Am.  Jour.  Pharrn  \ 
September.  1897.  , 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association. 
j 
487 
ARALIA  NUDICAULIS. 
By  William  C.  Alpers  and  Benjamin  L,  Murray. 
The  botany  of  the  entire  plant,  and  the  microscopy,  chemistry  and  pharma- 
ceutical preparations  of  the  rhizome  were  treated.  Drawings  of  a  cross-section 
of  the  corky  layer  of  the  old  bark,  a  longitudinal  section  of  the  outer  bark,  also 
one  of  the  wood  from  pith  to  bark,  and  a  segmentary  cross-section  of  the  entire 
root  showing  pitted  vessels,  lignified  cells,  cork  cells,  medullary  rays,  medullary 
rays  prolonged  into  bark,  cambium  layer,  resin  and  oil  cells,  phellogen,  bark, 
wood  and  pith,  accompanied  the  paper. 
As  a  summary  of  the  systematic  analysis  and  estimation  of  the  constituents, 
the  following  table  was  presented  : 
Extract  with 
Percentage  of 
Dry  Drug. 
Containing 
3-38 
Resin,  3  05  per  cent.;  oil,  0-33  per  cent. 
Alcohol,  80  per  cent.  .  .  . 
875 
Tannin  ;  organic  acid  ;  acid  resin  (neutral  resin?) 
Water  
3-58 
Albuminous  bodies  ;  coloring  matter. 
56-10 
Mucilaginous  matter. 
Alkaline  solution  .... 
6-89 
Crude  fibres,  etc. 
(By  subtraction)  ..... 
21-30 
Cellulose. 
IOO'OO 
Regarding  the  pharmaceutical  preparations,  the  authors  said  a  quantity  of  the 
fresh  rhizome  gathered  in  the  fall  was  digested  with  alcohol,  according  to  the 
directions  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  for  making  fresh  tinctures.  This  tincture, 
after  standing  nearly  a  year,  exposed  to  the  varying  temperatures  of  winter 
and  summer,  showed  no  precipitate,  and  possessed  the  odor  and  taste  of  the  plant. 
Mixed  with  water  it  formed  a  milky  precipitate,  indicating  the  presence  of  oil 
and  resin.  It  had  a  beautiful  gold-yellow  color,  which  seems  to  be  permanent. 
A  fluid  extract  was  prepared  from  the  rhizome  gathered  in  the  spring.  A  men- 
struum of  four  parts  of  alcohol  and  one  of  water  was  used,  and  the  general 
directions  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  for  making  fluid  extracts  were  followed.  The 
evaporization  of  the  second  percolate  was  performed  at  a  very  low  temperature, 
in  order  not  to  drive  off  oily  or  resinous  parts.  The  fluid  extract  resembled 
the  tincture,  but  is  darker,  owing  to  the  solution  of  the  coloring  matter  of  the 
plant,  and  more  aromatic. 
Although  this  fluid  extract  appears  to  be  an  elegant  and  highly  concentrated 
preparation,  and  to  possess  all  the  properties  of  the  drug,  it  is  doubtful,  in  the 
writers'  minds,  if  therapeutically  it  would  be  the  most  desirable  form  of  admin- 
istering the  drug.  The  virtues  of  the  drug  depend,  they  believe,  on  the  oil  and 
resins.  The  properties  of  the  drag,  judging  from  some  crude  experiments, 
seemed  to  be  stimulant,  diaphoretic  and  probably  neurotic. 
Professors  Sayre  and  Lloyd  spoke  of  the  compound  syrup  of  aralia  being 
used  as  an  alterative  by  the  Eclectics,  instead  of  the  compound  syrup  of  sarsa- 
parilla. 
Mr.  Alpers  said  he  had  been  unable  to  procure  Aralia  nudicaulis  in  the 
market,  but  that  each  time  he  had  ordered  it  another  drug  had  been  sent.  In 
