i6o 



CARYOPHYLLE^E 



CONSTITUENTS. Resin, tannin, starch, gum, sugar, fixed oil, salts, and probably 

 a glucoside. A trace of alkaloid is reported, but the writer has found alka- 

 loidal reaction quite pronounced in concentrated and purified solutions of 

 the drug. Its virtues are imparted to water and alcohol. 



ACTION AND USES. Alterative, emetic, cathartic. It is not suitable for a cathartic 

 however, because of the narcotic effect often produced. Its most important 

 use is as an alterative in chronic rheumatism, etc., and externally, in the 

 form of ointment, in various skin diseases. Dose: 3 to 30 gr. (0.2 to 2 Gm.). 

 Emetic in the larger dose. 



Fluidextractum Phytolaccae,(U.S.P. 1900), Dose: Emetic, i.o mil (1515). 



Alterative 0.2 mil 



FIG. 68. Phytolacca Cross-Section of root. (Photograph.) 



127. PHYTOLACCiE FRUCTUS. POKE-BERRIES. Globular, purplish or black, 

 berry-like fruits, about 8 mm. (% in.) or less in diameter, adhering together 

 in masses from the exudation and drying of a purplish-red juice. Ten-celled, 

 each containing a single glossy black seed imbedded in a succulent pulp. 

 Inodorous; taste sweetish, slightly acrid, and nauseous. Constituents: Phy- 

 tolaccin, phytolaccic acid, tannin, sugar, gum, and an evanescent coloring 

 matter, turned yellow by alkalies and bleached by sunlight. 



CARYOPHYLLEjE. Pink Family 



Herbs with swollen joints, opposite, entire, and regular flowers; petals 4 or 5 

 mostly removed from the calyx by a short internode. Usually bland herbs; 

 some are highly valued as ornamental plants. 



128. SAPONARIA LEVANTICA. LEVANT SOAPWORT. The root of Gyp'- 

 sophila panicula'ta LinnS. Habitat: Italy to Asia Minor. A simple, fusiform 

 root, longitudinally wrinkled, and marked with transverse ridges; used in 

 washing silks and other fabrics. It contains sapotoxin (8.5 per cent.), and 

 the acrid glucoside saponin, yielding by hydrolysis sapogenin, which is used 

 as a detergent. 



129. SAPONARIA. SOAPWORT. Sapona'ria officina'lis Linne\ An acrid root, 

 found in Europe and the United States; contains resin, and the glucoside; 

 saponin. The latter is a white powder, soluble in hot water and alcohol, 

 its solution when shaken foams like soap-water. When treated with acids 

 it is split into sugar and a crystallizable principle, sapogenin, soluble in 

 water. Used as an alterative in doses of 15 to 60 gr. (i to 4 Gm.). 



