as practiced by the present
inhabitants of India and Persia is said to
be nearly the same as that described by
Dioscorides nearly 1000 years ago. A
few days after the fall of the flower men
and women proceed to the field where the
/ plants are cultivated, and, with suit.
able knife, make several horizontal in
/ cisions in the capsules, taking care not to
penetrate the cavity. A white Juice
nows from the incision and collects in
the form of tears ON the surface. The
4 field is left in this state for twenty-four
hours, after which the thickened Juice
Is scraped off with blunt knives. Each
/ poppy head yields opium but once. The
JUICE, when removed, is in the state of
an adhesive granular jelly. 1t is placed
in small earthen vessels, where it is
beaten, and moistened with saliva.
When of the proper consistence it is
made into masses of variable size.
wrapped in poppy leaves, and placed in
the shade to dry, after which it is ready
for market
About seventy years ago chemical in
designations of opium led to the discov-
cry of morphine, and subsequently, of
several other alkalolds, and of late years
! morphine has become the principal form
in which this important medicine is en-
ployed. The only obstacle to the profit
able cultivation of the opium poppy in
this country is the high price of labor.
CINcHoNA.
Nothing was known of this drug prior
to about the year 1880. At about this
time it is stated that the bark of the
oinchona tree was administered by an
Indian for intermittent fever to Spanish
otfic al, living near Loxa, in Peru. Eight
Years later the Countess of Cinchona
the wife of the Governor of Peru, was
cured of the same disease by this rem
edy.. She then caused large quantities
of tie bark to be prepared and distribu-
ted to the sick, and it was soon after
ward intro 1uced into Europe. The
rapid increase in the use of cinchona
finally threatened to exhaust the supply,
50 that about twenty years ago the peo-
| pie of Peru and Bolivia began the cult
walton of the tree, and it has since been
introduced into other parts of the world
Its culture has been so successful that
the supply of the bark is now greater
than ever before and the price greatly re-
! duced No section OF the United States
is adapted to it.
4 sTRyoHNos NUx voMIcA,
the tree from which strychnine is OBJ.
tanned, is native of India and adjoining
countries. The horny nuts, which are
the part employed in medicine, are fat,
about an inch in diameter, and covered
with short velvety hairs. The use OF
these nuts is said to be very ancient
They were certainly known in Germany
in the sixteenth century. A London
| apothecary in 1910 remarked that theil
chief use was for poisoning dogs, cats,
crows and ravens, and that they were
rarely given as medicine. The aka
loid strychnine, which is the active prin
ciple OF this nut, was obtained by Pei
liteur and Caventau two French chem
lists, in 1873
In small repeated doses nux vomica, or
strychnine, acts as tonic. In large
doses it causes weakness and trembling
of the limbs, then rigidity, spasms and
death. Its marked action upon the
muscular system led to its use as a
remedy for paralysis and muscular de-
bility, in which it is very successful.
BELLADoNNA.
Atropa Belladonna is perennial her
baceous plant, native to Central and
South America, the Caucasus and Asia
Minor. 1t belongs to the nightshade or
potato family. The name Delladonna,
which is Italian for beautiful lady,
originated from the practice of using the
distilled water of the plant as cosmetic.
All parts of the plant possess active
properties, but its part principally en-
poyed is the t1eshy root, which is a foot
or more IN length aid an inch or two in
thickness. 1t is generally gathered from
the plant growing in its wild state,
though in few places in Europe and
this country the plant is cultivated.
The chief use of belladonna at the pres
ent time is in the treatment of nervous
diseases, as a sedatve, and for the pur-
pose of producing dilation of the pupil
in certain diseases of the eye, and in
surgical operations upon that organ. In
1850 several chemists preEa ed from the
plant an alkaloid called astropine and
it is in this form that the drug is now
generally used.