Page:Botanic drugs, their materia medica, pharmacology, and therapeutics (1917).djvu/25

 Rosaceae: Bitter almond, sweet almond.

Rubiaceae: Cinchona, ipecac.

Scrophulariaceae: Digitalis.

Solanaceae: Belladonna, henbane.

Sterculinaceae: Cacao butter.

Styraceae: Benzoin.

Umbelliferae: Anise and oil of, ammoniac, asafetida, fennel.

Valerianaceae: Valerian.

Zingiberaceae: Ginger.

This is a world-wide list of popular official botanic drugs and is more eloquent than is much argument. Note that it contains only ten markedly toxic substances. In the United States some other drugs are much in use, partly due to Homeopathic and Eclectic recommendations. Including those of the Homeopaths and Eclectics, these may be named as actually in extensive use: Aconite, baptisia, buchu, bryonia, cactus, capsicum, chenopodium oil, cimicifuga, cinnamon, coca (cocine), echinacea, eucalyptus oil, gelsemium, hops, malt, phytolacca, pilocarpus, podophyllum, pulsatilla, resorcin, scoparius, sanguinaria, thuja, veratrum, viburnum, wild cherry—twenty-six added to the table, nearly half of them toxic. In the worldly-wide table only one-sixth of the drugs named are markedly toxic.

This shows an American inclination to include the toxic botanic drugs and to exclude the non- toxic ones. Primarily this is due to the American temperament, which demands visible results, and to our bent toward demanding a definite physiological action of a drug. In other words, mystery does not appeal strongly to the American physician.