Apocynum androsaemifolium

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Bitter Boot.)

Botanical Description. — This is an indigenous, perennial, herbaceous plant, from three to six feet in height, and abounding in a milky juice,

which exudes when any part of the plant is wounded. The stem is smooth and simple below, branched above, usually red on the side exposed to the sun, and covered with a tough, fibrous bark. It grows in all parts of the United States, from Carolina to Canada; is found along fences, wet places, the skirts of woods, and flowers in J une aud July. The leaves are opposite, having sharp stems, ovate, acute, entire, smooth on both edges, and two or three inches long. The flowers are white, tinged with red, and grow in loose, nodding, terminal or axillary bunches. The peduncles are furnished with very small and acute bracts. The tube of the corolla is larger than the calyx, and its border spreading. The fruit consists of a pair of long, linear, acute follicles, containing numerous imbricated seeds, attached to a central receptacle, and each furnished with a long seed-down. The root, which is the part employed, is large, and like other parts of the plant, contains a milky juice. Its taste is unpleasant and extremely bitter.

"The flowers have a pleasant, honey-like odor, and contain that substance. Bees and other insects collect this honey; but small flies are often caught by inserting their proboscis between the tissues of the anthers, when it is not easy for them to extricate it. They are often seen dead in that confined situation, after unavailing struggles — whence one of the names of the plant, 'catch-fly.' No animals eat it." (Rafinesque.)

This plant is known by many common names, illustrative of certain physical qualities which it possesses. The name Apocynum, is from the Greek — meaning dog's bane; alluding, probably, to the poisonous effects of the European genus, when given to the canine species. It is called Milk-weed, Catch-fly, Fly-trap, Bitter-root, Honey-bloom, etc.

The root, when chewed, has an intensely bitter and very unpleasant taste ; this taste is perceptible in the whole plant, except the flower. A decoction is of a red color, and very bitter. A tincture with alcohol is colorless but very bitter. It contains, therefore, a bitter principle, soluble in water and alcohol, and a coloring principle, not soluble in alcohol. It also contains a volatile oil. Bigelow says the milk-like juice contains caoutchouc. I would advise homcepathic pharmaceutists to make the tincture with dilute alcohol, and use the fresh, whole plant, collected just after the flowering season, in August.

Ofbtctnal Preparations. — Tincture of the root, or whole plant by maceration with dilute alcohol.

Sphere of action. — It appears to have a marked action on the muscular system and joints, and possibly on serrous tissues.

Analogues. — Aconite, Asclepias tuberosa, Benzoic acid, Bryonia, Caulo phyllum, Colchicum, Cimicifuga, Iris versicolor, Podophyllum.

Head.

• Bilious rheumatic and congestive headaches.

• Rheumatic or neuralgic hemicrania.

Nose.

Severe sneezing, with great itching and irritation in nostrils.

Face and Teeth.

Swollen sensation of the face and body.

Violent itching of the body and face.

Itching and burning of the face; twitching of the face.

Pain in all the teeth of the lower jaw, left side.

Gastric Spmptoms.

Tongue coated white. Excessive nausea, with violent headache. Vomiting, severe and long, with retching. Increased appetite.

Bowels.

Diarrhoea, with persistent nausea and vomiting.

Copious evacuations in the evening, of soft consistency, brown in color, with slight colic.

° Expulsion of worms (ascarides.) (Eclectic authorities.)

° Constipation. ° Dyspepsia. (-Eclectic authorities.) Urinary Organs.

Enormous increase of urine. (Primary effect.)

Scanty urine with headache. (Secondary effect.)

Burning sensation in the urethra when urinating.

° Uraemia. ° Scarlatinal dropsy. ° Anasarca.

° Dropsy from disease of the heart. Recommended by Eclectics. It is affirmed that it acts in this disease like the apoc. cann. (Hale.)

Generative Organs.

(Men.) Tickling sensation at the end of the penis.

Burning in the urethra when urinating.

° Chancres on the glans penis; syphilis. (?)

(Women.) ° Intermitting, bearing down, labor-like pains.

° Dysmenorrhea, and threatened abortion, with copious flow of urine.

Bronchia, Lungs, etc.

An expectorant in bronchitis and other pulmonary complaints. ° Bronchial irritation, (rheumatic ?)

Back and Extremities. 0 Acute rheumatism, the inflammation confined to the small

joints, with much pain and swelling. (Dr. Williams.) 3 Acute rheumatism of the great toe joints. (Dr. E. If. Mc-

Affee.)

° Pains in the limbs, especially the feet. (Dr. Henry.)

Skin.

Profuse sweating all night, with coldness of the skin.

Sleep.

Great sleepiness, with profuse sweating.

Fever.

Heart's action increased; pulse 9S, quick, full.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

Although belonging to the same genus as the A. cannabinum, it certainly differs very much from it in its specific action. The sphere of action of the Dog’s-bane includes the muscular and fibrous tissues, especially those of the smaller extremities.

My experience with this remedy has been quite limited. I have used it successfully in two cases of u rheumatic gout,” so called by an English surgeon of eminence. The symptoms corresponded so nearly that it was given in preference to Bryonia or Benzoic acid. Dr. Williams, of St. Paul, Minn., writes that he considers it the chief remedy for acute rheumatic affections in that region. When the acute pains in the joints are attended by cramps, bilious stools, and flying pains in the teeth, it will be well indicated, according to Dr. Henry’s heroic provings.

Its curative power in dropsy is very much inferior to A. cannabinum, if it' has any such power at all.

The tincture in drop doses has been known to expel ascarides and other worms. Its analogues are probably Bryonia, Iris, Colchicum, and a few others, but the drug needs further development to determine its true place.