THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
JULY, 1 8 4 3. 
ART. XVIII OBSERVATIONS ON ARUM TRIPHYLLUM. 
By Daniel S. Jones. 
{An Inaugural Essay. J 
The plants of the natural order Aroideae, or Arum tribe, 
are all distinguished by a taste of burning acridity, which 
varies in different species. The most remarkable is the 
Dieffenbachia Seguina, or Dumb Cane, a native of the 
West Indies and South America, which possesses it in so 
great a degree as to be highly deleterious. When a small 
quantity of this plant is chewed it is said to cause intense 
pain, a swelling of the tongue, and suspension of the power 
of speech. According to Pereira, two drams of the recent 
juice have been known to prove fatal in two hours. Milder 
species, as the Arum maculatum and A. triphyllum, have 
been employed in medicine, and the latter has been 
placed in the secondary list of the United States Pharma- 
copoeia. 
Notwithstanding this acrid property is so marked in this 
family of plants, yet, so far as I have been able to learn, all 
attempts to isolate the principle or principles upon which it 
depends, or even to retain it, have proved unsatisfactory. 
Dr. Bigelow, in his Medical Botany, has given a series 
of experiments on Arum triphyllum, tending to illustrate 
vol. ix. — no. n. 8 
