25 VIOLA ODORATA 



flowers were formerly official in the London, Edinburgh, and 

 Dublin Pharmacopoeias. 



Collection, General Characters, and Composition. Violet flowers 

 should be gathered immediately they are expanded. When fresh 

 they have a beautiful bluish-purple or deep violet colour, a very 

 agreeable odour, and a slightly bitter taste. When carefully dried 

 they retain their colour ; but their odour is in a great measure 

 lost. When chewed they tinge the saliva blue. They yield their 

 properties to boiling water ; and these may be preserved for some 

 time by means of sugar in the form of syrup of violets. 



The chief constituents of the flowers are an odorous principle, 

 blue colouring matter, and sugar. Boullay also discovered in the 

 root, leaves, flowers, and seeds of this plant, an alkaloid, resembling 

 the emetia of ipecacuanha, which he termed violine. This 

 alkaline principle was found by Orfila to be an energetic poison. 

 It may probably prove to be identical with emetia. 



Medical Properties and Uses. Violet flowers possess slightly 

 laxative properties, but they are very rarely used at the present 

 day. The best form of administration is the syrup of violets, which 

 may be given as a laxative to infants, in doses of half a teaspoon- 

 ful to a teaspoonful or more, with an equal quantity of oil of 

 almonds. Syrup of violets has also been used to give colour and 

 flavour to other medicines. 



Syrup of violets, as well as their aqueous infusion, also afford a 

 very delicate test for acids and alkalies, being reddened by the 

 former, and changed to a green by the latter. 



On the Continent, the herbaceous parts of this and some other 

 species of violet, more especially of Viola tricolor, the common 

 Heartsease or Pansy, have been also employed for their muci- 

 laginous, demulcent, and expectorant properties. The root and 

 seeds are also emetic and purgative, which properties, as well as 

 the expectorant action of the plant, are doubtless due to the 

 presence of violine or violia. 



Per Mat. Med., vol. ii, pt. 2, p. 573 ; Christison's Disp., p. 946 ; 

 U. S. Disp., by W. & B., p. 898; Watts, Diet. Chem., vol. v, 

 pp. 1000 and 1001 ; Steph. & Church., by Burnett, vol. i, pi. 29 ; 

 Journ. de Pharm., vol. x, p. 23, and Jan., 1824. 



