N. O. ASCLEPIADE.E. 815 



The following is a resume of the trials reported to the Indigenous Drugs 

 Committee : — 



Captain Childe, who used the minimum doses of the tincture, reported that 

 the drug was found useful in acute and subacute dysentery, but that in cases 

 of chronic diarrhoea no good effect was observed. Lieutenant-Colonel Nailer 

 reported that in 30 grains dose the drug acted as an efficient emetic in one 

 case. Captain Waters reported that it was tried in two cases of mild 

 dysentery and appeared to have a slight effect. Captain K. Prasad reported 

 that the powder is a good substitute for ipecacuanha in dysentery and that 

 the tincture is not so efficacious as the powder. Civil Surgeon Maddox 

 reported that an initial dose of 5 grains of the powder first given produced 

 violent vomiting and purging. The pulvis should be given at first in small 

 doses gradually increased. The tincture given in 30 m. doses produced 

 vomiting and purging. In 20 m. doses it however had not that effect, the 

 dose should be gradually increased. Lieutenant-Colonel Bartholomeusz re- 

 ported that he tried pulvis C. procerie in two cases, of dysentery, but with no 

 satisfactory results. Major Crawford reported that the drug was tried in 

 several cases where ipecacuanha would otherwise have been administered 

 and the results have not been very satisfactory. Major Macnamara re- 

 ported that it was tried in a few cases, but no good effects were noticeable. 

 Assistant Surgeon Ganga Singh reported that the tincture and powder of 

 C procera have been used in bronchitis and dysentery and have been found 

 efficacious. Major Powell reported that the tincture has been prescribed as 

 a tonic and stomachic for debility and impaired appetite in five cases in 

 doses of 20 m. with satisfactory results. 



Chemical composition.— The authors of the Pharmacographia state, that 

 by following the process of Duncan, 200 grammes of the powdered bark of C. 

 gigantea yielded nothing like his mudarine, but 2'4 grammes of an acrid resin 

 soluble in ether and alcohol. The latter solution reddens litmus ; the former 

 on evaporation yields the resin as an almost colourless mass. When the 

 aqueous liquid is separated from the crude resin, and much absolute alcohol 

 added, an abundant precipitate of mucilage is obtained, and the liquid now 

 contains a bitter principle, which after due concentration may be separated 

 by means of tannic acid. Similar results were obtained by exhausting the 

 bark of G. pvocera with dilute alcohol. The tannic compound of the bitter 

 principle was mixed with carbonate of lead, dried, and boiled with spirit of 

 wine. This after evaporation furnished an amorphous, very bitter mass, not 

 soluble in water, but readily so in absolute alcohol. The solution is not 

 precipitated by an alcoholic solution of acetate of lead. By purifying the 

 bitter principle with chloroform or ether, it is at last obtained colourless. 

 This bitter matter is probably the active principle of Calotropis ; we ascer- 

 tained by means of the usual tests that no alkaloid occurs in the drug. The 

 large juicy stem, especially that of C. gigantea, ought to be submitted to an 

 accurate chemical and therapeutical examination, List's asclepione (Gmelin's 

 Chemistry XVII., 368,) might then be sought for. (Op. cit„ 2nd Ed., p. 426.) 

 Drs. Warden and Waddell (1881) commenced an examination of Madar root 

 bark in Calcutta, and obtained a substance crystallizing in nodular masses, 



