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Pictures of Medicinal Plants Sindu Translation Urdu Translation
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Plants have been used from ancient
times to attempt cures for diseases and to relive physical suffering. Ancient peoples all had acquired some knowledge of medicinal
plants. Oftentimes these primitive
attempts at medicine were based on superstition and speculation. Evil spirits in the body were thought to
be the cause of medical problems.
They could be driven out of the body through the use of poisonous or
disagreeable plant substances that rendered the body a disagreeable
habitat. Medicine men or women of a
tribe were usually charged with knowledge of such plants. The progress of medicine has often been
guided by the earlier observations and beliefs. Drug plants were always of
especial interest. As early as 5,000
B.C. many drugs were in use in China.
Sanskrit writings testify to methods of gathering and preparing drugs
in these early times. The
Babylonians, ancient Hebrews and Assyrians were all familiar with medicinal
plants. From Egypt there are records
dating to 1,600 B.C. naming many of the medicinal plants used by physicians
of that period, among which myrr, opium, cannabis, aloes, cassia and hemlock
are prominent. The Greeks were
familiar with many of the drugs of today, evidenced by the works of
Hippocrates, Theophrastus, Aristotle and Pythagoras. The supernatural element continued to
remain prominent in their culture, however.
Only a few individuals were thought able because of some special power
to distinguish harmful from valuable plants.
This “rhizotomoi” or root diggers were an important caste in ancient
Greece. In Rome there was less
interest in plants that had healing powers.
But by 77 BC Dioscorides wrote in his treatise, “De Materia Medica,”
dealing with the nature and properties of all the medicinal substances known
at that time. This work was highly
esteemed for 15 centuries and to this day is valued in parts of Turkey and
North Africa. Pliny and Galen also
described the nature of some drug plants (Hill 1952). Following the Dark Ages there
began a period of the encyclopedists and herbalists. The monasteries of Northern Europe
produced large compendiums of information regarding plants, much of which was
false. They stressed the medicinal
value and folklore of plants. About
the same time there appeared a “Doctrine of Signatures.” This superstitious doctrine suggested that
all plants possessed some sign, given by the Creator, which indicated the use
for which they were intended. A plant
with heart-shaped leaves was good for heart ailments; the liverleaf with its
3-lobed leaves was good for liver problems, etc. Many of the common names of plants owe their origin to this
superstition. Names such as
heartease, dogtooth violet, Solomon’s seal and liverwort are examples. Pharmacology and pharmacognosy owe
their beginnings to the earlier beliefs and knowledge about medicinal
plants. The interest in medicinal
plants was especially pronounced among the early botanists who were often
physicians. That branch of medical science
dealing with the drug plants themselves is known as Pharmacognosy. It is concerned with the history,
commerce, collection, selection, identification and preservation of crude
drugs and raw materials. The action
of drugs is Pharmacology. Worldwide there are several thousand plants that have been and
are still being used for medical purposes.
Many of these are restricted in use by native people who have long
resided in any given area. The Pure Food
and Drug Act of 1906 in the United States has standardized most of the truly
valuable drug plants. Such drugs are
referred to as “official.” Details
about these plants may be found at the United States Pharmacopoeia, the
Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia and the National Formulary, and various other
sources in the United States and Europe.
Very few drug plants are cultivated.
Most of the drug supply is from wild plants growing in different parts
of the world, especially in tropical areas.
These drug plants are collected and prepared in a crude way for
shipment. They eventually reach the
centers of the drug trade and are processed.
Sometimes a country has built up a monopoly of some particular
drug. For example, Japan used to
control the export of camphor, agar and pyrethrum, while the Dutch in Java
supplied almost all the Quinine (Chichona) for world trade. From 1920-1930 the importation of crude
drugs increased 140 percent. Most of
the processing of the crude material was carried out in the United
States. Additionally, several drugs
are produced in the United States either from wild or cultivated
sources. These include ginseng,
goldenseal, digitalis, cascara, wormseed and hemp. When there are shortages additional plants grown are henbane,
belladonna and stramonium. A plant’s medicinal value is due
to the presence in its tissues of some chemical substance or substances that
produce a physiological action on the body.
Most important are the alkaloids, compounds of carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen and nitrogen. Glucosides,
essential oils, fatty oils, resins, mucilages, tannins and gums are all
utilized. Some of these are powerful
poisons so that the preparation and administering of them should be entirely
supervised by physicians. Many methods have been proposed to
classify drugs and drug plants.
Classifications can be based on the chemical nature or the therapeutic
value of the plant product, the natural affinities of the various species or
the morphology of the plant organ from which the drug is obtained. Hill (1952) proposed a morphological basis
of classification. Generally it is
found that the active principles are present in the storage organs of the
plants, especially in roots and seeds, and less in leaves, bark, wood or
other plant parts. The amount of the
chemical substances present in any specific organ is so small that it is
difficult to give any biological significance to it. There may be some slight protective
function, but most likely the action that is valuable to humans in the
treatment of disease are merely waste products of plant metabolism. This is obtained from the tuberous
roots of the monkshood, Aconitum napellus. Although poisonous,
its use in medicine is comparatively recent.
The plant is a native of the Pyrenees, Alps and other mountainous
regions of Asia and Europe. It is
cultivated in temperate regions both as an ornamental and as a drug plant. Most of the commercial supply is from
Europe. At first the leaves and
flowering shoots were utilized, but later only the roots were used. These are collected in the autumn and
dried. Aconitine is the most
important of the several alkaloids that are present. It is used externally for neuralgia and
arthritis, and internally to relieve fever and pain. Dried corms of the meadow saffron,
Colchicum
autumnale,
are the source of colchicum. It is a perennial
tulip like herb of Europe and Northern Africa. It possesses an alkaloid, colchicine,
which is used in the treatment of arthritis and gout. Fresh roots seeds are also used to some
extent. Colchicine has the ability to
double the chromosomes in genetics studies. Gentian (Bitterroot) Gentiana lutea is a tall perennial
herb with striking orange-yellow flowers.
Gentian is common in the mountains of Central Europe. The rhizomes and roots are dug out in the
fall, sliced and dried. They contain
several glucosides that are valuable as a tonic for they can be used with
iron salts. Goldenseal, Hydrastis canadensis, was formerly common
in the woods of Eastern North America.
The Amerindians and European settlers used it as a remedy. The plant has been cultivated in the
Pacific Northwest and North Caroline for it was almost exterminated as a wild
plant. The roots and rhizomes contain
several alkaloids that may be used as a tonic and for the treatment of catarrh
and other inflamed mucous membranes. Ginseng has been used in China
since ancient times, where it is used to cure an array of diseases. True ginseng, Panax schinseng, is a plant of Eastern
Asia and this was once the only source of the drug. However, the demand became so great that large quantities of
American ginseng, Panax quinquefolium, have been grown in recent
years, and by 2003 Wisconsin led the production. In America ginseng is used as a stimulant and stomachic. These are small shrubby plants in
humid forests of the Neotropics.
Several species are the source of this well-known drug, but the main
source consists of the dried rhizome and roots of Cephaelis ipecacuanha. The main ingredient is Emetin,
a white, bitter, colorless alkaloid.
Ipecac is used as a diaphoretic emetic and expectorant. It is valuable in the treatment of amoebic
dysentery and pyorrhea. This is a resinous drug obtained
from the tubers of Exogonium
purya, a
twining, morning glory-like vine of the woodlands of eastern Mexico. The plant has been cultivated in Mexico,
Jamaica and India. The roots are
collected and dried over fires. Jalap
is used as a purgative. This is a product that is known
from ancient times. The plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra, is a perennial herb
that grows wild in Southern Europe and Western and Central Asia. It is also cultivated in many parts of the
same area. The largest producer of
cultivated licorice root has been Spain.
The roots are dried in sheds for several months and are shipped in
cylindrical pieces. Licorice is used
in medicine as a demulcent and expectorant and to disguise the flavor of
medicinal preparations. However, most
of the supply is used as a flavoring material in the tobacco and candy
industries and in the manufacture of shore polish. There are also many other industrial uses for licorice. It has a compound, glycyrrhizin, that is
50-times sweeter than sugar. A
solution of it can be used for etching steel sections in photomicrographic
work; and a substance is made from the waste root that foams readily and is
used by brewers to give a head to beer.
The fibers can be made into wallboard and boxboard under the name of
“Maftex”. It gives an insulating
material and is made into Jacquard cards that are used for controlling the
designs in the weaving of tapestries and other figured materials. Roots of the Mandrake
or May Apple, Podophyllum pellatum, yield the drug
podophyllum, which has been used in rural eastern United States as an emetic
and cathartic. The commercial supply
of this widespread plant is southern Appalachia where it is collected wild or
cultivated. Roots are collected in
the autumn or spring and are cut into cylindrical segments and carefully
dried. They contain a resin that is
the source of the cathartic. East
Indian podophyllum is obtained from Podopjhyllum emodi from the
Himalayas. Two native shrubs of China and
Tibet are the sources of the drug form of rhubarb: Rheum
officinale
and R. palmatum. These plants are
similar to the garden rhubarb but grow to a much larger size. They have been extensively cultivated in
China. The rhizomes and roots are dug
and cut into short pieces or slices.
These are threaded on a string and dried in the sun or in kilns. Rhubarb is used as a tonic and laxative
and for indigestion. East Indian
rhubarb is from Rheum emodi. The white variety of sea onion, Urginea maritima, is the source of squills.
The plant is native of the seacoasts of the Mediterranean and has come
under cultivation. The bulbs are dug
up and the outer scales removed. The
fleshy inner scales are then sliced and dried. Several glucosides are present. The drug is used as an expectorant and stimulant. A red variety contains toxic substances
that render it useful as a raticide. Senega snakeroot or milkwort, Polygala senega, is a small herbaceous perennial of Eastern North
America. It is the source of a
glucosidal drug obtained from the dried roots. The common name was derived because Senega or Seneca Indians
used the plant as a cure for snakebites.
Senega is used as an expectorant, emetic and stimulant. Dried rhizomes and roots of the
garden heliotrope, Valeriana officinalis, furnish
valerian. Native to Eurasia, it has
long been cultivated in the United States as an ornamental. It contains an essential oil that is used
to relieve nervous afflictions, pain, coughing and hysteria. Of North American origin, cascara
is obtained from the reddish-brown bark of the western buckthorn, Rhammus purshiana, a tree of the
northwestern United States and southwestern Canada. It was used by the Amerindians of the west and by the pioneer
Spanish settlers who called it cascara sagrada, ors sacred bark. The bark is peeled in long strips during
the summer and dried on racks. It is
stored for a year before being used as a tonic and laxative. Amerindians of Northern South
America have long used a variety of poisonous extracts from various woody
lianas as poisons. The identification
of the constituent plant materials in curare is difficult because the sources
vary from place to place. Strychnas toxifera, Chondodendron
tomentosum
and
species of Abuta and Cocculus, as well as other
species, have been used. New sources appear
with continued explorations in the vast region. In the preparation of curare portions of the bark, roots, stems
and tendrils are boiled down, the impurities skimmed off and the residue
filtered. Catalytic agents are added
and the whole mass is boiled to syrup.
This is exposed to the sun and dried to a paste that is kept in
tightly covered gourds or bamboo tubes. Curare can cause progressive
paralysis and eventual cardiac failure.
These lethal effects are due to several alkaloids. One of these, curarine, has now been
available to medicine for use in shock therapy, and as an ideal muscle
relaxant. Curarine is also used for
chronic spastic conditions, in surgical operations and tetanus and as a powerful
sedative. One of the most important of all drugs, quinine has been a
boon to mankind because it is the only adequate cure for malaria. Although some synthetic products are
available, they only complement quinine and are not substitutes for it. Quinine is obtained from the hard thick
bark of several species of the genus Cinchona, evergreeen trees of the
Andes of South America. Chinchona calisaya, C. officinalis, C.
ledgeriana and C. succccirubra are the principal
species that have been used. The Amerindians were familiar with
chinchona bark. The first use of the
drug by Europeans was in 1638 when, according to tradition, the Countess of
Cinchon, wife of the Viceroy of Peru, was cured of malaria after all other remedies
failed (Hill 1952). Although a story
of doubtful accuracy, nevertheless the Jesuits were familiar with the use of
the bark and carried it with them in their world travels. Very soon Jesuit’s bark or Peruvian bark
was in great demand. The supply at
first seemed inexhaustible but diminished under the wasteful methods of
collection. The trees were felled and
the bark stripped off and dried in the open or over fires in huts. It soon became evident that only cultivation
would guarantee the supply. Both the
Dutch and the English sent collectors to South America, but the Andean
natives guarded the remnants of the cinchona forests with great zeal. However, despite the hostility a few
seedlings and seeds were finally brought out of the area and became the basis
of the great plantations of Java and India.
Few tropical crops have been studied more intensively. All phases of cinchona production: breeding, culture, harvesting and
processing were investigated.
Eventually the Dutch developed a virtual monopoly, producing 95
percent of the world’s supply. The
Amerindian output was reduced to local consumption. As the amount of bark produced
was regulated in order to maintain high prices, attempts were made beginning
in 1934 to establish a cinchona industry in the Western Hemisphere. An experimental plantation was begun in
Guatemala and by the beginning of World War II a substantial mass of data and
a nursery of superior clones from all parts of the world was available. When the East Indian supplies were cut off
because of the war, the United States instituted an extensive program of
cinchona procurement in the Neotropics, utilizing all available wild stands
and developing new plantations.
Several promising new sources were discovered, among them Cinchona
pitayensis, a species that gave very high yields. From 1942-1945 exports of cinchona and
quinine from the Neotropics increased from 207,000 to over seven million
pounds, with Ecuador and Peru being the main producers. Cinchona bark is removed from
cultivated trees by uprooting them when they are about 12 years old and
stripping off the bark from both the stems and roots or by cutting the trunks
above ground and stripping the felled portion. In the latter case adventitious roots develop and later the
bark is removed from these in long quills.
The most important constituent of cinchona bark is quinine. This is a very bitter, white, granular
substance. In addition to its use in
the treatment of malaria, it is valuable as a tonic and antiseptic and in the
treatment of fevers. Over 29 other
alkaloids have been isolated from the bark, including cinchonidine,
cinchonine, and quinidine. All of
these are useful in medicine.
Totaquina is a standard mixture of all of these alkaloids. The inner bark of the slippery elm, Ulmus rubra, is the source of this
drug. The bark of this Eastern North
American tree is removed in the spring and the outer layers are discarded
while the inner portion is dried. The
bark has a very characteristic odor.
It contains mucilage and is used for its soothing effect on inflamed
tissues, either in the crude state or in the form of lozenges. This is an alkaloid from the
Asiatic Ephedra sinica.
E. equisetina and other species of the same genus. These shrubs are low growing, dioecious, leafless with slender
green stems. The drug is extracted
from the entire woody plant. In China
the drug is known as “ma huang” for 5,000 years. In modern times it has been used in the
treatment of colds, asthma, hay fever and other medical purposes. This is a hard resin that exudes
naturally from the stems of the lignum vitae trees, Guaiacum offininale and G. sanctum. It hardens into round, glassy
greenish-brown tears. It is acquired
from incisions, from the cut ends of logs or from pieces of the wood. Gum guaiac is used as a stimulant and
laxative. It is also a good indicator
of oxygen in the air. Lignum vitae,
or Ironwood, trees are evergreens native to the West Indies and other
Neotropical regions. There are two different sources
for quassia. Jamaican quassia, Picrasma excelsa, is a tall tree of the
West Indies and Surinam quassia, Quassia amara, grows in the
Neotropics and West Indies. The
latter is also a valuable timber tree with lustrous, yellowish-white
fine-grained wood. Quassia is
transported in the form of billets, and the drug is extracted by preparing an
effusion of chips or shavings. It is
very bitter to the taste and is used as a tonic and in the treatment of
dyspepsia and malaria. It is also an
insecticide. Oleoresins Please refer to Balsams and Oleoresins for additional
medicines obtained from stems and wood. Aloes are obtained from several
different sources. Curacao or
Barbados aloes are from Aloe barbadensis of
the West Indies, Socotrine aloes from Aloe perryi of East Africa and Cape
aloes from A. ferox of South Africa.
These are tropical and subtropical fleshy plants with showy
flowers. The leaves contain a
resinous juice with several glucosides.
The juice slowly exudes from cut leaves placed in containers. It is evaporated in pans to a thick,
viscous black mass that may be solidified.
Aloes have been used as purgatives and as additions to skin salves. They seem to aid in the healing process of
wounds. [see Pictures] Atropa belladonna is the source of this
old and important drug. The dried leaves
and tops and to some degree the roots contain the drug. The plant is a coarse perennial herb,
native to Central and Southern Europe and Asia Minor. It is cultivated as a drug plant in the
United States, India and Europe.
Leaves are collected during the flowering season and dried. They contain several alkaloids among which
hyoscyamine and atropine are most important.
Belladonna is used externally to relieve pain and internally to curb
excessive perspiration and coughs.
Atropine is used to dilate the pupil of the eye and as an antidote for
organophosphorus insecticide poisoning. Leaves of the coca shrub, Erythroxylon coca, and related species
contain cocaine. Native to Bolivia
and Peru, the plant is cultivated in South America where the leaves are used
as a masticatory. It is also grown in
Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Java. The
leaves mature in about four years when they are picked 3-4 times a year. They are carefully dried and shipped in
bales. The have a bitter aromatic
taste. About 100 pounds of leaves
yields one pound of the drug. Cocaine
has been used as a local anesthetic and as a tonic for digestion and
treatment of nervous conditions. It
is addictive when used habitually. Some
evidence suggests that cocaine was used in Ancient Egypt (see Mummy). The dried leaves of the shrubs Barosma betulina, B. serratifolia
and B. crenulata contain
the drug buchu. It grows in the dry mountainous
parts of South Africa. The active
ingredient is an essential oil that is used to disinfect and to stimulate
excretion and also in the treatment of indigestion and urinary disorders. Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea is native in Southern
and Central Europe and has been used to treat disorders of the heart. The dried leaves are dried for use. It contains a glucoside, digitoxin. Its action improves the tone and rhythm of
the heart beats thereby making contractions more powerful and complete. As a result more blood is sent from the
heart, which aids circulation and improves body nutrition and hastens waste
elimination. The mature leaves of the blue gum,
Eucalyptus
globulus,
contain an essential oil that is used in medicine. The tree can reach a height of 300 ft. in its native
Australia. It was once extensively
cultivated in California, Florida and the Mediterranean area. There was some belief that eucalyptus
trees aid in eliminating malaria in countries where they are planted. Their extensive root system may play a
role in drying-out mosquito breeding habitats. Eucalyptus oil is obtained from the dried leaves. It is used in
the treatment of throat and nose disorders, malaria and other fevers. The colorless oil is yellow with a unique
pungent odor. Witch hazel, Hamamelis virginiana, is a shrub of Eastern
North America. The dried leaves are
gathered in southern Appalachia.
However, in New England the bark, twigs and sometimes the entire plant
are utilized. The active principle is
tannin that is extracted with water and steam and distilled. Alcohol is added to the distillate in a
ratio of about one part alcohol to seven parts distillate. Witch hazel is used as an astringent and
to curtail bleeding. Henbane, Hyoscyamus niger, is a coarse smelly
herb native to Europe and Asia. It
has assumed weed status in other parts of the world. The drug is usually obtained in Europe,
but during the World Wars the plant was cultivated in the United States. The leaves and flower tops contain several
poisonous alkaloids: hyoscyamine and
scopolamine. Henbane is used as a
sedative and hypnotic. It acts in a
similar manner to belladonna and stramonium, but is less powerful. Native to Central Asia and Europe
hoarhound, Marrubium
vulgare,
has become naturalized in America where it is also cultivated. It is a small herbaceous perennial with
white flowers in dense axillary whorls.
Dried leaves and flower tops are used medicinally. Hoarhound is used as an infusion or in the
form of candy or lozenges. It once
was a favorite remedy for breaking up colds and has been used for arthritis,
dyspepsia and other ailments. The Indian tobacco, Lobelia inflata, is the source of this
drug that is secured from the dried leaves and tops of wild or cultivated
plants. It is a small North American annual
with many blue flowers in leafy terminal racemes. It is also one of the few poisonous plants in North
America. An alkaloid in lobelia is
used as an expectorant, antispasmodic and emetic. Amerindians knew its properties. Some evidence suggests that tobacco was used in Ancient Egypt
(see Mummy). Pennyroyal, Hedeoma pulegioides, is a small aromatic
annual found in poor soil in the eastern United States. An essential oil that it contains is derived
from the dried leaves and tops of the plant.
It has had some use in internal medicine. It has been an ingredient in liniments because of a
counterirritant action. However, its
main use was as an insect repellent. Senna is an ancient drug that is
obtained from dried leaflets and pods of several species of Cassia that are indigenous to
arid regions in Egypt and Arabia.
Alexandrian senna is from Cassia acutifolia and East Indian or Tinnavelly senna is from C. angustifolia. Both species are cultivated in India. Leaves are picked, dried in the sun and
baled. Senna is used as a purgative. Thorn apple
or Jimson weed, Datura stramonium, is the source of
stramonium. The plant is highly
poisonous and occurs worldwide although its origin was thought to be in
Asia. However, Amerindians knew of
its narcotic properties. It has been
cultivated in Europe and the United States.
The drug is extracted from the dried leaves and flowering tops. The active principles are alkaloids that
include hyoscyamine, atropine and scopolamine. The drug has been used as a substitute for belladonna for
relaxing the bronchial muscles in asthma treatment. It has also been used in Asia for its narcotic effects. A perennial plant of Northern
Asia, Northern Africa and Europe, wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, is the source of an
essential oil obtained by steam distillation from dried leaves and tops of
the plant. The greenish liquid has
been used in liniments. Over dosage
can result in deleterious consequences.
Its principal use is to flavor the liqueur absinthe, the use of which
is prohibited in some countries.
Absinthe contains other aromatics as well as wormwood. The plant has been grown in Oregon and
Michigan. Chamomile, Matricaria chamomilla, is a Eurasian daisy
like plant that has become cultivated in many places. The dried flower heads contain an
essential oil infusions of which are used as tonics and gastric
stimulants. The flower heads of the
Russian or garden chamomile, Anthemis nobilis, are used for similar purposes but also in poultices for
bruises, sprains and arthritis. The hop plant, Humulus lupulus, is native of the
north temperate regions of Eurasia and America. The plant was known to the
Romans and has been grown in parts of Europe since the 9th Century (Hill
1952). Hops are extensively
cultivated in the United States, Europe, South America and Australia. It is a climbing herb with perennial
roots. These send up several rough,
weak, angular stems with deeply lobed leaves and dioecious flowers. The female flowers are found in scaly,
cone like catkins that are covered with glandular hairs. They contain resin and various bitter,
aromatic and narcotic principles, mainly lupulin. The hop plants are trained on poles or trellises. Harvest is in the early autumn. The catkins are carefully picked out dried
in kilns at 70 deg. Fahrenheit or lower.
They are treated with sulfur and baled for shipment. Hops are used in medicine for their
sedative and soporific properties and also as a tonic. They have been used also in
poultices. However, their principal
use is in the brewing industry. Hops
are added to beer to prevent bacterial action and decomposition, and also to
improve the flavor. The Levant
wormseed, Artemisia
cina,
contains a valuable drug known as santonin derived from the dried unopened
flower heads. This is a small semi
shrubby perennial of Western Asia.
Most of the supply has come from Turkestan, although the species has
been grown in the Northwestern United States. This drug is a good remedy for intestinal worms and has been
used for this purpose for centuries.
It was introduced into Europe during the Crusades. Natives of Burma and other parts
of Southeastern Asia have used the seeds and oil from the chaulmoogra tree, Hydnocarpus kurzii, and related species
to treat skin diseases. Thus, in a
quest for a treatment for leprosy it was found at the University of Hawaii
that the oil from these trees had certain acids the ethyl esters of which
were productive in treating leprosy. These tall trees grow in dense jungles and
bear velvety fruits with several large seeds. These contain fatty oil with a characteristic odor and acrid
taste. The expressed oil is a
brownish-yellow liquid or soft solid.
The bitter apple, Citrullus colocynthis, has a spongy pulp
that when dried is the source of the glucosidal drug colocynth. The plant is native to warm parts of
Africa and Asia, but has been distributed worldwide and cultivated in the
Mediterranean area. The fruits
resemble oranges, and the rind is removed while the white bitter pulp is
dried and shipped in balls. It is a
powerful purgative. The dried unripe fruits of Piper cubeda are called cubebs. It is a climbing vine of Malaya and
eastern India, and it is cultivated in Thailand, Java, Sri Lanka and the West
Indies. The berries look a lot like
black pepper, but they are stalked.
They have a warm, butter aromatic flavor and a strong odor from the
presence of an oleoresin. Cubebs are
used to treat catarrh and as a kidney stimulant. They have also been used as a condiment or spice. The dried ripe seeds of Croton tiglium contains the fatty croton
oil. It is a shrub or small tree of
Southeastern Asia, but is also cultivated in Sri Lanka and India. Croton oil is a yellowish-brown liquid
with a burning taste and offensive odor.
It is one of the most powerful of purgatives. The flowers and crushed leaves are used in
India to poison fish. This is a
valuable drug obtained from the seeds of Strychnos nux-vomica, a tree native to
India, Sri Lanka, Cochin China and Australia. The large fruits contain from 3-5 grayish seeds that are very
hard and bitter. Ripe seeds have two
important alkaloids: strychnine and bucine.
Nux vomica is used as a tonic and stimulant; strychnine is used in
small doses to treat nervous disorders and paralysis. Its properties have been known back in the
16th Century. Opium One of the most useful and yet
vicious drugs, opium is derived from the dried juice or latex of unripe
capsules of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. The poppy is an
annual with showy white flowers.
Native to Western Asia, it is no found in most countries as a
weed. It has been cultivated
extensively in China, India, Asia Minor, the Balkans and elsewhere. Following petal fall the capsules are
incised with a knife and the white latex exudes and soon hardens in the
air. It is scraped off and shaped into
balls or cakes, which are often wrapped in the poppy petals. Crude opium is a brownish material
containing as many as 25 alkaloids, the most important and most powerful
being morphine and codeine. Due to
the narcotic and sedative action opium and its derivatives are used to
relieve pain, relax spasms and induce sleep. Commercial psyllium is the seed of
several of the fleaworts, Asiatic and European species of plantain, which are
cultivated in France, Spain and India.
French psyllium is Plantago indica, Spanish psyllium is P. psyllium, and blonde psyllium,
the East Indian product, is P. ovata.
Psyllium seed contains a tasteless mucilaginous substance that acts as
a mild laxative and is comparable to agar and mineral oil for use in chronic
constipation. The extracted mucilage
is used as a cosmetic and in stiffening fabrics. The dried ripe seeds of Strophanthus kombe and S. hispidus are the source of the drug
strophanthus that is used as a heart stimulant. The plants are woody climbers of African forests. The active principles include the
glucoside strophanthin and a few alkaloids.
Another species, Strophanthus sarmentosus??, has a substance that can
be transformed into cortisone. American wormseed, Chenopodium ambrosioides var. anthelminticum is native to South and
Central America and the West Indies, but has become naturalized in the United
States. It has also been cultivated
in many areas for its natural oil.
The oil is obtained by distillation from the fruits and is used in the
treatment of hookworm infections. These are substances produced mainly
by certain harmless microorganisms that deter the growth and activity of
various pathogenic bacteria.
Antibiotics were not considered of importance until 1939 although they
had been known previously. Since this
time extensive investigations were carried out and a considerable number have
been isolated and their therapeutic action studied. Molds, actinomycetes and bacteria are the chief sources,
although antibiotics are also present in higher plants. Best know of the antibiotics is
penicillin. It was accidentally
discovered in 1929 and reexamined in 1937.
Soon it was recognized as an extremely valuable substance for
combating staphylococcus, streptococcus and gas gangrene infections. It is acquired mainly from Penicillium notatum, a blue-green mold
that occurs in floccose masses with a white margin. In gelatin substrate the mycelium excretes penicillin turning
all to liquid. The crude penicillin
is recovered, purified and dehydrated.
It is an organic acid and readily forms salts and esters. Superior strains that yield greater
quantities of the drug were developed.
Other species of Penicillium, particularly P. chrysogonum, also produce the
antibiotic. Penicillin is highly
selective in its action and is effective against gram-positive bacteria. It is nontoxic and particularly useful in
the treatment of bacterial endocarditis, gonorrhea, mastoiditis, local
infections and certain types of pneumonia.
Streptomyces griseus
furnishes
this antibiotic. It was first
isolated in 1944 after a worldwide project testing soils. The organism is an actinomycete and is
grown in deep submerged cultures.
Streptomycin is especially effective against gram-negative bacteria
and is used in the treatment of tularemia, empyema, urinary and local
infections and some forms of tuberculosis, peritonitis, meningitis and
pneumonia.
Streptomyces aureofaciens, which was isolated in
1948 from soil, produces aureomycin.
It is more versatile than penicillin or streptomycin by attacking not
only gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, but also the Rickettsiae,
which had previously been immune to chemical assault. It has been used to combat forms of virus
pneumonia, osteomyelitis, undulant fever, whooping cough and eye infections
and where the patient has developed resistance to the other antibiotics or to
sulfa drugs. Aureomycin is also a
growth-producing substance. This is a pure crystalline
substance produced by Streptomyces venezuelae. It
was isolated in 1948 after a search that involved the worldwide study of
thousands of soil samples. It may
also be produced synthetically.
Chloromycetin, like aureomycin, is effective against the Rickettsiae. It is useful in the treatment of undulant
fever, bacillary urinary infections, primary atypical pneumonia, typhus
fever, typhoid fever, scrub typhus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and parrot
fever. Terramycin is secreted by Streptomyces rimosus that was isolated from
a piece of soil in Indiana after an exhaustive search involving many
thousands of soil samples. It is
valuable in treating common forms of pneumonia, typhoid fever, streptococci and
many intestinal and urinary tract infections. It is also effective against gram-positive and gram-negative
bacteria, Rickettsiae and large viruses.
It is somewhat different in therapeutic action from the other
antibiotics. This antibiotic that is produced by an organism resembling Streptomyces fradiae, has a complex
composition and a wide range of experimental uses. It has been used to treat tuberculosis. There are many antibiotics known
to be produced by bacteria. Among
these gramicidin and tyrothricin from Bacillus brevis, bactracin and
subtilin from Bacillus
subtilis
and
polymixin from Bacillus
polymixa
have
the best therapeutic possibilities. Other
Medicinal Substances This is almost pure mucilage secured from various species
of red algae. Japan used to be the
principal producer of this product, utilizing Gelideum corneum, Eucheuma spinosum, Gracilaria lichenoides and other species found
off the eastern coast of Asia. Some
agar has been produced in the United States since 1919. However, during World War II production
was greatly expanded in the United States.
The principal species used were Gelidium cartilagineum on the Pacific Coast
and Gracilaria
confervoides
on
the Atlantic Coast. Agar industries
have also been developed in Russia, South Africa and Australia, etc. The algae are collected, bleached and
dried, and the mucilaginous material is extracted with water. Agar reaches the marked in flakes, granules
or strips that are brittle when dry but become tough and resistant when
moist. The medicinal value of agar is in
its absorptive and lubricating action.
It is frequently used in a granular condition to prevent constipation. However, its greatest use is as a culture
medium for bacteria and other fungi.
In dentistry is has been valuable for making impressions for plates
and molds. Cosmetic, silk and paper
industries have found it valuable and is may also be used extensively as
food. This is the dried fruiting body of
a fungus, Claviceps
purpurea,
which is parasitic on rye and other grasses.
The young fruit is attacked and when mature a purplish structure, the
sclerotium, replaces the grain.
Commercial ergot is chiefly from Europe where it is picked from rye
plants or after the rye ahs been threshed by special machinery. Minnesota has also produced ergot. Wheat ergot is equally good as a
drug. Ergot is used mainly to
increase the blood pressure, especially in cases of hemorrhages following
childbirth and other uterine disturbances. In Europe, the United States and
Japan several of the larger brown algae have been used as a source of iodine,
potash and other salts. In the United
States the giant kelps of the Pacific involve mainly Macrocystis pyrifera. Kelp was also used as a source of acetone
and kelp char, a bleaching carbon.
There has also been attention given to the medicinal value of these
seaweeds. Other species, mainly Laminaria digitata and L. saccharina of the Atlantic and Nereocystis luetkeana of the Pacific, have
been exploited as a source of algin, a valuable colloid extensively used in
the drug, food and other industries.
Algin or its salts, sodium alginate, is used as a suspending agent in
compounding drugs; in lotions, emulsions and hand pomades; as a sizing for
paper and textiles and in ice cream.
Lycopodium clavatum
and
other club mosses contain about 50 percent fixed oils
and so are but little affected by water.
They are used as a covering for pills, as a diluent for insufflations
and as a dusting powder for abraded surfaces. In industry they are used for making pattern molds and because
of their inflammability, in flares, fireworks and tracer bullets. Europe and the northeastern United States
have been the main producers. Rhizomes and stalks of Dryopteris felix-mas, of North America and
Eurasia, and the marginal shield fern, Dryopteris
marginalis, of Eastern North America yield a drug known as male fern or aspidium. Thiis an
oleoresinous substance that has been used for centuries for expelling tapeworms. The
commercial supply ha been mainly from Europe. There are several sources for
pyrethrum. Three of the most
important species are Dalmatian insect flowers from Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium, Persian insect
flowers from C. coccineum and Caucasian insect flowers from C. marshallii. The Dalmatian species is favored. It is a slender, glaucous, pubescent
perennial 18-30 inches in height with pinnate leaves and small daisylike
flowers. It is a native of Dalmatia
where it has been cultivated for centuries.
Japan used to be the leading producer of pyrethrum flowers and they
constituted one of its most valuable exports. Great care was exercised in gathering, drying and packing the
crop. Later the species was being
cultivated in California and other parts of the United States, Kenya, Italy,
Australia, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador. Pyrethrum is noninflammable,
nonpoisonous and deposits no oily residue.
It has been proven effective against flies, fleas, body lice and
yellow fever and malarial mosquitoes.
Pyrethrum bombs were standard equipment in malaria-infested
areas. They contained the insecticide
in a solvent under a pressure of 90 lbs. per sq.-in. A mechanical release allowed the vapor to
escape through a valve in a fog. A
3-sec. application permanently paralyzed most insects. Pyrethrum coils are still in use in
mosquito-infested areas. These are
burned like incense and have a pleasant odor. Pyrethrum ointment is used in the treatment of scabies.
Rotenone-containing plants have poisons that were used by native
peoples for centuries. The use of
these climbers and creepers of the Leguminosae as fish poisons was noted by
De Rochefort in 1665 and Aublet in 1775 (Hill 1952). Derris was in commercial use in the United
States by 1911, but with variable and uncertain results. years of research resulted in
standardizing the product and made it possible for widespread use. This is a colorless crystalline
compound together with related substances that occur as solids in the dried
roots. The content may bve as high as
12 percent. Rotenone is 15-times more
toxic than nicotine and 25-times mroe than potassium ferrocyanide in killing
insects. it has little or no effect
on humans and other warm-blooded animals.
Two principal sources are species of Derris in the Far East and Lonchocarpus in the Neotropics. Natives in Malaya and Borneo for
fishing have long used derris or tuba roots and arrow poisons. The various species of Derris are climbing
vines typical of the jungle undergrowth from India to Indonesia and the
Philippines. The plants have a short
trunk, 3-4 ft. in height and 4 in. in diameter, with numerous long branches
that climb over the vegetation. The
two most important species ore Derris elliptica and
D.
trifoliata.
It may be propagated by cuttings and has been cultivated. Ecuador and Guatemala made it a commercial
crop at one time. It grows well at
low altitudes in deep, well-drained fertile soils. A dust made from the ground roots has marked insecticidal
properties but it is nonpoisonous to humans, at least when taken through the
mouth. The active ingredient,
rotenone and a resin, may be extracted and used directly or in the form of
soap. Roots of several species of Lonchocarpus, mainly L. urucu in Brazil, L. utilis in Peru and L. nicon in Guiana, make up an
important source of rotenone. The
plants are known also as cube, timbo and barbasco and are
used by the Amerindians as fish poisons.
At first they are bush like but later resemble vines and climb into
trees. They thrive in the tropical
forests at low altitudes where there is an 80-in rainfall and well-drained
soil. At 2-3 years of age, the plant
tops are cut away and the roots are dug up, dried, bundled and exported. They are then ground into a powder and
mixed with talc or clay for dusting or with a liquid for spraying. Cube contains more rotenone than derris
and, like derris, is an ideal insecticide for crop plants as there is no residue. Stem cuttings easily propagate Lonchocarpus, and there used to be
many small commercial plantations.
Cube first entered the world trade in 1934. Petroleum based alternatives have cut into this market.
This substance is obtained from the bulbs of the red variety of Urginea
maritima,
a native to the Mediterranean area.
It is cultivated in Algeria.
It is used as a raticide from ancient times and came into prominence
again during the mid 20th Century.
The toxic substance, a glucoside, has little effect on other animals. |