_Flores Cinæ_, _Semen Cinæ_,[1428] _Semen
Santonicæ_, _Semen Zedoariæ_, _Semen
Contra_, _Semen Sanctum_; _Wormseed_; F.
_Semen-contra_, _Semencine_, _Barbotine_;
G. _Wurmsamen_, _Zitwersamen_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Artemisia maritima_, var. _a. Stechmanniana_
Besser[1429] (_A. Lercheana_ Karel. et Kiril, in Herbb. Kew, et Mus.
Brit.; _A. maritima_ var. _a. pauciflora_ Weber, quoad Ledebour, _Flor.
Ross._ ii. 570).
_Artemisiæ_ of the section _Seriphidium_ assume great diversity of
form:[1430] they have been the object of attentive study on the part
of the Russian botanists Besser (1834-35) and Ledebour (1844-46),
whose researches have resulted in the union of many supposed species,
under the head of the Linnæan _Artemisia maritima_. This plant has
an extremely wide distribution in the northern hemisphere of the old
world, occurring mostly in saltish soils. It is found in the salt
marshes of the British Islands, on the coasts of the Baltic, of France
and the Mediterranean, and on saline soils in Hungary and Podolia;
thence it extends eastward, covering immense tracts in Southern Russia,
the regions of the Caspian, and Central Siberia, to Chinese Mongolia.
The particular variety which furnishes at least the chief part of the
drug, is a low, shrubby, aromatic plant, distinguished by its very
small, erect, ovoid flowerheads, having oblong, obtuse, involucral
scales, the interior scales being scarious. The stem in its upper
half is a fastigiate, thyrsoid panicle, crowned with flowerheads. The
localities for the plant are the neighbourhood of the Don, the regions
of the lower Volga near Sarepta and Zaritzyn, and the Kirghiz deserts.
The drug, which consists of the minute, unopened flowerheads, is
collected in large quantities, as we are informed by Björklund (1867),
on the vast plains or steppes of the Kirghiz, in the northern part of
Turkestan. It was formerly gathered about Sarepta, a German colony in
the Government of Saratov, but from direct information we have (1872)
received, it appears to be obtained there no longer.
The emporium for wormseed is the great fair of Nishnei-Novgorod
(July 15th to Aug. 27th), whence the drug is conveyed to Moscow, St.
Petersburg, and Western Europe.
Wormseed is found in the Indian bazaars. A specimen received by us from
Bombay does not materially differ in form from the Russian drug, but is
slightly shaggy and mixed with tomentose stalks. It is probably brought
from Afghanistan and Cabul.[1431]
Wilkomm[1432] has described, as mother plant of wormseed, an
_Artemisia_ which he calls _A. Cina_. It was obtained in Turkestan
by Prof. Petzholdt, who received it from the people gathering the
drug. The specimen kindly communicated to us by Prof. Willkomm has
flowerheads which do not entirely resemble the wormseed of trade, in
that they have fewer scales, but their number may be somewhat varying.
[1428] From the Italian _semenzina_, the diminutive of _semenza_ (seed).
[1429] W. S. Besser in _Bulletin de la Soc. imp. des Naturalistes de
Moscou_, vii. (1834) 31.—A specimen of the plant in question labelled
in Besser’s handwriting, with a memorandum that it is collected for
medicinal use, is in the Herbarium of the Royal Gardens, Kew. It
completely agrees with the _Semen Cinæ_ of Russian and German commerce.
This remark also applies to a specimen of _A. Lercheana_ Karel. et
Kiril. in the same herbarium.
[1430] “Si aliæ Artemisiæ multùm variant, Seriphidia inconstantiâ
formarum omnes superant....”—Besser.
[1431] _Artemisia_ No. 3201, Herb. Griffith, Afghanistan, in the Kew
Herbarium has capitules precisely agreeing with this Bombay drug.
[1432] _Bot. Zeitung_, 1 März 1872. 130; _Pharm. Journ._ 23 March 1872.
772 (abstract).
=History=—Several species of _Absinthium_ are mentioned by Dioscorides,
one of which called Ἀψίνθιον Θαλάσσιον or Σέριϕον, having very small
seeds (capitules), and growing in Cappadocia, he states to be taken
in honey as a remedy for ascarides and lumbrici: one can hardly doubt
but that this is the modern wormseed. Another species is described by
the same author as being called Σαντόνιον, from its growing in the
country of the Santones in Gaul (the modern Saintonge); he asserts it
to resemble σέριϕον in its properties.
In an epistle on intestinal worms attributed to Alexander
Trallianus,[1433] who practised medicine with great success at Rome in
the 6th century, the use is recommended of a decoction of _Absinthium
marinum_ (θαλασσία ἀψίνθη) as a cure for ascarides and round worms.
_Semen sanctum vel Alexandrinum_ is mentioned as a vermifuge for
children by Saladinus about A.D. 1450, and by Ruellius, Dodonæus,
the Bauhins, and other naturalists of the 16th century. Tragus[1434]
mentions that it is imported by way of Genoa. Its ancient reputation
has been fully maintained in modern times, and in the form partly of
_Santonin_, the drug is still extensively employed.
=Description=—Good samples of the drug consist almost exclusively of
entire, unopened flowerheads or capitules, which are so minute that
it requires about 90 to make up the weight of one grain. In samples
less pure, there is an admixture of stalks, and portions of a small
pinnate leaf. The flowerheads are of an elliptic or oblong form, about
⅒ of an inch long, greenish yellow when new, brown if long kept; they
grow singly, less frequently in pairs, on short stalks, and are formed
of about 18 oblong, obtuse, concave scales, closely imbricated. This
involucre is much narrowed at the base in consequence of the lowermost
scales being considerably shorter than the rest. The capitule is
sometimes associated with a few of the upper leaves of the stem, which
are short, narrow, and simple. Notwithstanding its compactness, the
capitule is somewhat ridged and angular,[1435] from the involuclar
scales having a strong, central nerve or keel. The middle portion of
each scale is covered with minute, yellow, sessile glands, which are
wanting on the transparent scarious edge. The latter is marked with
extremely fine striæ and is quite glabrous; in the young state the
keel bears a few woolly colourless hairs, but at maturity the whole
flowerhead is shining and nearly glabrous.[1436] The florets number
from 3 to 5; they have (in the bud) an ovoid corolla, glandular in its
lower portion, a little longer than the ovary, which is destitude of
pappus.
[1433] Contained in a work by Hieronymus Mercurialis, entitled
_Variarum Lectionum libri quatuor_, Venet. 1570; also in Puschmann’s
edition of _Alexander_ (see Appendix), i. 238. 240.
[1434] In Brunfels (_De vera herbarum cognitione_), Argentorati, 1531.
196.
[1435] Maceration in water, which restores the natural shape of the
flowerheads, shows that this shrunken, angular form is not found in the
growing plant.
[1436] Yet too much stress must not be laid on this character, for
as Besser remarks—“_periclinii squamæ in uno loco tomento brevi plus
minusve canæ, in aliis nudæ, imo nitidæ_.”
Wormseed when rubbed in the hand exhales a powerful and agreeable
odour, resembling cajuput oil and camphor; it has a bitter aromatic
taste.
=Chemical Composition=—Wormseed yields from 1 to 2 per cent. of
essential oil, having its characteristic smell and taste. The oil
is slightly levogyrate and chiefly consists of the liquid C₁₀H₁₈O,
accompanied by a small amount of hydrocarbon. The former has the odour
of the drug, yet rather more agreeable; sp. gr. 0·913 at 20° C. It
boils without decomposition at 173°-174°, but in presence of P₂O₅ or
P₂S₅ abundantly yields cymol (see p. 333). The latter had already been
observed by Völckel (1854) under the name of _cinene_ or _cynene_, yet
he assigned to it the formula C₁₂H₉; Hirzel (1854) called it cinæbene.
The water which distills over carries with it volatile acids of the
fatty series, also _angelic acid_ (see pp. 313, 386).
The substance to which the remarkable action of wormseed on the human
body[1437] is due is _Santonin_, C₁₅H₁₈O₃. It was discovered in 1830 by
Kahler, an apothecary of Düsseldorf, who gave a very brief notice of
it in the _Archiv der Pharmacie_ of Brandes (xxxiv. 318). Immediately
afterwards Augustus Alms, a druggist’s assistant at Penzlin in the
grand duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, knowing nothing of Kahler’s
discovery, obtained the same substance and named it _Santonin_. Alms
recommended it to the medical profession, pointing out that it is the
anthelminthic principle of wormseed.[1438] Santonin constitutes from 1½
to 2 per cent. of the drug, but appears to diminish in quantity very
considerably as the flowers open. It is easily extracted by milk of
lime, for, though not an acid and but sparingly soluble in water even
at a boiling heat, it is capable of combining with bases. With lime it
forms then santoninate of calcium, which is readily soluble in water.
On addition of hydrochloric acid, santoninic acid, C₁₅H₂₀O₄, separates,
but parts with OH₂, santonin being thus immediately reproduced. Similar
facts have been recorded with regard to alantic acid (see p. 381).
Santonin forms crystals of the orthorhombic system, melting at 170°,
which are inodorous, but have a bitter taste, especially when dissolved
in chloroform or alcohol.[1439] They are colourless, but when exposed
to daylight, or to the blue or violet rays, but not to the other
colours of the spectrum, they assume a yellow hue, and split into
irregular fragments. This change, which takes place even under water,
alcohol or ether, is not accompanied by any chemical alteration.
This behaviour of santonin when exposed to light, resembles that of
erythrocentaurin, C₂₇H₂₄O₈. The latter has been obtained by means of
ether, from the alcoholic extract of _Erythræa Centaurium_, and of
some other _Gentianaceæ_. Méhu (1866) has shown that the colourless
crystals of that substance when exposed to sunlight, assume a
brilliant red colour, _without_ undergoing any chemical alteration.
The _colourless_ solutions of this body in chloroform or alcohol yield
the original substance. Yet as to santonin, Sestini and Cannizzaro
(1876) have shown, that its dilute alcoholic solution, on long exposure
to sunlight, affords a compound ether of photosantonic acid, namely
C₁₅H₁₃O₄(C₂H₅)₂.
[1437] As the affected vision, so that objects appear as if seen
through a yellow medium. Other effects are recorded by Stillé
(_Therapeutics and Mat. Med._ ii. 641).
[1438] The paper of Alms being contained in the very same periodical
(p. 319) as that of Kahler (and further in vol. xxxix. 190), affords
additional evidence of the independence of the discovery.
[1439] Its ready solubility in 3 or 4 parts of chloroform renders its
estimation easy when mixed with sugar, as in a santonin lozenge.
Wormseed contains, in addition to the above described bodies, resin,
sugar, waxy fat, salts of calcium and potassium, and malic acid; when
carefully selected and dried, it yielded us 6·5 per cent. of ash, rich
in silica.
=Commerce=—Ludwig of St. Petersburg has stated that the imports of
wormseed into that city were about as follows:—In 1862, 7400 cwt.; in
1863, 10,500 cwt.; in 1864, 11,400 cwt. The drug was brought from the
Kirghiz steppes by Semipalatinsk and by Orenburg.
=Uses=—The drug is employed exclusively for its anthelminthic
properties, partly in the form of santonin. It proves of special
efficacy for the dislodgement of _Ascaris lumbricoides_.