ECHINUS PHILIPPENSIS 221 



is used as an anthelmintic, the English physician Mackinnon, 

 of the Bengal Hospital, having been the first to scientifically 

 prove this property ; he reported that it was successful in ex- 

 pelling the tape-worm. It is now official in the Pharmacopoeia 

 of India and also in the U. S. P. as an anthelmintic and purga- 

 tive; in Switzerland it is commonly given to expel the bothri- 

 ocephalus which abounds there, the lake fish acting as hosts. 



The dose recommended by the Pharmacopoeia of India is 

 8-12 grams, divided in 3 or 4 doses. This amount sometimes 

 causes nausea and colic; in the third or fourth stool the taenia is 

 commonly expelled in a lifeless condition. Dujardin-Beaumetz 

 advises a dose of 30 grams of castor oil in case the taenia has 

 not been expelled 2 hours after the last dose of kamala. The 

 powder is efficacious but the tincture seems to be surer; the 

 dose is 6 grams for children and 20 for adults, given in divided 

 doses in aromatic water every hour for 6 hours. This tincture 

 is prepared by macerating 200 grams of kamala in 500 cc. 

 alcohol for 7 days ; then filtering with expression and adding 

 enough alcohol to complete the 500 cc. 



The powder is also used in India as a local application in 

 herpes circinata. It is insoluble in water; in ether and alcohol 

 it yields 80^ of a red resin. Anderson noted that a concen- 

 trated ethereal solution of kamala after a few days formed a 

 solid crystalline mass, yellow, very soluble in ether; this sub- 

 stance he named rottlerin y C n H 10 O 3 . 



Botanical Description. — A tree, 6-8 meters high, covered 

 with stellate groups of short yellow hairs. Leaves alternate, 

 petiolate, rhomboid-oval or lanceolate, acuminate, 3-nerved, 

 entire or slightly dentate, upper surface glabrous, lower surface 

 covered with woolly hairs and pow T dery red glands. Flowers 

 yellowish-green, small, dioecious, apetalous, in spikes. Stami- 

 nate: By 3's in the axil of each bract; perianth, 3 or 5 

 deeply cut, lanceolate lobules ; stamens 15-25, free, inserted in 

 the center of the flower. Pistillate : In the axil of each bract; 



