_Savine Leaves._
QUALITIES. _Odour_, heavy and disagreeable; _Taste_, bitter, hot, and
acrimonious. CHEM. COMP. Essential oil, which may be obtained by
distillation with water; fixed oil, bitter extractive, and resin.
SOLUBILITY. Both water and alcohol extract its active principles. MED.
USES. It possesses highly stimulating properties, and has been used as a
diaphoretic, anthelmintic, and emmenagogue. Rave, a German writer of
great respectability, speaks of its use in chronic rheumatism in the
highest terms; Alibert commends its anthelmintic powers, but its
reputation has principally rested upon its generally acknowledged
influence over the uterus. The testimony of Dr. Home of Edinburgh is
strong in favour of its emmenagogue powers, but the adverse opinion of
Dr. Cullen brought it into disrepute. It occasions a manifest flow of
blood to the uterus, but this is probably sympathetically produced by
its direct action on the large intestines; for if given in large doses
it occasions great heat in the primæ viæ, hæmorrhage, and inflammation
of the bowels. It is therefore inadmissible in all cases which are
attended with fever, or much vascular action. When amenorrhœa depends
upon a relaxed state of the general system, or on an inactive and torpid
condition of the uterine system, it may often be employed with
advantage. Wedekind, a German writer, extols it in the treatment of that
atonic or relaxed state of the uterus, attended with an unnatural
secretion and soft swelling of the uterus, which is sometimes met with
in women who have suffered much from repeated childbearing, and which is
so generally attended with a train of hysteric disturbances. Dr. Eberle
says that he has occasionally employed it in cases of Amenorrhœa, in
females of a relaxed habit of body; and although sometimes without
success, he has had sufficient evidence of its powers to establish its
claim to attention. In several cases, similar to those above stated, I
have employed the Savin with much success, but I have found it very
liable to disturb the stomach, and to produce head-ache. FORMS OF
EXHIBITION. Some practitioners have recommended that of powder, but it
is almost impossible to pulverize it without previously drying it at a
temperature which will dissipate the essential oil, upon which its
activity depends. The tincture affords a more convenient form, and a
compound tincture formerly occupied a place in the Pharmacopœia, but has
been abandoned. A decoction of an ounce of the leaves to a pint of
water, with the addition of syrup, has been also recommended; an
infusion, however, would be preferable. DOSE, of the powdered leaves
from grs. v to x; of the tincture fʒj; of the decoction f℥ss to f℥j. As
an external local stimulant, or escharotic, the dried leaves in powder
are applied to warts, flabby ulcers, and carious bones; and the
expressed juice diluted, or an infusion of the leaves, as a lotion to
gangrenous sores, scabies, and _tinea capitis_; or mixed with lard and
wax as an issue ointment. The German writers speak very highly of its
effects as a poultice to old and obstinate sores. OFFICINAL PREP. _Oleum
Volatile Juniperi Sabinæ_. E.D. (the dose of which is from one to three
minims.) _Extractum Sabinæ_. D. (a very inert preparation.) _Ceratum
Sabinæ_. L.
The experiments of Orfila have shewn that Savine exerts a local action,
but that its effects depend principally on its absorption; through which
medium it acts on the nervous system, the rectum, and the stomach. It
still enjoys amongst the vulgar the reputation of being capable of
producing absorption.