NUR VOMICA

This article appears in Volume V19, Page 928 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: NUM-ORC

NUR VOMICA , a poisonous drug, consisting of the seed of Sirychnos Nux-Vomica, a tree belonging to the natural order Loganiaceae, indigenous to most parts of India, and found also in Burma, Siam, Cochin China and northern Australia. The tree is of moderate size, with a short, thick, often crooked, stem, and ovate entire leaves, marked with three to five veins radiating from the base of the

leaf

LEAF (O. Eng. leaf, cf. Dutch loof, Ger. Laub, Swed. lof, &c.; possibly to be referred to the root seen in Gr. Ma-eta, to peel, strip)

. The

flowers

FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

are small, greenish-white and tubular, and are arranged in terminal corymbs. The fruit is of the size of a small orange, and has a thin hard shell, enclosing a bitter, gelatinous white pulp, in which from i to 5 seeds are vertically embedded. The seed is disk-shaped, rather less than 1 in. in

diameter

DIAMETER (from the Cr. &a, through, µErpov, measure)

, and about f in. in thickness, slightly depressed towards the centre, and in some varieties furnished with an acute keel-like

ridge

at the margin. The external surface of the seed is of a greyish-green colour and satiny

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

, due to a coating of appressed silky hairs. The interior of the seed consists chiefly of horny albumen, which is easily divided along its outer edge into halves by a fissure, in which lies the embryo. The latter is about in. long, and has a pair of heart-shaped membranous cotyledons.
The

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

constituents of the seeds are the alkaloids strychnine (q.v.) and brucine, the former averaging about o4%, and the latter about half this amount. The seeds also contain an acid, strychnic or igasuric acid; a glucoside, loganin; sugar and fat. The dose of the seeds is s to 4 grains. The British Pharmacopoeia contains three preparations of nux vomica. The liquid extract is standardized to contain 1.5% of strychnine; the extract is standardized to contain 5%; and the tincture, which is the most widely used, is standardized to contain o25%.
The

pharmacology

PHARMACOLOGY

of nux vomica is practically that of strychnine. The tincture is chiefly used in cases of atonic dyspepsia, and is superior to all other bitter tonics, in that it is antiseptic and has a more powerful action upon the movements of the gastric

wall

WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from Lat. vallum, rampart; the
original
- ORIGINAL
O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)
WALL, RICHARD (1694-1778)

. The extract is of

great

GREAT

value in the treatment of simple constipation.

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