THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL 
OP 
PHARMACY. 
OCTOBER, 1841. 
ART. XXXV.— OBSERVATIONS ON ASARUM CANADENSE, 
AND ASARUM EUROPCEUM. By Will am Procter, Jr. 
The Asarum Canadense has been the subject of several 
writers in this country, whose investigations have gone far to 
elucidate its chemical history. Dr. Bigelow, in his Medical 
Botany, has given a short account of its chemical constituents, 
among which he ascertained the presence of light-colored, pun- 
gent and fragrant essential oil, a red bitter resinous matter, 
starch, and gum. After Dr. Bigelow, no experimenter occu- 
pied himself with this plant, so far as I am acquainted, until 
the late Richard Rushton, who, in his inaugural essay* on this 
subject, before the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, has ex- 
tended our knowledge of its chemical constituents. He as- 
certained the presence of fatty matter, chlorophylle, salts of 
lime and potassa, iron and lignin ; besides giving a more ac- 
curate account of its first mentioned constituents. 
The following quotation is from the paper of Rushton, un- 
der the head of Affinities. " But the congener with which it 
is most frequently compared, is the European species, Asa- 
rum Europceum. Guibourt, in his Hist. Abregee des 
Droges Simples, third edition, states 4 that the root sent to 
him, from Philadelphia, by Mr. Durand, did not seem to him 
* See Vol. x, Page 181, of this Journal. 
vol. vii. — no. in. 23 
