THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
AUGUST,  1895. 
VIBURNUM  PRUNIFOLIUM  AND  VIBURNUM  OPULUS.  . 
By  L.  E.  Sayre, 
Member  of  Research  Committee  C,  Revision  Committee  of  U.  S.  P. 
The  two  barks,  Viburnum  prunifolium  and  Viburnum  opulus, 
have  been  for  some  time  almost  equally  popular  among  practitioners. 
Wherein  lies  the  advantage  of  one  over  the  other,  therapeutically, 
is,  perhaps,  difficult  for  one  to  say  without  more  data  than  is  at 
present  at  our  command ;  but,  as  far  as  my  investigations  have 
gone,  it  appears  that  the  prunifolium  is  more  frequently  depended 
upon  in  neuralgia  of  the  ovaries,  that  the  opulus  is  most  useful  in 
uterine  and  ovarian  pain,  in  dysmenorrhea  and  pains  of  that  class, 
and  that  it  is  more  often  depended  upon  for  prevention  of  abortion 
whether  accidental  or  habitual.  But  it  is  not  so  much  a  question 
of  therapeutical  merits  of  the  one  or  the  other  of  these  barks  which 
so  much  engages  the  attention  of  the  pharmacist,  as  it  is  the  phys- 
ical characteristics  which  will  enable  one  to  assure  himself  of  their 
purity. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  describes  these  two  barks  as  follows : 
VIBURNUM  OPUUJS. 
"  In  flattish  or  curved  bands,  or  occasionally  in  quills,  sometimes  30  centi- 
metres long,  and  from  1  to  1*5  millimetres  thick;  outer  surface  ash-gray,  marked 
with  scattered,  somewhat  transversely  elongated  warts  of  a  brownish  color,  due 
to  abrasion,  and  more  or  less  marked  with  blackish  dots,  and  chiefly  in  a  longi- 
tudinal direction,  with  black,  irregular  lines  or  thin  ridges  ;  underneath  the 
easily-removed  corky  layer  of  a  pale  brownish  or  somewhat  reddish-brown 
color  ;  the  inner  surface  dingy  white  or  brownish  ;  fracture  tough,  the  tissue 
separating  in  layers  ;  inodorous  ;  taste  somewhat  astringent  and  bitter." 
VIBURNUM  PRUNIFOLIUM. 
"In  thin  pieces  or  quills,  glossy  purplish-brown,  with  scattered  warts  and 
minute  black  dots  ;  when  collected  from  old  wood,  grayish-brown  ;  the  thin, 
(387) 
