506 
Solatium  Paniculatum. 
J  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1       Oct.,  1877. 
made  widely  known,  even  in  the  crude  form  in  which  I  have  presented 
them. 
The  practical  conclusion  I  wish  to  emphasize  is,  that  it  is  unsafe  to 
prescribe  strychnia  in  solution  with  iodides,  bromides,  or  even  chlorides, 
in  anything  approaching  a  saturated  solution.  If  such  prescriptions 
are  dispensed,  the  directions  to  " shake  the  bottle"  ought  to  be  made 
so  prominent  that  they  could  not  possibly  be  disregarded.1 
Detroit,  Mich.,  Sept.  5,  1877. 
ON  JURUBEBIA,  THE  ALKALOID  OF  THE  SOLANUM 
PANICULATUM,  Lin. 
By  Francis  V.  Greene,  M.D.,  U.S.N. 
In  the  collections  of  Brazilian  medicinal  plants  at  the  Exposition  in 
Paris,  in  1867,  the  Brazilian  National  Exposition  in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  in 
1875,  and  the  Centennial  Exhibition  in  this  city,  were  displayed  several 
specimens  of  the  berries  of  the  Jurubeba  plant,  the  expressed  juice  of 
which  has  long  been  in  use  in  domestic  practice  in  Brazil  in  affections 
of  the  liver  and  spleen,  and  likewise  in  dropsies,  vesical  catarrh  and 
diseases  of  the  skin.  In  consequence  of  the  excessive  bitterness  of 
the  juice,  and  the  impossibility  of  procuring  the  fresh  fruit  at  all  periods 
of  the  year,  the  Brazilian  pharmacists,  and  more  particularly  Ferreira 
Maia  &  Co.,  of  Pernambuco,  have  for  some  years  prepared  from  the 
berries  an  extract,  syrup,  wine  and  plaster,  all  of  which  were  to  be 
found  among  the  Brazilian  pharmaceutical  preparations  exhibited  at  the 
above-mentioned  expositions. 
Jurubeba,  which  is  also  known  as  the  juripeba,  jupeba  or  jubeba,  is 
the  Solarium  paniculatum  of  Linnaeus,  and  one  of  the  two  solana  described 
by  Pison  (Brazil,  85)  under  the  name  of  juripeba,  the  other  being, 
according  to  Dunal  (Diet.  Univ.  Mat.  Mdd.,  1834,  vol.  vi,  p.  422),  the 
Solatium  toxicarium,  growing  in  Guiana,  and  used  by  the  natives  as  a 
poison.  Spix  and  Martius  state  that  "the  juice  of  the  crushed  leaves 
and  fruit  of  the  juripeba  is  used  in  obstructions  of  the  abdominal  vis- 
cera, particularly  of  the  liver,  and  in  vesical  catarrh.  Several  other 
species  of  solanum  are  used  in  like  affections,  and  are  applied  fresh  to 
the  surface,  with  an  ordinarily  favorable  effect  on  the  cicatrization  of 
lA  case  of  poisoning  by  strychnia,  under  somewhat  similar  circumstances,  was 
reported  in  "Amer.  Jour.  Phar  ,"  1870,  p.  309. — Editor. 
