_Radix Spigeliæ Marilandicæ_; _Indian Pink Root_, _Carolina Pink Root_,
_Spigelia_.[1613]
=Botanical Origin=—_Spigelia marilandica_ L., an herbaceous plant
about a foot high, indigenous in the woods of North America, from
Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and southward. According to Wood and Bache,
it is collected chiefly in the Western and South-western States.
[1613] _Pink Root_ is sometimes erroneously latinized in price-lists,
“_Radix caryophylli_.”
=History=—The anthelminthic properties of the root, discovered by
the Indians, were brought to notice in Europe about the year 1754
by Linning, Garden, and Chalmers, physicians of Charleston, South
Carolina. The drug was admitted to the London Pharmacopœia in 1788.
=Description=—Pink root has a near resemblance to serpentary,
consisting of a short, knotty, dark brown rhizome emitting slender
wiry roots. It is quite wanting in the peculiar odour of the latter
drug, or indeed in any aroma; in taste it is slightly bitter and
acrid. Sometimes the entire plant with its quadrangular stems a foot
high is imported. It has opposite leaves about 3 inches long, sessile,
ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, smooth or pubescent.
=Microscopic Structure=—The transverse section of the rhizome, about
²/₁₀ of an inch in diameter, shows a small woody zone enclosing a large
pith of elliptic outline, consisting of thin-walled cells. Usually the
central tissue is decayed. In the roots, the middle cortical layer
predominates; it swells in water, after which its large cells display
fine spiral markings. The nucleus-sheath observable in serpentary is
wanting in spigelia.
=Chemical Composition=—Not satisfactorily known: the vessels of the
wood contain resin, the parenchyme starch; in the cortical part of the
rhizome some tannic matters occur, but not in the roots. Feneulle
(1823) asserts that the drug yields a little essential oil. The
experiments of Bureau[1614] show that spigelia acts on rabbits and
other animals as a narcotico-acrid poison.
=Uses=—Spigelia has long been reputed a most efficient medicine for the
expulsion of _Ascaris lumbricoides_, but according to Stillé,[1615]
its real value for this purpose has probably been over-estimated. This
author speaks of it as possessing alterative and tonic properties. In
England, it is rarely prescribed by the regular practitioner, but is
used as a household medicine in some districts. It is much employed in
the United States.