By OTTO A. WALL, M.D., Ph.G.
Cnovallaria Majalis is a stemless perennial plant, found in both
the eastern and western hemispheres, with two elliptic leaves and a
one-sided raceme bearing eight or ten bell-shaped flowers. The flowers
are fragrant, and perfumes called "Lily of the Valley" are among the
popular odors.
Both leaves and flowers have been used in medicine, but the rhizome is
the part most frequently used.
[Illustration: CONVALLARIA.]
The fresh rhizome is a creeping, branching rhizome of a pale yellowish
white color, which, on drying, darkens to a straw color, or even a
brown in places. When dry it is about the thickness of a thick knitting
needle, swelling to the thickness of a quill when soaked in water. It
is of uniform thickness, except near the leaf-bearing ends, which are
thicker marked with numerous leafscars, or bare buds covered with
scales, and often having attached the tattered remains of former leaves.
Fig. A shows a portion of rhizome, natural size, and Fig. B shows
another piece enlarged to double linear size.
The internodes are smooth, the rootlets being attached at the nodes. The
rootlets are filiform, and darker in color.
The rhizome is covered by an epidermis, composed of muriform cells of a
bright yellow color, after having been treated with liquor potassæ to
clear up the tissues. These cells are shown in Fig. G. An examination of
the transverse section shows us the endogenous structure, as we find
it also in various other drugs (sarsaparilla, etc.), namely, a nucleus
sheath, inclosing the fibrovascular bundles and pith, and surrounded
by a peri-ligneous or peri-nuclear portion, consisting of soft-walled
parenchyma cells, loosely arranged with many small, irregularly
triangular, intercellular spaces in the tranverse section. Some of these
cells contain bundles of raphides (Fig. 2), one of which bundles is
shown crushed in Fig. J. Sometimes these crystals are coarser and less
needle-like, as in Fig. K. Fig. C shows a transverse section through the
leaf-bearing portion of the rhizome (at a), and is rather irregular on
account of the fibrovascular bundles diverging into the base of the
leaves of flower-stalks. A more regular appearance is seen in Fig. D,
which is a section through the internode (b). In it we see the nuclear
sheath, varying in width from one to three cells, and inclosing a number
of crescent-shaped fibrovascular bundles, with their convexities toward
the center and their horns toward the nuclear sheath. There are also
from two to four or five free closed fibrovascular bundles in the
central pith.
These fibrovascular bundles consist mainly of dotted or reticulated
ducts (Fig. F), but all gradations from, this to the spiroids, or even
true spiral ducts (Fig. E). may be found, though the annular and spiral
ducts are quite rare. These ducts are often prismatically compressed
by each other. The fibrovascular bundles also contain soft-walled
prosenchyma cells. The peri-nuclear portion consists of soft-walled
parenchyma, smaller near the nuclear sheath and the epidermis, and
larger about midway between, and of the same character as the cells of
the pith. In longitudinal section they appear rectangular, similar to
the walls of the epidermis (G), but with thinner walls.
All parts of the plant have been used in medicine, either separately or
together, and according to some authorities the whole flowering plant is
the best form in which to use this drug.
The active principles are _convallaramin_ and _convallarin_.
It is considered to act similarly to digitalis as a heart-stimulant,
especially when the failure of the heart's action is due to mechanical
impediments rather than to organic degeneration. It is best given in the
form of fluid extract in the dose of 1 to 5 cubic centimeters (15 to
75 minims), commencing with the smaller doses, and increasing, if
necessary, according to the effects produced in each individual
case.--_The Pharmacist_.
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