ee ee 
' RANUNCULACEZ, — 11 
ferox, probably from A. Nupellus*; they have the usual strong 
hyraceum odour. In Madras it is sometimes mixed with the — 
roots of Gloriosa superba. 
ACONITUM LYCOCTONUM, Linn. 
Fig.—Jacg. Aust. 4. t. 380. Hoyle Ill. 56, A. lave. | 
Hab.— West temperate Himalaya; Kumaon to Kashmir, 
Hurope, N. Asia. The tubers. 
Vernacular.—Khanik-et-zeib (Arab.), Bikh ( Hind. }. 
History, Uses, &C.—An Aconite called 76 AvKoKTovoy 
is mentioned by Galen. Aveoxrovos, or the wolf-slayer, was a 
name given to Apollo, the God who ayverts evil. Aconite was 
used by the ancients to destroy wild beasts. Amongst the 
‘latter Greeks, Apollo was. the.Sun-God; for these reasons, 
possibly, the yellow aconite has been named Lycoctonon. 
In 1865, Hubschmann announced that he had discovered in 
the root and rhizome of Aconitum Lycoctonum two new 
alkaloids, which he named lycoctonine and acolyctine; they 
differed from one another notably in their solubility in ‘ebhins 
and water, lycoctonine being soluble in ether but only sparingly 
in water, whilst acolyctine was insoluble in ether, but 
dissolved by water. Hiibschmann, however, subsequently 
stated that acolyctine was probably identical with the 
napelline he had obtained from A. Napellus. Lyeoctonine 
has been examined chemically by Fliickiger and by Dragen- 
dorff, whilst physiological experiments by Klebs showed that 
it was much less powerful in its action than aconitine. | 
Schroff, jun., found that different samples of napelline 
q (acolyctine) of commerce varied both in their chemical 
* The Aconite of the Greeks and Romans, the dadvetin érépov of Dios- 
corides is generally considered to be A. Napellus; Khanik-el-zeib and 
Khénik-el- -nemir (wolf strangle, and panther strangle) are Arabic nam 
poisonous Ibn Sina says in the Kanun that they kill wild 
dogs, t panthers, and are not used somes i 
iv. 76; Sime 87,35 Theo. HP. 1X, 16, aes 
