135-4 
expectorant, diaphoretic, and febrifuge.” “From the successful employment of 
the pleurisy-root for twenty-five years, he has imbibed such confidence that he ex- 
tols it as possessing the peculiar and almost specific quality of acting on the organs 
of respiration, powerfully promoting suppressed expectoration, and thereby re- 
lieving the breathing of pleuritic patients in the most advanced stage of the dis- 
ease; and in pneumonic fevers, recent colds, catarrhs, and diseases of the breast 
in general, this remedy has in his hands proved equally efficacious.” Dr. Griffith 
concludes* that “from all that can be gathered on the subject, it may be deemed 
one of the most useful of our native articles, and deserves a full and unbiassed 
trial.” Other and more recent writers as usual have looked with doubt upon all 
its given qualities, except mayhap its utility as an expectorant and diaphoretic. 
The provings, however, point to it as a valuable remedy in certain forms of dry 
coryza, indigestion, colic, diarrhoea, dry coughs, pleurisy, general rheumatic pains, 
and certain skin affections. In one case only in my own practice have I seen the 
indications for its use, that a case of chronic indigestion, accompanied by dry cough 
and intercostal rheumatic pains; it acted promptly and efficaciously, bringing relief 
within a few hours, and immunity of the disorder within a month. 
The root is officinal in the U.S. Ph. Its preparations in the Eclectic Materia 
Medica are: Extvactum Asclepidis Alcoholicum, and Fluidum; Infusum Asclepi- 
dis; Fulvis Asclepie Compositus + Pulvis Ipecacuanhe Compositus ;{ Tinctura 
Lobehe Composita ;§ and Asclepidin or Oleo-Resina Asclepidis. 
PART USED AND PREPARATION.— The tincture is prepared from the fresh 
root in the same manner as that of the preceding species. It has a brownish- 
orange color by transmitted light, darker therefore than that of 4. cornuti; a 
slightly bitter taste; preserves the characteristic odor of the root, and has a de- 
cided acid reaction. 
CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS.—An analysis of the root by Alton Clabaugh|| 
resulted in the separation of a fixed oil saponifiable by caustic alkalies; a pecu- 
liar odorous, crystalline, sublimable stearopten melting at 160° F., and soluble in 
alcohol, ether, and chloroform; a bitter principle insoluble in alcohol; another 
yellowish-brown bitter principle soluble in alcohol; a yellowish-white body pos- 
sessing the taste of the drug, soluble in alcohol; together with starch, gummy and 
coloring matters, and a resin, thus corroborating the former analysis of Elam 
Rhodes. 
- 
PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION.—The following symptoms occurring after taking 
doses of from 20 to 50 drops of the tincture, are recorded by Thos. Nichol. 
Deficient appetite, with pain and weight in the pit of the stomach; soreness and 
colic, followed by flatulence ; soft fetid stools, preceded by rumbling in the bowels ; 
dry, hard, hacking cough, with painful respiration ; sharp, shooting pains, espe- 
a Med. Bot., p. 455. + Pleurisy-root, Spearmint, Sumach Berries, Bayberry Bark, Skunk Cabbage, and Ginger. 
ea ek Pleurisy-root, Ipecacuanha, Blood Root, and Nitrate of Potassa. % See foot-note to Lobelia inflata, 99. 
To | Am. Four. Phar., 1882, P. 5. ee { Hale, New Remedies, 2d Ed, 
