Page:Chinese materia medica (1911).djvu/9



ABRUS PRECATORIUS

(Hsiang-ssu-tzu), (Hung-tou), 423.

This is a twining shrub, growing to the height of several feet, and found in the south of China and parts of the East Indies. The first Chinese name given above, meaning "love sick", refers to the legend of a man who died by the side of one of these shrubs, and his wife sat beneath its shade and wept until she died also. The bright scarlet seeds, of the size of large shot, with a black spot at the hilum, are used as beads by children. They are said to be slightly poisonous (emetic) and to have the power of preventing Baroos camphor from evaporation when they are kept with it. When taken as medicine, they are said to "permeate the nine cavities of the body" and to "expel every sort of evil effluvia from heart and abdomen", to be diaphoretic, expectorant, antiperiodic, and to "destroy every sort of visceral or cuticular worm". The Pentsao gives in this connection what is regarded as a reliable prescription for the destruction of a "cat-devil". "If a cat-devil has been seen or its cry heard, use Abrus precatorius, Ricinus communis, Croton tiglium, of each, one bean ; pulverized cinnabar and wax, of each, four shu; make into pills the size of a hemp seed and administer at once. Then surround the patient with ashes and place before him a cinder fire. Spit the medicine into the fire, and as it bubbles up, mark a cross on the surface of the fire, when the cat-devil will die".

The root of Abrus precatoruis is long and woody, pale reddish-brown externally and yellowish internally. It has a thin bark, a peculiarly disagreeable odor, and a bitterish acrid flavor, leaving a faintly sweet after-taste. It is used in India and Java as a substitute for licorice, but is not employed medicinally by the Chinese. Waring directs an extract to be prepared in the same way as the Extractum Glycyrrhizae of the