130 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



ELATERIUM (ELATERIUM) 



Elaterium was official in all the early editions of the Pharma- 

 copeia. In 1880 it was displaced by its product, Elaterin (a neu- 

 tral principle extracted from elaterium), which became official in 

 this and succeeding editions of the U. S. P., through 1910. 



Elaterium is the dried juice of the fruit of Ecballium 

 Elaterium, common throughout the Mediterranean 

 regions, from Portugal to Southern Russia and Persia, 

 as well as through Central Europe. The method of 

 preparing elaterium, as described by Dioscorides (194), 

 is practically that of the present day. The drug is also 

 mentioned by Theophrastus (633). Elaterium is a 

 powerful hydragogue cathartic, paralleling Croton 

 Tiglium in its vicious action, and has been empirically 

 known from the earliest tunes to the natives of the 

 countries it inhabits. Clutterbuck (154), (1819, Lon- 

 don Medical Repository, XII, pp. 1-9), recommends a 

 process of obtaining elaterium in irregular cake-like 

 fragments. This is now the form in which it is em- 

 ployed in medicine; hence the common term, "Clutter- 

 buck's elaterium." 



ERGOTA (Ergot) 



Official in all editions of the U. S. P. It appears in the Sec- 

 ondary List in 1820 and 1828 under the name "Secale cornutum, 

 Secale cereale," with the description "Spurred Rye. Called 

 Ergot." The edition of 1830 promotes it to the Primary List, but 

 retains the name Secale. The edition of 1840 first makes the name 

 Ergota the primary name, with the description, "The diseased 

 seeds of Secale cereale." This name and description are followed 

 by the editions of 1850 and 1860. The edition of 1870 changes 

 the description to " The sclerotium of Claviceps purpurea," which 

 is retained by all succeeding editions, including that of 1910. 



This drug, from the earliest period, has been known as 

 a disturber of flour, it having been long since observed 

 that flour made of rye containing ergot gave rise to the 

 disease now known as ergotism. When we consider 



