A Modern Herbal (Volume 2)

Margaret Grieve

Description

"There is not one page of this enchanting book which does not contain something to interest the common reader as well as the serious student. Regarded simply as a history of flowers, it adds to the joys of the country." — B. E. Todd, Spectator
Volume 2 of the fullest, most exact, most useful compilation of herbal material. Gigantic alphabetical encyclopedia, from aconite to zedoary, gives botanical information, medical properties, folklore, economic uses, much else. Indispensable to serious reader. 161 illustrations.

Sujets

• Jardinage
• Techniques de jardinage
• Potager
• Sciences de la nature
• Botanique
• Kitchen garden
• Herbs
• Gardening

Informations

• Publié par: Rare Treasure Editions
• Date de parution: 11 novembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781774644522
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A Modern Herbal (Volume 2)
by Margaret Grieve

First published in 1931
This edition published by Rare Treasures
Victoria, BC Canada with branch offices in the Czech Republic and Germany
[e-mail]
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except in the case of excerpts by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.







































A MODERN HERBAL, Volume 2

by

Margaret Grieve

POISON IVY
Rhus Toxicodendron

FLORENTINE IRIS
Iris Florentina
A MODERN HERBAL


ICELAND MOSS. See MOSS
IGNATIUS BEANS ( POISON )
Strychnos Ignatii (BERG.)
N.O. Loganiaceæ
Synonyms. Faba Ignatic. Ignatia amara (Linn.)
Part Used . Ripe dried seeds
Habitat . Philippine Islands
Description . A large woody climbing shrub, introduced into Cochin China, and highly esteemed there as a medicine. It attracted the attention of the Jesuits, hence its name. In commerce the beans are about one full inch long; ovate, a dull blacky brown colour, very hard and horny, covered in patches with silvery adpressed hairs; endosperm translucent, enclosing an irregular cavity with an oblong embryo; no odour; taste extremely bitter. Each fruit contains about twelve to twenty seeds embedded in the pulp from which they have to be separated.
Constituents . The beans have the same properties as Nux Vomica, but contain more strychnine, also brucine, a volatile principle extractive, gum, resin, colouring matter, a fixed oil, and bassorin; they contain no albumen or starch.
Medicinal Action and Uses . Tonic and stimulant in action like Nux Vomica, which, being cheaper, is nearly always used as a substitute. Old writers lauded these beans as a remedy against cholera. They are useful in certain forms of heart trouble, but must be used with the greatest caution, as they are a very active and powerful poison.
Antidotes . Same as for strychnine, chloro-form, belladonna, aconite, tobacco, chloral hydrate I drachm doses, morphia.
Preparations and Dosages . Tincture of Ignatia, 5 to 20 minims. Alkaline Tincture of Ignatia ( syn . Goute Ameres de Beaume), 5 to 20 minims.
INDIAN HEMP. See HEMP
INDIAN PHYSIC
Gillenia trifoliata (MŒNCH.)
N.O. Rosaceæ
Synonyms . Bowman’s Root. American Ipecacuanha. Gillenia. Indian Hippo. Spiræa trifoliata. Spiræa stipulata
Part Used. Root-bark
Habitat . Eastern United States
Description . A perennial herb, indigenous to the United States, its irregular, brownish root gives rise to several stems 2 or 3 feet in height, and has depending from it many long, thin fibres. The leaves and leaflets are of various shapes, and the white, reddish-tinged flowers grow in a few loose, terminal panicles.
The dried root is reddish brown, the bark being easily removed and pulverized. With-in, it is light, ligneous, and comparatively inert. The bitterness of the bark is extracted by alcohol, or by water at 212° F., to which a red colour is given.
It grows well in the author’s garden, in slightly moist, rich soil, not in the full blaze of the mid-day sun.
Constituents. The roots have been found to contain gum, starch, gallotannic acid, fatty matter, wax, resin, lignin, albumen, salts and colouring matter.
Gillenin was obtained by W. B. Stanhope by exhausting coarsely powdered bark with alcohol, evaporating the resulting red tinc-ture to the consistency of an extract, dissolveing this in cold water, filtering, evaporating, and finally drying on glass.
Half a grain caused nausea and retching. Two glucosides were found, Gillein, from the ethereal extract, and Gilleenin, from the aqueous infusion.
Medicinal Action and Uses . Tonic, emetic, slightly diaphoretic, cathartic, and expec-torant. The American Indians and early colonists knew the uses of the roots, the action of which resembles Ipecacuanha.
Recommended in dyspepsia, dropsy, rheu-matism, chronic costiveness, and whenever an emetic is required. It is safe and reliable.
Dosages . Of powdered root, as an emetic, 20 to 30 grains. In dyspepsia, as a tonic, 2 to 4 grains. As a sudorific, in cold water, 6 grains at intervals of two or three hours. It may be combined with opium. Frequent large doses of the infusion cause vomiting and purging.
Other Species.
Gillenia stipulata , taller and more bushy, with fewer flowers and roots more like those of Ipecac; grows as far west as Kansas.
It is, equally with G. trifoliata , the source of Gillenia.
See MEADOWSWEET, HARDHACK .
INDIGO
Indigofera tinctoria
N.O. Leguminosæ
Synonyms . Pigmentum Indicum
Part Used . The plant
Habitat . India; cultivated in sub-tropical countries
Description . A blue dyestuff is obtained from the various species of Indigofera. It does not exist ready formed, but is produced during fermentation from another agent existing in the plant. This is called Indocan, and is yellow, amorphous, of a nauseous bitter taste with an acid re-action; readily soluble in water, alcohol and ether.
Medicinal Action and Uses . Indigo was at one time much used in medicine, but now is rarely employed. It is said to produce nausea and vomiting.
It is a very well-known and highly important dye, millions of pounds being exported from India annually.
An artificial product, Indigotine, is manufactured chemically and used as a substitute.
INDIGO (WILD)
Baptisia tinctoria (R. BR.)
N.O. Leguminosæ
Synonyms . Baptisia. Horse-fly Weed. Rattlebush. Indigo-weed. Sophora tinctoria (Linn.). Podalyria tinctoria (Michx.)
Parts Used. Root, bark, leaves
Habitat . Dry hilly woods from Canada to Carolina
Description. An herbaceous perennial which takes its name from the Greek Bap to (to dye); has a black woody root, yel-lowish internally with many rootlets; stem about 3 feet high, smooth, glabrous, round, and branched; leaves, small, subsessile, alternate and palmately trifoliate; leaflets rounded at end; calyx four-cleft; flowers, yellow, blooming August and September, in small loose terminal racemes. Legume short, bluish-black seeds, subreniform.
Constituents. The root is non-odorous and of a nauseous acrid taste, containing gum, albumen, starch, a yellowish resin and a crys-talline substance.
Medicinal Action and Uses. Used internally in form of decoction or syrup in scarlatina, typhus, and in all cases where there is a tendency to putrescency; it is purgative, emetic, stimulant, astringent, and antiseptic; principally used for its antiseptic qualities.
Dosage. Of the decoction, 1 tablespoonful. Fluid extract, to drachm. Baptism, 1 to 3 grains.
IPECACUANHA
Psychotria Ipecacuanha (STOKES)
N.O. Rubiaceæ
Synonym. Cephaelis Ipecacuanha
Part Used. Root
Habitat . The root used in medicine under this name is that of a small, shrubby plant about a foot high, belonging to the order Rubiaceae, which is found in most parts of Brazil, growing in clumps or patches, in moist, shady woods.
The drug is chiefly collected in the interior, in the province of Matto Grosso and near the German colony of Philadelphia, north of Rio de Janeiro. It is also found in New Granada and in Bolivia.
Description. The plant has a slender stem, which grows partly underground and is often procumbent at the base, the lower portion being knotted.
Fibrous rootlets are given off from the knots, and some of them develop an abnormally thick bark, in which much starch is deposited.
The thickened rootlets alone are collected and dried for medicinal use, since the active constituents of the drug are found chiefly in the bark.
Ipecacuanha roots are collected, chiefly by the Indians, during the months of January and February, when the plant is in flower and are prepared by separation from the stem, cleaning and hanging in bundles to dry in the sun.
The drug is known in commerce as Brazilian or Rio Ipecacuanha.
History . The name of the plant is the Portuguese form of the native word, i-pe-kaa-guéne , which is said to mean ‘road-side sick-making plant.’
In an account of Brazil, written by a Portuguese friar who had resided in that country from about 1510 to 1600, mention is made of three remedies for the bloody flux, one of which is called Igpecaya, or Pigaya, which is probably this root.
Although in common use in Brazil, Ipe-cacuanha was not employed in Europe prior to the year 1672, when a traveller named Legros brought a quantity of the root to Paris from South America. In 1680, a merchant of Paris named Garnier became possessed of 150 lb. of Ipecacuanha, and informed his assistant and the physician Helvetius of its usefulness in treating dysentery.
Helvetius prescribed the new drug, and it formed the basis of a patent medicine for dysentery. Trials were made of the composition, and Helvetius was granted by Louis XIV the sole right of vending the remedy. A few years after, the secret was bought from him by the French Government for 1,000 louis d’or and the formula was made public in 1688.
The botanical source of Ipecacuanha was the subject of much dispute, until it was finally settled by Gomez, a physician of the Portuguese Navy, who brought authentic specimens from Brazil to Lisbon in 1800.
Ipecacuanha occurs in commerce as slender and somewhat tortuous closely annu-lated pieces, which seldom exceed 6 inches in length and inch in thickness. It varies in colour from very dark brown to dark red, the latter colour being partly due to adhering particles of earth. Difference in colour may also be due to difference of age or mode of drying. The bark is constricted at short intervals, so as to give the root the appearance of a number of discs somewhat irregularly strung together. The constrictions are sometimes quite shallow in Brazilian or Rio Ipecacuanha, though they may penetrate nearly to the wood. The root is hard and breaks with a very short fra