436 
Gleanings  in  Materia  Medica. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm^ 
I      Sept ,  1881. 
GLEANINGS  IN  MATERIA  MEDICA. 
By  the  Editor. 
Japanese  and  Chinese  Aconite  Tubers. — Dr.  A.  Langgaard  describes 
seven  kinds  of  aconite  tubers  which  are  met  with  in  the  Japanese 
drug  stores  and  which  are  mostly  used  externally,  rarely  internally^ 
and  are  perhaps  also  used  in  the  preparation  of  the  sesso  arrow  poison. 
The  origin  of  these  tubers  has  not  been  ascertained  yet.  Aconitum 
lycoctonum,  Lin.,  var.  flor.  ochroleucis,  Savatier,  is  regarded  by  bot- 
anists as  identical  with  Ac.  japonicum,  Thmiherg,  and  Ac.  Fischeri^ 
Reich.,  with  Ac.  chinense,  Sleb. ;  these  plants  are  known  in  Japan  as 
reisin-so  and  tori  kabuto,  the  latter  name  meaning  "  bird's  helmet/'  in 
allusion  to  the  shape  of  the  flower.  A  third  species,  Ac.  uncinatum,, 
Lin.,  is  known  as  hana-dzuron.  The  tubers  are  not  derived  from 
many  different  species,  but  are  assorted  according  to  size  and  prepared 
in  various  ways,  by  maceration  in  vinegar  or  children's  urine,  by 
pickling,  drying  and  interring,  their  appearance  and  properties  must 
be  considerably  modified.  With  the  exception  of  kusa-usu,  they  are 
derived  from  carefully  cultivated  plants. 
1.  Dai-bushi  is  imported  from  China,  where  it  is  known  sls  Fu-tsze,. 
in  a  pickled  condition.  The  tubers  are  large,  heavy,  napiform,  of  a. 
dingy  gray  or  gray-brown  color,  deeply  wrinkled,  mostly  with  the 
shriveled  bud  present,  with  small  warty  protuberances  and  with  scars 
of  the  detached  rootlets ;  35  to  55  millimeters  long ;  the  largest  diam- 
eter up  to  30  mm.  thick;  weight  6*7  to  16"6  grams;  attract  moisture, 
are  tough  but  may  be  cut ;  taste  saline,  then  burning.  A  transverse 
section  is  of  a  dingy  brown-yellow  color  and  occasionally  shows  irreg- 
ular curved  lines  which  by  the  Japanese  are  likened  to  the  convolu- 
tions of  the  brain ;  mostly,  however,  a  circle  of  fibro vascular  groups- 
is  seen,  each  group  being  furnished  with  a  circular  cambium,  4  or  5. 
fibro  vascular  bundles  and  a  central  pith.  These  tubers  yield  15  per 
cent,  of  alcoholic  extract. 
2.  Sen-uzu  comes  from  the  northern  part  of  Nipon  and  agrees  with 
Hanbury's  chuen-woo  of  China.  The  tubers  are  smaller  than  the 
preceding,  roundish  or  conical,  gray,  smooth  or  somewhat  finely  wrin- 
kled, above  depressed,  often  bearing  the  remnants  of  a  bud,  on  the 
sides  with  small  wartlike  protuberances,  deprived  of  the  radicles;  15 
to  40  mm.  long;  30  mm.  and  less  thick;  weight  2*5  to  7*4  grams; 
very  hard,  cut  with  difficulty ;   upon  transverse  section  white  and 
