EUONYMUS SPINDLE TREE. 125 



Preparations. — None are official. Commonly used in decoction. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Climbing bittersweet is said to be dia- 

 phoretic, diuretic, alterative, and somewhat narcotic, but its reputation is 

 chiefly in domestic practice, where the effects of large draughts of warm 

 water are often attributed to some really inert substance which has been 

 boiled with it. At any rate, if this plant really possesses valuable medic- 

 inal properties the fact is yet to be demonstrated. 



Climbing or woody bittersweet should be carefully distinguished from 

 the solan aceous plant {Solarium Dulcamara), also known as bittersweet, or 

 herbaceous bittersweet. 



EUONYMUS— Spindle Tree. 



Euonymus atropurpureus Jacquin. — Wahoo, Burning Bush. 



Description. — Calyx : sepals commonly 4, united at the base. Corolla : 

 petals as many as the sepals, roundish-obovate. Stamens as many as the 

 sepals, inserted in the broad, flat, fleshy disk ; filaments short. Ovary 

 half enclosed by the disk ; styles united. Fruit a 4-lobed, 4-celled cap- 

 sule, each cell 1- to 2-seeded, the seeds nearly enclosed in the bright-red, 

 succulent aril. 



A shrub, 6 to 12 feet high, with somewhat quadrangular, straight 

 branches. Leaves petiolate, ovate-oblong, pointed, finely serrate. Flowers 

 dark purple, on peduncles 1 to 2 inches long, 5- to 7-flowered, ajypearing 

 in June. The fruit matures in October. 



Habitat. — In shady woods from Canada to Florida and westward. 



Part Used. — The bark — United States Pharmacopoeia. 



Constituents. — To analysis euonymus has yielded, besides resins, starch, 

 glucose, etc., a peculiar bitter neutral principle termed euonymin, w r hose 

 therapeutic properties have not been investigated. The so-called euony- 

 min of the eclectic practitioners is an impure resinous body, prepared by 

 precipitating the alcoholic tincture by the addition of water. 



Preparations. — Extractum euonymii — extract of euonjmius. — United 

 States Pharmacopoeia. This is an efficient preparation. The bark imparts 

 its virtues to both alcohol and water, and may be employed in tincture or 

 decoction. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Euonymus is a mild and somewhat un- 

 certain purgative, having probably some cholagogue action. Though 

 chiefly employed in empirical practice, it is well thought of by many regu- 

 lar practitioners. There is little evidence, however, of its possessing prop- 

 erties of sufficient value to place it in rank with many other cathartics and 

 purgatives of established reputation; and the efforts now being made to 

 push it into popular favor are to be viewed as purely business enterprises, 

 having little reference to the actual value of the drug. 



