_Country or Indian Ipecacuanha_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Tylophora asthmatica_ Wight et Arnott (_Asclepias
asthmatica_ Roxb.), a twining perennial plant, common in sandy soils
throughout the Indian Peninsula and naturalized in Mauritius. It may be
distinguished from some of its congeners by its reddish or dull pink
flowers, with the scale of the staminal corona abruptly contracted into
a long sharp tooth.[1584]
=History=—The employment of this plant in medicine is well known to
the Hindus, who call it _Antamul_ and use it with considerable success
in dysentery, but we have not succeeded in tracing it in the ancient
Indian literature. During the last century it attracted the attention
of Roxburgh[1585] who made many observations on the administration of
the root, while physician to the General Hospital of Madras from 1776
to 1778. It was also used very successfully in the place of ipecacuanha
by Anderson, Physician-General to the Madras army.[1586] In more recent
times, the plant has been prescribed by O’Shaughnessy, who pronounced
the root an excellent substitute for ipecacuanha if given in rather
larger doses.[1587] Kirkpatrick[1588] administered the drug in at least
a thousand cases, and found it of the greatest value; he prescribed
the _dried leaf_, not only because superior to the root in certainty
of action, but also as being obtainable without destruction of the
plant. The drug has been largely given by many other practitioners in
India. _Tylophora_ is also employed in Mauritius, where it is known
as _Ipéca sauvage_ or _Ipéca du pays_. It has a place in the _Bengal
Pharmacopœia_ of 1844, and in the _Pharmacopœia of India_ of 1868.
=Description=[1589]—The leaves are opposite, entire, from 2 to 5 inches
long, ¾ to 2½ inches broad, somewhat variable in outline, ovate or
subrotund, usually cordate at the base, abruptly acuminate or almost
mucronate, rather leathery, glabrous above, more or less downy beneath
with soft simple hairs. The pedicel, which is channelled, is ½ to ¾ of
an inch in length. In the dry state the leaves are rather thick and
harsh, of a pale yellowish green; they have a not unpleasant herbaceous
smell, with but very little taste.[1590]
=Chemical Composition=—A concentrated infusion of the leaves has a
slightly acrid taste. It is abundantly precipitated by tannic acid, by
neutral acetate of lead or caustic potash, and is turned greenish-black
by perchloride of iron. Broughton of Ootacamund (India) has informed
us (1872) that from a large quantity of the leaves he obtained a small
amount of crystals,—insufficient for analysis. Dissolved and injected
into a small dog, they occasioned purging and vomiting.
[1584] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 29 (1878).
[1585] _Flora Indica_, ed. Carey, ii. (1832) 33.
[1586] Fleming, _Catalogue of Indian Plants and Drugs_, Calcutta, 1810.
8.
[1587] _Bengal Dispensatory_ (1842) 455.
[1588] _Catalogue of Madras Exhibition of 1855_,—list of Mysore drugs;
also _Pharm. of India_, 458.
[1589] Drawn up from an ample specimen kindly presented to us, together
with one of the root, by Mr. Moodeen Sheriff of Madras.
[1590] A figure of the leaves may be found in a paper on _Unto-mool_ by
M. C. Cooke, _Pharm. Journ._ Aug. 6, 1870. 105; and one of the whole
plant in Wight’s _Icones Plantarum Indiæ Orientalis_, iv. (1850) tab.
1277.
=Uses=—Employed in India, as already mentioned, as a substitute for
ipecacuanha, chiefly in the treatment of dysentery. The dose of the
powdered leaves as an _emetic_ is 25 to 30 grains, as a diaphoretic and
expectorant 3 to 5 grains.
_Radix Tylophoræ_—This root is met with in the Indian bazaars, and
has been employed, as before stated, as much or more than the leaf.
It consists of a short, knotty, descending rootstock, about ⅛ of an
inch in thickness, emitting 2 to 3 aerial stems, and a considerable
number of wiry roots. These roots are often 6 inches or more in length
by ½ a line in diameter, and are very brittle. The whole drug is of a
pale yellowish-brown; it has no considerable odour, but a sweetish and
subsequently acrid taste. In general appearance it is suggestive of
valerian, but is somewhat stouter and larger.
Examined microscopically, the parenchymatous envelope of the rootlets
is seen to consist of two layers, the inner forming a small nucleus
sheath. The outer portion is built up of large cells, loaded with
starch granules and tufted crystals of oxalate of calcium. Salts of
iron do not alter the tissue.