Part 18

Pinkroot was long known by the Indians, and its properties were made known to physicians by them. It is official in the United States Pharmacopœia, and is used principally as an anthelmintic.

AMERICAN COLOMBO.

Frasera carolinensis Walt.

Synonym.—Frasera walteri Michx.

Other common names.—Frasera, meadowpride, pyramid-flower, pyramid-plant, Indian lettuce, yellow gentian, ground-centaury.

Habitat and range.—American colombo occurs in dry soil from the western part of New York to Wisconsin, south to Georgia and Kentucky.

Description of plant.—During the first and second year of the growth of this plant only the root leaves are produced. These are generally somewhat rounded at the summit, narrowed toward the base, and larger than the stem leaves, which develop in the third year. The leaves are deep green and produced mostly in whorls of four, the stem leaves being 3 to 6 inches in length and oblong or lance shaped. In the third year the stem is developed and the flowers are produced from June to August. The stem is stout, erect, cylindrical, and 3 to 8 feet in height. The flowers of American colombo are borne in large terminal, handsome pyramidal clusters sometimes 2 feet in length, and are greenish yellow or yellowish white, dotted with brown purple. They are slender stemmed, about 1 inch across, with a wheelshaped, 4-parted corolla. The seeds are contained in a much compressed capsule. (Fig. 21.) American colombo is an indigenous perennial, and belongs to the gentian family (Gentianaceæ).

Description of root.—The root is long, horizontal, spindle shaped, yellow, and wrinkled. In the fresh state it is fleshy and quite heavy. The American colombo root of commerce, formerly in transverse slices, now generally occurs in lengthwise slices. The outside is yellowish or pale orange and the inside spongy and pale yellow. The taste is bitter. American colombo root resembles the official gentian root in taste and odor, and the uses are also similar.

Collection, prices, and uses.—The proper time for collecting American colombo root is in the autumn of the second year or in March or April of the third year. It is generally cut into lengthwise slices before drying. The price of American colombo root ranges from 3 to 5 cents a pound.

The dried root, which was official in the United States Pharmacopœia from 1820 to 1880, is used as a simple tonic. In the fresh state the root possesses emetic and cathartic properties.

BLACK INDIAN HEMP.

Apocynum cannabinum L.

Pharmacopœial name.—Apocynum.

Other common names.—Canadian hemp, American hemp, amy-root, bowman’s-root, bitterroot, Indian-physic, rheumatism-weed, milkweed, wild cotton, Choctaw-root.

The name “Indian hemp” is often applied to this plant, but it should never be used without the adjective “black.” “Indian hemp” is a name that properly belongs to Cannabis indica, a true hemp plant, from which the narcotic drug “hashish” is obtained.

Habitat and range.—Black Indian hemp is a native of this country, and may be found in thickets and along the borders of old fields throughout the United States.

Description of plant.—This is a common herbaceous perennial about 2 to 4 feet high, with erect or ascending branches, and, like most of the plants belonging to the dogbane family (Apocynaceæ), contains a milky juice. The short-stemmed opposite leaves are oblong, lance-shaped oblong or ovate-oblong, about 2 to 6 inches long, usually sharp pointed, the upper surface smooth and the lower sometimes hairy. The plant is in flower from June to August and the small greenish white flowers are borne in dense heads, followed later by the slender pods, which are about 4 inches in length and pointed at the apex. (Fig. 22.)

Other species.—Considerable confusion seems to exist in regard to which species yields the root which has proved of greatest value medicinally. The Pharmacopœia directs that “the dried rhizome and roots of Apocynum cannabinum or of closely allied species of Apocynum” be used.

In the older botanical works and medical herbals only two species of Apocynum were recognized, namely, A. cannabinum L. and A. androsaemifolium L., although it was known that both of these were very variable. In the newer botanical manuals both of these species still hold good, but the different forms and variations are now recognized as distinct species, those formerly referred to cannabinum being distinguished by the erect or nearly erect lobes of the corolla, and those of the androsaemifolium group being distinguished by the spreading or recurved lobes of the corolla.

Among the plants that were formerly collected as Apocynum cannabinum or varietal forms of it, and which are now considered as distinct species, may be mentioned the following:

Riverbank-dogbane (A. album Greene), which frequents the banks of rivers and similar moist locations from Maine to Wisconsin, Virginia, and Missouri. This plant is perfectly smooth and has white flowers and relatively smaller leaves than A. cannabinum.

Velvet dogbane (A. pubescens R. Br.), which is common from Virginia to Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. The entire plant has a soft, hairy or velvety appearance, which renders identification easy. According to the latest edition of the National Standard Dispensatory it is not unlikely that this is the plant that furnishes the drug that has been so favorably reported upon.

Apocynum androsaemifolium is also gathered by drug collectors for Apocynum cannabinum. Its root is likewise employed in medicine, but its action is not the same as that of cannabinum, and it should therefore not be substituted for it. It closely resembles cannabinum.

Description of rootstock.—The following description of the drug as found in commerce is taken from the United States Pharmacopœia: “Of varying length, 3 to 8 mm. thick, cylindrical or with a few angles produced by drying, lightly wrinkled longitudinally, and usually more or less fissured transversely; orange-brown, becoming gray-brown on keeping; brittle; fracture sharply transverse, exhibiting a thin brown layer of cork, the remainder of the bark nearly as thick as the radius of the wood, white or sometimes pinkish, starchy, containing laticiferous ducts; the wood yellowish, having several rings, finely radiate and very coarsely porous; almost inodorous, the taste starchy, afterwards becoming bitter and somewhat acrid.”

Collection, prices, and uses.—The root of black Indian hemp is collected in autumn and brings from 8 to 10 cents a pound.

It is official in the United States Pharmacopœia and has emetic, cathartic, diaphoretic, expectorant, and diuretic properties, and on account of the last-named action it is used in dropsical affections.

The tough fibrous bark of the stalks of black Indian hemp was employed by the Indians as a substitute for hemp in making twine, fishing nets, etc.

PLEURISY-ROOT.