Vol. II. 



PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

 OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 



New York, July, 1895. 



No. 7. 



THE PHARMACOLOGY OF SAW=PALflETTO.* 



Botany and Materia Medica, By H. H. Rusby, M. D. 

 Histology By W. H. Bastedo, Ph.G. Pharmacy By Virgil Coblentz, Ph. 



librar 



NEW YO 

 BOT 

 GARDEJ 



BOTANY AND MATERIA MEDICA. 



Bot. name.— Serenoa serrulata , (Mich x.) 

 Hook. f. 



Syn. — Chamcerops serrulata, Michx. 

 Flor. Bor. Am. i, 206 (1803).— Sabal 

 serrulatum, Nutt; R. & S. Syst. Veg. 

 vii, i486 (1830). — Brahea serrulata, H. 

 Wendl, in Kerch, Palm. 235 (1854?). — 

 Serenoa serrulata, Hook. f. in B. & H. 

 Gen. Plant, iii, 926 (spelled '"Serenaea," 

 but corrected on p. 1228) 1883. 



Generic characters pointed out by 

 Sereno Watson, to whom the genus was 

 dedicated. 



The high importance of the Palms 

 from an economic point of view, as regards 

 their decorative value and the products 

 which they yield to commerce, and more 

 especially the very large place which 

 they fill in supplying the necessities of 

 the inhabitants of the countries where 

 they grow, scarcely equaled elsewhere 

 in the vegetable kingdom, is in itself 

 sufficient to lend great interest to all facts 

 bearing on their medicinal value or uses. 

 Such known uses however are very few 



in view of the great size, wide distribu- 

 tion and well known character of the 

 family. Its members are extensive yield- 

 ers of fixed oils and of starches, the latter 

 variously known under the name of 

 Sago, and abound also in sugary fruits, 

 of which the date is the best representa- 

 tive; but their well known medicinal 

 members are few, being limited to the 

 Calamus Draco, yielding the ordinary 

 commercial dragon's blood, the Areca 

 Catechu, containing four alkaloids and 

 known to us as a mild astringent and 

 taenicide, besides being enormously con- 

 sumed at home as a masticatory, and the 

 common cocoanut, whose oil is an efficient 

 taencide, so sparingly used, probably 

 only because of its great simplicity as a 

 remedy. 



BOTANICAL POSITION. 



A consideration of the probable merits 

 of the Saw-Palmetto can properly be 

 introduced by inquiring as to its botani- 

 cal relationship to these medicinal mem- 



* Read before the Newark meeting of the N. J. State 

 Pharmaceutical Association, May 23,1895. 





CX* 





