_Fructus Sabadillæ_; _Cebadilla_, _Cevadilla_; F. _Cévadille_; G.
_Sabadillsamen_, _Läusesamen_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Asagræa officinalis_ Lindley (_Veratrum officinale_
Schlecht, _Sabadilla officinarum_ Brandt, _Schœnocaulon officinale_
A. Gray).—A bulbous plant, growing in Mexico, in grassy places on the
eastern declivities of the volcanic range of the Cofre de Perote, and
Orizaba, near Teosolo, Huatusco and Zacuapan, down to the sea-shore,
also in Guatemala. Cebadilla is (or was) cultivated near Vera Cruz,
Alvarado and Tlacatalpan in the Gulf of Mexico.
Another form of _Asagræa_, first noticed by Berg,[2609] but of late
more particularly by Ernst of Caracas, who thinks it may constitute
a distinct species, is found in plenty on grassy slopes, 3,500 to
4,000 feet above the sea-level, in the neighbourhood of Caracas, and
southward in the hilly regions bordering the valley of the Tuy.[2610]
It differs chiefly in having broader and more carinate leaves.[2611] Of
late years it has furnished large quantities of seed, which, freed from
their capsules, have been shipped from La Guaira to Hamburg.
[2604] Cutter, _Lancet_, Jan. 4, Aug. 16, 1862; _Pharm. Journ._ iv.
(1863) 134.
[2605] _American Medical Botany_, ii. (1819) 121-136.
[2606] _Cours d’Hist. Nat. Pharm._ i. (1828) 319.
[2607] _Medizinische Jahrbücher_, xix. (Vienna, 1863) 129-148.
[2608] Buchner’s _Repertorium für Pharmacie_, xviii. (1868) 50; also
Wiggers and Husemann’s _Jahresbericht_, xviii. 1868. 505.
[2609] Berg u. Schmidt, _Offiz. Gewächse_, i. (1858) tab. ix. e.
“_Sabadilla officinarum_.”
[2610] Ernst, communication to the Linnean Society of London, 15 Dec.,
1870.
[2611] _Veratrum Sabadilla_ Retzius is stated by Lindley (_Flora
Medica_, p. 586) to be a native of Mexico and the West Indian
Islands, and to furnish a portion of the cebadilla seeds of commerce.
The plant is unknown to us: we have searched for it in vain in the
herbaria of Kew and the British Museum. It is not mentioned as West
Indian by Grisebach (_Flor. of Brit. W. I. Islands_, 1864; _Cat.
Plant. Cubensium_, 1866). The figure by Descourtilz (_Flor. méd.
des Antilles_, iii. 1827. t. 1859) who had the plant growing at St.
Domingo, shows it to resemble _Veratrum album_ L., and therefore to be
very different from _Asagræa_.
=History=—Cebadilla was first described in 1517 by Monardes, who states
that it is used by the Indians of New Spain as a caustic and corrosive
application to wounds; but it does not seem to have been brought into
European commerce, for neither Parkinson who described it in 1640
as the _Indian Causticke Barley_, nor Ray (1693) did more than copy
from Monardes. It was regarded in Germany a rare drug even in 1726,
but in the latter half of the last century it began to be recommended
in France and Germany for the destruction of pediculi. A famous
composition for this purpose was the _Poudre des Capucins_, consisting
of a mixture of stavesacre, tobacco, and cebadilla, which was applied
either dry or made into an ointment with lard.[2612] Cebadilla was also
administered combined into a pill with gamboge and valerian,[2613] for
the destruction of intestinal worms, but its virulent action made it
hazardous.
Upon the introduction of veratrine into medicine about 1824 cebadilla
attracted some notice, and was occasionally prescribed in the form of
tincture and extract; but it subsequently fell into disuse, and is now
only employed for the manufacture of veratrine.
=Description=—Each fruit consists of three oblong pointed follicles,
about ½ an inch in length, surrounded below by the remains of the
6-partite calyx, and attached to a short pedicel. The follicles are
united at the base, spread somewhat towards the apex, and open by their
ventral suture. They are of a light brown colour and papery substance.
Each usually contains two-pointed narrow black seeds, ³/₁₀ of an inch
in length, which are shining, rugose, and angular or concave by mutual
pressure. The compact testa encloses an oily albumen, at the base of
which, opposite to the beaked apex, lies the small embryo. The seed
is inodorous and has a bitter acrid taste; when powdered, it produces
violent sneezing.
=Microscopic Structure=—A transverse section shows the horny
concentrically radiated albumen, closely attached to the testa. The
latter consists of an outer layer of cuboid cells, and three rows of
smaller, thin-walled, tangentially-extended cells, all of which have
brown walls. The tissue of the albumen is made up of large porous
cells, containing drops of oil, granules of albuminoid matter, and
mucilage. Traces of tannic acid occur only in the outer layers of the
seed.
=Chemical Composition=—Meissner, an apothecary of Halle, Prussia,
in 1819 discovered in cebadilla a basic substance, which he termed
_Sabadilline_; in publishing, in 1821, the description of it the
word “_alkaloid_” was introduced by Meissner at that occasion. The
name _Veratrine_[2614] was applied likewise in 1819 by Pelletier and
Caventou to a similar preparation. For many years this substance
was known only as an amorphous powder, in which state it frequently
contained a considerable proportion of resin; but in 1855 it was
obtained by G. Merck in large rhombic prisms. Cebadilla yields only
about 3 per mille of veratrine. The alkaloid is easily soluble in
spirit of wine, ether or chloroform; these solutions, as well as the
watery solutions of its salts, are devoid of rotatory power. Veratrine,
like the drug from which it is derived, occasions, if inhaled,
prolonged sternutation.
[2612] Murray, _Apparatus Medicaminum_, v. (1790) 171; Mérat and De
Lens, _Dict. Mat. Méd._ vi. (1834) 862.
[2613] Peyrilhe, _Cours. d’Hist. Nat. Méd._ ii. (1804) 490.
[2614] So called from Schlechtendal’s name for the plant, _Veratrum
officinale_.
Again, in 1834, Conerbe described an alkaloid from cebadilla under the
name of _Sabadilline_, and _Weigelin_ (1871) another called _Sabatrine_.
From the investigations of Wright and Luff (1878) it appears that the
above-mentioned statements must be resumed thus:—There are in cebadilla
three alkaloids, namely _Veratrine_, C₃₇H₅₃NO₁₁, _Cevadine_, C₃₂H₄₉NO₉,
and _Cevadilline_, C₃₄H₅₃NO₈, the second only being crystallizable.
Veratrin may be decomposed by means of caustic lye into a new alkaloid,
verine, and dimethyl-protocatechuic acid,
{(OCH₃)₂
C₆H₃ {
{COOH
By the same treatment, cevadine yields an acid which appears to be
identical with tiglinic acid (page 566), and an alkaloid called cevine.
Cebadilla yielded to Pelletier and Caventou a volatile fatty acid,
_Sabadillic_ or _Cevadic Acid_, the needle-shaped crystals of which
fuse at 20° C. Lastly, E. Merck (1839) found a second peculiar acid
termed _Veratric Acid_, affording quadrangular prisms, which can be
sublimed without decomposition. It is yielded by cebadilla to the
extent of but ⅙ per mille. It has been shown in 1876 by Körner to be
identical with dimethyl-protocatechuic acid just mentioned (see also
our article _Tubera Aconiti_, p. 9).
=Commerce=—The quantity of cebadilla (_seeds_ only) shipped in 1876
from La Guaira, the port of Caracas, was 35,033 kilos., of which 25,966
went to Germany. No other sort is now imported.
=Uses=—Cebadilla is at present, we believe, only used as the source
of veratrine. In Mexico, the bulb of the plant is employed as an
anthelminthic, under the name of _Cebolleja_, but it is said to be very
dangerous in its action.