SAWGUINARIA BLOODROOT. 87 



plant. Nor is the colored juice characteristic of the root only ; it occurs 

 in the leaves and flowers as well. 



Habitat. — In rich, open woods from Canada to Florida and westward to 

 the Mississippi. Formerly very common, it is becoming rapidly scarcer, 

 and in the cultivated parts of the Atlantic States will ere long be consid- 

 ered comparatively rare. In the latitude of New York it blooms about 

 the middle of April, and, like many of oui' early blooming plants, is of 

 short duration. In favorable localities the first blossoms are quickly suc- 

 ceeded by myriads, so that the ground is almost white with them, pre- 

 senting a most charming aspect. 



Part Used. — The rhizome — United States Pharmacopceia. 



Constituents. — Sanguinaria has a bitter, acrid taste, which persists for 

 some time, accompanied by a sensation of constriction and irritation in the 

 throat. This is most evident in the fresh rhizome, but does not disappear 

 from the dried drug, which in powder is extremely instating to the res- 

 piratory tract if inhaled. These irritant properties appear to reside 

 mainly in an alkaloid, sanguinarina, which possesses them to an intense 

 degree. This, when pure, is in white verrucose or needle-shaped crystals, 

 soluble in both alcohol and ether, and, with acids, forms salts of a bright 

 red color. Two other alkaloids and a pecuhar acid have also been found 

 in the drug, but sanguinarina appeai-s to be the chief medicinal, as it is 

 the only commercial, constituent. 



Preparations. — Acetum sanguinarioe — vinegar of sanguinaria; extrac- 

 tum sanguinarise fluidum — fluid extract of sanguinaria ; tinctura sangui- 

 naripe— tincture of sanguinaria. — United States Pharmacopoeia. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — In very small doses sanguinaria exerts a 

 tonic influence, promoting gastro-intestinal secretion and thus aiding di- 

 gestion. It is sometimes employed in this manner in dyspepsia, with 

 asserted benefit. It is not, however, as a tonic that it exerts its greatest 

 influence, but as an expectorant in diseases of the respiratory organs. 

 In these cases it is employed in much larger doses than when its tonic 

 effects are desired. In still larger doses it is emetic, and both too power- 

 ful and violent to be emj)loyed with safety. In over-doses it produces 

 excessive prostration, insensibility, irregularity and feebleness of the jDulse, 

 and even fatal collapse. The dry powder is sometimes nsed as a sternuta- 

 tory in chronic nasal catarrh, and it was formerly emj)loyed as a topical 

 apiDlication to ulcers to repress fungous granulations or to excite indolent 

 sores to greater and more healthy activity'. 



That sanguinaria was formerly highly esteemed by the medical profes- 

 sion generally, will become evident to the reader of our past and even 

 present literature ; that it is comparatively little used here in the East now 

 is none the less apparent and true. Whether this is to be attributed to a 

 mere change in therapeutic fashions or to a preference for expectorants of 

 a milder character, is not easy to decide. At any rate, sanguinaria ap- 



