SEMEN SABADILLM. 



09 



drug may be prepared by exhausting it with alcohol and precipitating 

 with boiling acidulated water, repeating the process in order to entirely 

 eliminate the alkaloids. It is a dark brown mass, yielding about a 

 fourth of its weight to ether. Scattergood obtahied it to the extent of 

 4J per cent. By exhausting the drug successively with ether, absolute 

 alcohol and spirit of wine, we extracted from it not less than 31 per 

 cent, of a soft resinoid mass. Worthington pointed out the presence of 

 gallic acid and of sugar. 



Uses — Veratrum viride has of late been much recommended as a 

 cardiac, arteral and nervous sedative. It is stated to lower the pulse, 

 the respiration and heat of the body, not to be narcotic, and rarely to 

 occasion purging;^ but to what principle these effects are due has not 

 yet been ascertained. By some dhsevYers, as BJgelow/ Fee/ Schroff/ 

 and Oulmont,^ it is alleged to have the same medicinal powers as the 

 European Veratriini album. 



SEMEN SABADILLi^. 



Fvudus 8ahadillm; Cebadilla, Gevadilla; F. Ce'oadille; G. Sahadillsa- 



onen, Ldiisesamen. 



Botanical Origin- A sagr cm officinalis Lindley (Vemtnm offi^^ 

 cinale Schlecht., Sabadilla offidnarum Brandt, Scko^nocatdon offwmaic 

 A. Gray)._A bulbous plant, growing in Mexico, mgrassy places on the 

 eastern declivities of the Volcanic range of the Cofre de Peroie and 

 Orizaba, near Teosolo, Huatusco and Zacuapan, down to the sea-s^iu e, 

 also in Guatemala. Cebadilla is (or was) cultivated near Vera Uuz, 

 Alvarado and Tlacatalpan in the Gulf of Mexico . , . . , , ^^_ 



Another form of Asagrcea^ first noticed by Berg,^ ^^^^.l^f .'• ^^^ 

 particularly by Ernst of fracas, who thinks it may ^^^^.^^^^^^^^^^^ 

 species, is found in plenty on grassy slopes, S,.00 to 4 000 feet above 

 the sea-level, in the neighbourhood of Caracas and souths ar^^^^^^^^ 

 hilly regions bordering the valley of the TuyJ ^^ ^differ rfn^^^^^^^^^ 

 having broader and mote earinate leaves.^ Of late J^^^^^ ^^™tS 

 large "quantities of seed, which, freed from theu^ capsules, have been 

 shipped from La Guaira to Hamburg. 



History-Cebadilla was first des-cx-ibed i. If ^ byff^.S^I^J 

 states that it is used by the Indians of New Spam as a caustic an 



4 



^Cutter, Lancet, Jan. 4, Aug, 16. 1862; 

 Pfiarm. Journ, iv. (1863) 134, 



'^American Medical Botany, ii. (1819) 

 121-136. 



^ Coursd'HlsL Nat. FJiarm. i. {}S2S)319. 



■* Medhinische JahyhiXchcr, xix. (Vienna, 

 1863) 129-148. 



^ Buchner's Beperfor/umfilr Pharmacie, 

 ^viii. (1868)50; also "Wiggers and Huse- 

 laann's Jahresbei'ichf, xviii. 1868. 505. 

 ^ *Berg u. Schmidt, Offiz. Geicackse, i. 

 (1858) tab. ix. e. ''Sabadilla officlnarmi. 



^ Ernst, communication to the Linnean 

 Society of London, 15 Dec, 1870. 



^ Veratrum Sahadilta Ketzius is stated 



;tTuTherrU-a^/KewandthcBra,^ 

 ;? ™ Tfr is not mentioned as West 

 S by Gri eb^h iFlor. of BrU. W. L 



(Irfif ■' The fimire by Descourtik (Flo,- 



Kirs- «4": L.] and there, 

 fore lo^e very different from A.a<jneo. 



