Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/162

82 this country by the Portugese, who appear to have adopted it in Brazil as a substitute for the Argemone of the Greeks and Romans which was used for a similar purpose (Dymock).

"The yellow juice mixed with Ghi is given internally in gonorrhoea (D. R. Thompson, M.D., C.I.E.)"

"I found the juice very useful in scabies. Asst.-Surgeon Gowry Coomar Mukerji found the powdered root in drachm doses useful in tapeworm (R. L. Dutt, M.D.)"—Watt's Dictionary.

The smoke of the seeds is used in Delhi to relieve tooth-ache. It is also said to be useful in caries of the teeth.

The seeds are used as a purgative in syphilis.

In leprosy it is used as follows:—

One tola of the juice, early in the morning, taken on empty stomach.

It is said to cure leprosy in 40 days.

"The juice is useful in malarious fevers of a low chronic type. How it acts I am not sure, bat I believe it has some specific effect (germicidal) on the malarial parasites and, secondly, it acts probably as a purgative.

"I have only tried this juice in a few cases— about six or seven cases— and it only acted well in one or two cases; so I cannot speak with confidence.

"I believe the oil is abetter preparation than the juice, which is an unstable compound.

"I am certain also the oil is a powerful alterative in syphilis and leprosy, the same as Neem oil, but I have not used it yet for this purpose.

"This drug has only lately come to my notice, and I believe there is a great future before it (Major D. B. Spencer, I. M. S.)

Chemistry.— Charbonnier claimed to have isolated morphine, and his statement was confirmed by Ortega. Peckolt, however, concluded that the plant contained a new alkaloid, argemonine, and not morphine.

To determine this question, Mr. J. O. Schlotterbeck exhausted a large quantity of the dried plant, with chloroform, and obtained a large yield of berberine, whilst a second alkaloid, identified as protopine, was extracted with ether from the filtrate.

In Schlotterbeck's opinion, protopine was the substance regarded as morphine by Charbonnier. and as a new alkaloid by Peckolt.