546 ACONITE 



Pareira the root of chondrodendron tomentosum, con- 

 taining the active principle buxine, although not very 

 reliable, is also used for the same purposes as buchu and 

 uva-ursi. 



ACONITE 



ACONITE. Monkshood. Wolfsbane. Blue Rocket. Aconi- 

 tum. The root of Aconitum napellus. Collected in 

 the autumn from plants cultivated in Britain, and 

 dried. Nat. Ord. Ranunculaceae. 



ACONITINE. An alkaloid obtained from Aconite root, and 

 having the formula C 33 H 45 N0 12 . (B.P.) 



Botanists have numbered twenty- two species, and up- 

 wards of a hundred varieties of aconite, which are common 

 throughout the cooler mountainous countries of both hemi- 

 spheres. Some species are eaten as vegetables, some are 

 bitter tonics ; but others, as the Aconitum ferox, sinense, 

 and napellus, are sedative poisons. The last of these, the 

 common officinal species, is a doubtful native of Britain, 

 but often grown for its flowers in gardens and shrubberies. 

 Its several varieties are herbaceous, with perennial, tapering, 

 carrot-shaped, brown roots, with lateral rootlets, from which, 

 after the first year's growth, are formed one or more oval 

 tubers, at first nourished by the decaying parent root ; 

 several annual, erect, glabrous stems two to five feet high ; 

 numerous alternate dark-green leaves ; long-stalked, helmet- 

 shaped blue or purple flowers, which form loose terminal 

 racemes, and appear in June or July ; and dry, black, 

 angular seeds, which ripen about the end of August. 



Aconite root, from which the tincture, liniment, and alka- 

 loid are prepared, varies from two to four inches long, and 

 from half an inch to nearly an inch thick at the crown, 

 which is knotty ; is brown externally, but pinky white 

 within ; conical, rapidly tapering, prominently marked 

 with the bases of the rootlets, and of an earthy odour 

 characters which distinguish it from the larger, longer, 

 more uniformly cylindrical, white, pungent, bitter root of 

 horse-radish, for which aconite root has sometimes been 

 fatally mistaken. According to Schroff, Vienna, the root 



