^MarchiS""1"}    The  Apocynacece  in  Materia  Medica.  169 
bark  relatively  very  thin,  frequently  separated  from  the  wood  and 
formed  of  two  zones. 
Greenish  has  isolated  from  the  roots  of TV.  odorum  two  glucosides 
Neriodorine  analogous  to  Oleandrine  and  Neriodoreine  analogous 
with  Digitaleine :  the  two  principles  are  bitter  and  poisonous.  In 
India,  a  decoction  of  the  stems  in  oil  is  applied  externally  against 
leprosy  and  other  cutaneous  affections,  and  the  fresh  juice  in 
ophthalmies.  The  juice  is  said  to  be  strongly  irritant,  and  caustic 
and  very  poisonous  and  used  for  poisonings  and  suicide. 
Ophioxylon  Serpentinum. — The  root  of  the  O.  serpentinum 
Willd.,  the  Rauwolfta  serpentina  Benth.,  is  described  as  quite  large 
y2  to  2  cm.  in  diameter  recurved,  sinuate,  tapering  to  the  extremity 
and  light  brown  in  color.  The  section  shows  a  ligneous  axis  yellow- 
ish white  and  hard,  and  a  thin  brown  cortex.  The  odor  is  slight, 
taste  strongly  bitter,  disagreeable,  alliaceous  and  nauseous.  The 
cortical  parenchyma  is  filled  with  starch  and  the  laticiferous  ducts 
contained  are  filled  with  a  brown  substance.  According  to  the 
investigations  of  Prof.  Wefers  Bettnick  the  root  contains  a  resin,  a 
volatile  oil,  tannin  and  a  yellow  crystalline  substance  Ophioxylin} 
The  specific  name  indicates  the  use  to  which  it  is  applied  in 
India  against  snake  bites  and  the  sting  of  the  scorpion,  being  em- 
ployed internally  in  decoction  and  externally  in  powder.  It  is 
largely  used  as  a  bitter  febrifuge  and  extensively  in  febrile  intesti- 
nal affections :  cholera,  dysentery,  etc.  It  is  also  recommended  as 
an  anthelmintic  and  as  augmenting  uterine  contractions  in  labor. 
1  The  authors  of  the  Pharmacographia  Indica  report  examining  this  root  and 
finding  traces  of  alkaloid  present  in  extracts  made  with  petroleum  ether,  ether, 
alcohol  and  amylic  alcohol,  and  state  as  follows: 
"At  present  we  do  not  offer  any  opinion  as  to  whether  the  alkaloidal  princi- 
ples we  have  referred  to  in  the  various  extracts  are  identical  or  not ;  we  are  also 
at  present  unable  to  state  whether  these  alkaloids  are  new  or  merely  princi- 
ples which  have  already  been  described  as  occurring  in  other  plants  of  the 
same  natural  order.  An  analysis  of  the  root  of  O.  serpentinum,  by  W.  Bettnick, 
has  been  published,  where  no  alkaloid  is  reported  to  have  been  found,  but  a 
crystalline  body  related  to  juglone.  We  feel  couvniced  that  the  drug  exam- 
ined by  Bettnick  was  not  authenticated.  Prof.  Bykman  has  recorded  the  dis- 
covery of  an  alkaloid  in  an  Indian  species  ophioxyline,  and  later  still  (1890)  M. 
Greshoff  has  found  an  alkaloid  giving  a  veratrine  reaction  with  Frohde's  re- 
agent, thus  substantiating  our  analysis.  It  is  probable  that  as  the  root  resem- 
bles plumbago  root,  Prof.  Bettnick's  ophioxylin  was  only  plumbagin." 
G.  M.  B. 
