OCIM. OCIMUM INCANESCENS (Mart.) OCIMUM FLUMINENSE (WELLS.) PORTUG.:
ALFAVACA.
[Illustration]
This is an herbaceous plant having an aromatic odor, with an erect and
ramose stem, about 16 or 20 inches high; it is pubescent, quadrangular
and grooved towards the upper branches. Leaves opposite, oval, finely
indented, on petioles of the same length, as the limbs of the leaves.
Flowers whorled, forming terminal spikes; each whorl is provided with
two foliaceous bracts. Calix with five divisions, the upper being oval,
large and entire; the other four are sharp and inferior. Corol tubulous,
inverted, with a bilabiate limb; the upper lip divided into four lobes;
the lower lip composed of a single lobe, which is longer. Stamens four,
with free and outward-bent filaments, and two other stamens, which are
shorter and somewhat geniculate at their base; style filiform and bifid.
Root vertical, fibrous, rather ramose. We use the leaves.
The ocimum canum is destined to become one of the most important remedial
agents in Brazil, where it is used as a specific for the diseases of the
kidneys, bladder and urethra. Those who wish to devote themselves to our
art, had better set about proving this drug.
1. Turbid urine, depositing a white and albuminous sediment. Burning
during micturition. Urine of a saffron color. Diarrhœa, several attacks
a day. 5. Crampy pain in the kidneys. Renal colic, with violent vomiting
every 15 minutes; one wrings one’s hands, and moans and cries all the
time. Red urine with brick-dust sediment after the attack. Itching at the
breasts. Engorgement of the mammary glands. 10. The tips of the breasts
are very painful; the least contact extorts a cry. Compressive pain in
the breast, as is the case with wet-nurses. Dreams about being poisoned.
Dreams about her parents, friends, children. Lancinations in the labia
majora. Swelling of the whole vulva. 15. Falling of the vagina, so as to
issue even from the vulva. Thick, purulent urine, with an intolerable
smell of musk. Swelling of the inguinal glands. Heat, swelling and
excessive sensibility of the left testicle. Numbness of the right thigh,
for two days.