14 RANUNCULACE^. 



Microscopic Structure — Most of the roots fail to display any 

 characteristic structure by reason of the heat to which they have been 

 subjected. A living root sent to us from the Botanical Garden of Edin- 

 burgh exhibited the thin brownish layer which encloses the central part 

 in A. Napelhis, replaced by a zone of stone cells, — a feature discernible 

 in the imported root. 



Chemical Composition — According to Wright and Luff (see 

 previous article) the roots of Aconitum ferox contain comparatively 

 large quantities of pseudaconitine with a little aconitine and an alkaloid, 

 apparently non-crystalline, which would appear not to agree with the 

 analogous body from A. Napellus. 



Uses — The drug has been imported and used as a source of aconitine. 

 It is commonly believed to be much more potent than the aconite root 

 of Europe. 



RADIX ACONITI HETEROPHYLLI. 



Atis or Atees. 



Botanical Origin — Aconituin heterophylluTYi Wallich, a plant of 

 1 to 3 feet high with a raceme of large flowers of a dull yellow veined 

 with purple, or altogether blue, and reniform or cordate, obscurely 

 5-lobed, radical leaves.^ It grows at elevations of 8000 to 13,000 feet 

 in the temperate regions of the Western Himalaya, as in Simla, 

 Kumaon and Kashmir. 



History — We have not met with any ancient account of this drug, 

 which however is stated by O'Shaughnessy ^ to have been long cele- 

 brated in Indian medicine as a tonic and aphrodisiac. It has recently 

 attracted some attention on account of its powers as an antiperiodic in 

 fevers, and has been extensively prescribed by European physicians in 

 India. 



Description — The tuberous roots of A. heterophyllum are ovoid, 

 oblong, and downward-tapering or obconical; they vary in length 

 from ^ to 1+ inches and in diameter from ^^ to ^^ of an inch, and 

 weigh from 5 to 45 grains. They are of a light ash colour, wrinkled 

 and marked with scars of rootlets, and have scaly rudiments of leaves 

 at the summit. Internally they are pure white and farinaceous. A 

 transverse section shows a homogeneous tissue with 4 to 7 j'ellowish 

 vascular bundles. In a longitudinal section these bundles are seen to 

 traverse the root from the scar of the stem to the opposite pointed 

 end, here and there giving off a rootlet. The taste of the root is simply 

 bitter with no acridity. 



ment to Pharm. of India, pp. 25-32, 265) parts of India for the poisonous aconite 



there are several kinds of aconite root roots are Bish (Arabic); Bis (Persian) ; 



found in the Indian bazaars, some of them Sbujyd-his, MUlid-zahar, Bachhndg (Hindu- 



highly poisonous, others innocuous. The stani) ; Vasha-ndvi (Tamil) ; Vasa-ndbld 



first or poisonous aconites he groups under (Malyalim). 



the head Aconitum ferox, while the second, ^ Beautifully figured in Royle's Ilhistra- 



of which there are three varieties mostly flons of the Botany of the Himalayan 



knownby the Arabic name /acim7( Persian mountains, &c., 1839, tab. 13; also in 



Zadvdr), he refers to undetermined species Bentley and Trimen's Medicinal Plants, 



of Aconitum. Part 27 (1877). 



The surest and safest names in most 2 Bengal Dispensatory, 1842. 167. 



