SEEDS. 
121 
in Eastern Africa and Senegal, the seeds of which con- 
tain two resins but no alkaloids. 
NUX VOMICA. 
The dried, ripe seeds of Strychnos Nux vomica (Fam. 
Loganiacese), a small tree native of the East Indies and 
also found growing in the forests of Ceylon, on the 
Malabar Coast and in Northern Australia. The fruit 
is a kind of berry with from three to five seeds, which 
are freed from the bitter pulp by washing, and dried 
before exportation. 
Description. — Orbicular, compressed, concavo con- 
vex, sometimes irregularly bent, margin acute or 
rounded, 17 to 30 mm. in diameter, 3 to 5 mm. thick; 
externally grayish-yellow or grayish- green, covered 
with long hairs giving the seed a satiny luster, and 
sometimes with dark-brown fragments of the fruit 
pulp, hilum near the center of one side, and a more or 
less distinct ridge resembling a raphe extending from 
it to the micropyle ; very hard when dry, tough when 
damp; internally whitish, horny, endosperm in two 
more or less regular concavo-convex halves, embryo 
small, with two heart-shaped cotyledons and situated 
near the micropyle; inodorous; taste intensely and 
persistently bitter. 
Constituents. — Ash 1 to 4 per cent. ; igasuric acid ; 
1'5 to 5 per cent, of alkaloids consisting of strychnine 
and brucine, the former comprising from one-third to 
one-half of the total amount. Strychnine crystallizes 
in rhombic prisms and gives with concentrated sul- 
phuric acid, in connection with potassium bichromate, 
a blue or violet color. Brucine forms rectangular 
octohedra and gives a deep-red color with nitric acid. 
A glucoside loganin is present in the seeds in small 
amount, but it is found in the pulp of the fruit to the 
