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Botanical Name: Strychnos Nux-vomica
Sanskrit Name: Shudha kupilu,
Vishamushti
English Name: Snake
Wood, Nux-vomica, Strychnous Tree.
Family:
Loganiaceae
Plant Part Used:
Dried ripe seeds.
Description of Strychnos
Nux-vomica:
A medium-sized tree
with a short, crooked, thick trunk, the wood is white hard, close
grained, durable and the root very bitter. Branches irregular, covered
with a smooth ash-coloured bark; young shoots deep green, shiny; leaves
opposite, short stalked, oval, shiny, smooth on both sides, about 4
inches long and 3 broad; flowers small, greeny-white, funnel shape, in
small terminal cymes, blooming in the cold season and having a
disagreeable smell. Fruit about the size of a large apple with a smooth
hard rind or shell which when ripe is a lovely orange colour, filled
with a soft white jelly-like pulp containing five seeds covered with a
soft woolly-like substance, white and horny internally. The seeds are
removed when ripe, cleansed, dried and sorted; they are exported from
Cochin, Madras and other Indian ports. The seeds have the shape of
flattened disks densely covered with closely appressed satiny hairs,
radiating from the centre of the flattened sides and giving to the seeds
a characteristic sheen; they are very hard, with a dark grey horny
endosperm in which the small embryo is embedded; no odour but a very
bitter taste.
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Constituents---Nux Vomica contains
the alkaloids, Strychnine and Brucine, also traces of strychnicine, and
a glucoside Loganin, about 3 per cent fatty matter, caffeotannic acid
and a trace of copper. The pulp of the fruit contains about 5 per cent
of loganin together with the alkaloid strychnicine
Medicinal Action
and Uses---The
propertiesof Nux Vomica are substantially those of the alkaloid
Strychnine. The powdered seeds are employed in atonic dyspepsia. The
tincture of Nux Vomica is often used in mixtures - for its stimulant
action on the gastro-intestinal tract. In the mouth it acts as a bitter,
increasing appetite; it stimulates peristalsis, in chronic constipation
due to atony of the bowel it is often combined with cascara and other
laxatives with good effects. Strychnine, the chief alkaloid constituent
of the seeds, also acts as a bitter, increasing the flow of gastric
juice; it is rapidly absorbed as it reaches the intestines, after which
it exerts its characteristic effects upon the central nervous system,
the movements of respiration are deepened and quickened and the heart
slowed through excitation of the vagal centre. The senses of smell,
touch, hearing and vision are rendered more acute, it improves the pulse
and raises blood pressure and is of great value as a tonic to the
circulatory system in cardiac failure. It is much used as a gastric
tonic in dyspepsia. The most direct symptom caused by strychnine is
violent convulsions due to a simultaneous stimulation of the motor or
sensory ganglia of the spinal cord; during the convulsion there is great
rise in blood pressure; in some types of chronic lead poisoning it is of
great value. In cases of surgical shock and cardiac failure large doses
are given up to 1/10 grain by hypodermic injection; also used as an
antidote in poisoning by chloral or chloroform. Brucine closely
resembles strychnine in its action, but is slightly less poisonous, it
paralyses the peripheral motor nerves. It is said that the convulsive
action characteristic of strychnine is absent in brucine almost
entirely. It is used in pruritis and as a local anodyne in inflammations
of the external ear.
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authenticity of the above information are not verified and established
by us. You are requested to get it verified. The above given information
are collected from various sources may be used for academic purpose.
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