PIPER NIG RUM. 329 



ACTION AND USES. 



Kamala is an anthelmintic and slight gastro-intestinal 

 irritant, sometimes causing nausea, vomiting, colic, and 

 diarrhoea. It is used to expel the tape-worm, lumbricoid. and 

 oxyuria. 



Piper yigriim BLACK PEPPER. The dried un- 

 ripe berries of Piper nigrum. Imported from the 

 East Indies. 



Characters. Small, roundish, wrinkled ; tegument brown- 

 ish-Hack, containing a greyish-yellow globular seed. Odour 

 aromatic. Taste pungent, and bitterish. 



Substances resembling Black Pepper : Pimento, which has 

 calyx ; Cubebs, which has stalk. 



Composition. Pepper contains a volatile oil, isomeric 

 with turpentine, with the odour of pepper ; a complex resin ; 

 a tasteless crystalline alkaloid, piperin, Ci7H l8 N0 3 , that is, 

 isomeric with morphia ; and chavicin. 



Dose. 5 to 20 gr. 



Preparation. 



Confectio Pioeria. 1 in 10. Dose, 1 to 2 dr. 



Pepper is also contained in Confectio Opii (1 in 31), and 

 Pulvis Opii Compositus (1 in 7?). 



ACTION AND USES. 

 1. IMMEDIATE LOCAL ACTION AND USES. 



Externally, pepper is a domestic rubefacient, anodyne, and 

 counter-irritant, like mustard. 



Internally, it acts as a local stimulant aromatic in the 

 mouth, stomach, and intestine. As a familiar condiment, it 

 assists gastric digestion like other substances of the same class. 



2. ACTION IN THE BLOOD, AND SPECIFIC ACTION AND USES. 



The volatile oil of pepper acts on the blood and tissues like 

 its allies. Piperin is believed to possess the antiperiodic and 

 antipyretic action of other alkaloids such as quinia ; and pepper 

 was once a domestic remedy for ague, which may still be used 

 when the appetite fails. 



3. REMOTE LOCAL ACTION AND USES. 



Some of the constituents of pepper are excreted by the 

 kidney, and probably by the intestinal mucous membranes, and 



