586 



MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



and made into a powder and a tincture prepared. This tincture has a peculiar 

 acridity. Dr. Millspaugh says : 



After tasting the tincture or chewing the rootlets, a very peculiar sensation of acridity 

 and enlargement is felt at the root of the tongue, which, once recognized, will always men- 

 tally associate itself with this plant. The root contains polygalic acid Cj2HjjOjj. It is a 

 white, odorless, acrid, amorphous powder. 



This acid forms a frothing, saponaceous solution in boiling water, and 

 breaks up into sapogenin and amorphous sugar, to which the name senegin has 

 been given, which by some has been regarded as identical with saponin. Accord- 

 ing to the author quoted above, in doses of 10 minims of the tincture to a 

 scruple of the powdered root, it produces : 



Anxiousness, with dullness of the head and vertigo; aching and weakness of the eyes, 

 with lachrymation, pressure in the ball, flickerings, dazzling vision, and contracted pupils; 

 sneezing; ptyalism; inflammation of the fauces and oesophagus, with thirst with anorexia; 

 nausea; mucous vomiting; burning in the stomach; cutting colic; roughness and irritation 

 of the larynx, with orgasm of blood to the chest, accompanied by constriction, aching, sore- 

 ness, and oppression; general debility; restless sleep; and profuse diaphoresis. 



Senegin resembles other saponins. Recent investigations indicate that the 

 plant also contains quillagic acid C^gHg^Oj^, sapotoxin and two senega saponins. 

 The saponin of Polygala virginiana has the formula C^jH^^Oj^. Other species 

 of Polygalaceae like P. venenosa contain saponin. . 



EuPHORBiACEAE. Spurge Family 



Herbs, shrubs or trees usually with a milky acrid juice, opposite alternate 

 or verticillate leaves ; monoecious or dioecious flowers, much reduced, sub- 

 tended by bracts resembling a calyx or corolla; ovary usually 3-celled; ovules 

 2 in each cell, pendulous; stigmas as many or twice as many as the cells; styles 

 generally 3; fruit a capsule, separating elastically into a 2-valved capsule; 

 fleshy or oily endosperm; seeds with flat cotyledons. 



A large family of 4000 species, chiefly tropical, many of which possess 

 noxious qualities. Some species of the genus Manihot found in tropical Amer- 



Fig. 324. Manchineal Tree (Hippomane Mancinella) . Furnishes 

 an arrow poison. (From Vesques' Traite de Botanique). 



