Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Ipecacuanha

IPECACUANHA , or IPECACUAN (the native Brazilian name), in botany, the plants producing the drug so named. In pharmacy: (1) The dried root of Cephælis ipecacuanha, a conchonaceous plant from Brazil. The ipecacuanha from that country is called annulated, to distinguish it from the striated kind from Peru. The active ingredients reside chiefly in the cortex. It contains a feeble alkaloid called ceretin. Its preparation are pills, powders, lozenges, and wine. In large doses it is an emetic; in smaller ones it is an expectorant and an alterative. It is considered a specific in dysentery. Ipecacuanha, made into ointment, is a counter-irritant. (2) Various other plants produce a similar drug, as, for example, all the Alsodineæ, a tribe of Violaceæ.