436 COMPOSITE 



ACTION AND USES. It has slight stimulant and diaphoretic properties, but is 

 used principally in the form of tincture, as a vulnerary. Dose: 15 to 60 gr. 

 (i to 4 Gm.). Tinctura Calendulas, formerly official. 



603. CARTHAMUS. SAFFLOWER. AMERICAN SAFFRON. The florets of Car- 

 tha'mus tincto'rius Willdenow. (Official, 1820-1880.) Habitat: India, Le- 

 vant, and Egypt; cultivated. Orange -red; tube long, slender, cylindrical 

 with the two-cleft yellowish style protruding; strap divided into five narrow, 

 lanceolate lobes ; odor peculiar, aromatic ; taste bitter. It contains two coloring 

 principles, safflower-yellow, C24HsoOi5(24 to 30 per cent.), and a red principle, 

 carthamin, CnHieOr, or carthamic acid, to the latter of which its value as a 

 dyestuff is due, and which, mixed with talc, forms rouge. Cathartic and dia- 

 phoretic in large doses of the warm infusion; in domestic practice used as a 

 substitute for saffron to promote eruption in measles, scarlatina, etc. Dose: 

 8 to 15 gr. (0.5 to I Gm.). 



604. HELIANTHUS ANNUUS Linn. Our common sunflower, the seeds of which 

 are sometimes used as a diuretic and expectorant in pulmonary and laryn- 

 geal affections. Dose of fluidextract: I to 2 fl. dr. (4 to 8 mils). The fixed 

 oil expressed from them has become an article of commerce, and the growing 

 plants themselves enjoy the reputation of purifying malarial districts. 



