10 



RANUNCULACE^. 



physiological potency. One of them, PicracoTiithie, C^^H^O^', is merely 

 bitter, producing no lip-tingling ; it gives well crystallized salts, 

 although it is itself amorphous. Commercial aconitine is a mixture of 

 the above alkaloids. The total yield of basic substances afforded by 

 aconite root is not more than about 007 per cent. 



The other constituents of aconite root are but imperfectly known. 

 In the preparation of the alkaloids, a dark green mixture of resin and 

 fat is obtained ; it is much more abundant in European than in Nepal 

 aconite (Groves). The root contains Manniie, as proved by T. and H. 

 Smith (1850), together with cane sugar, and another sugar which reduces 

 cupric oxide even in the cold. Tannin is absent, or is limited to the 

 corky coat. The absence of a volatile alkaloid in the root was proved 

 by Groves in 18G6. 



m 



Uses — Prescribed in the form of tincture as an anodyne- liniment ; 

 occasionally given internally in rheumatism. 



Adulteration and Substitution— Aconite root, though offered in 

 abundance in the market, is by no means always obtained of good 

 quality. Collected in the mountainous parts of Euroj^e by peasants 

 occupied in the pasturing of sheep and cattle, it is often dug up without 

 due regard to the proper season or even to the proper species, — a care- 

 lessness not surprising when regard is had to the miserable price which 

 the drug realizes in the market.^ 



One of the species not unfrequent in the Alps, of which the roots 

 are doubtless sometimes collected, is^. Storckeanum Reichcnb. In this 

 plant the tuberous roots are developed to the number of three or four, 

 and have an anatomical structure sh'irhtlv different from that of A. 



2 A • 



NapeUus 



'gatwm 



turn Lam. are blue-flowered species having tuberous roots resembling 

 those oi A, Xajjcllus, but according to Schroff somewhat less active. 



The yellow-flowered ^L Anthora L. and A. Lycodonnm L. produce 

 roots which cannot be confounded with those of ^. NapeUus K 



The root of A, japonicum Thunb. has been noticed in Europe by 

 Christison as early as 1859'; it is now imported occasionally from the 

 East. It forms grey or almost blackish tubers from x'V ^f ^"^ ^^^^^ *^ 

 upwards of 1 inch in length, and from y-^ to yV <^f ^^ ii^^h in diameter, 

 oblong or ovoid, either tapering or round* '1 at their extremities. They 

 are of plump, scarcely shrivelled appearance.^ 



Japanese aconite afforded to Wright and Luff a crystallized active 

 alkaloid different from both aconitine and iiseudaconitine. 



Holmes' states that the aromatic roots o^ Imperatoria Ostruthiiim 

 L. have been found mixed with aconite. 



^Thiis the continental druggists are able 

 to offer it in quantity as low as 4cZ. to od. 

 per lb., and a pound, we find, contains 

 fidly 150 roots! 



2 See figure in Berg's Atlas zur pharm. 

 Waarevl-unde (1865) fig. 24. 



^Hanbury, Science Papers (ISTG) 258, 

 with figure. See also Pharm, Journ, ix. 



(1879) 615, where the drug is derived from 

 Aconitum Fischeri, 



* Their microscopic structure is figured 

 in the paper of Dr. Dimin (quoted farther 

 on, in our article on Aconitum hetero- 

 phyllum at p. 14) 217-225. 



^Pharm. Jonrn. vii. (1877) 740. 



