ON GELSEMINUM SEMPERVIRENS OR YELLOW JASSAMIN. BY WILLIAM PROCTER, JR.
Considerable attention has recently been turned to the Yellow Jassamin of our Southern States, from the accidental discovery of certain remarkable effects produced by it when taken internally. A planter of Mississippi having suffered much from a tedious attack of bilious fever, which resisted the usual medicines employed in such cases, requested one of his servants to obtain from the garden a certain root, from which he intended to prepare an infusion for drinking. By mistake, the person sent collected a different root, and administered the tea to his master, who, soon after taking it, was seized with a complete loss of muscular power, being, in fact, so completely prostrated as to be unable to move a limb or to raise the eyelids, yet he could hear, and could appreciate what was occurring around him. After some hours, during which his friends were watching him with much anxiety and little hope, he gradually recovered his muscular control, and was astonished to find that the fever had left him. Having ascertained from his servant what plant he had collected, he subsequently employed it successfully on his own plantation as well as among his neighbors. The history becoming known to a quackish physician, he prepared from it a nostrum called the “Electrical Febrifuge,” in {369} which, it was disguised by oil of winter-green, (Eclectic Dispensatory, page 186.)
The Gelseminum is not noticed by Dr. Griffith in his Medical Botany, nor in the recent edition of the United States Dispensatory, and so far appears to have been used chiefly by the “Eclectic” practitioners of Cincinnati and other parts of the Western States. The accompanying description of the plant is taken partly from a specimen sent from Memphis, Tennessee, where, in common with other parts of the south-western States, it is cultivated as an ornamental garden plant.
The Gelseminum belongs to the natural order Apocyneæ, so remarkable for the great activity of many of its genera, and the name of the genus, given by Jussieu, is one of the ancient names of the jessamine, and that of the species arises from its evergreen foliage.
GELSEMINUM belongs to Pentandria Digynia of Linnæus, and to the natural order Apocyneæ of Jussieu.
Generic characters.—Regular, calyx five parted, (the sepals of this species being furnished with bract-like appendages) carolla funnel-form, border spreading, five lobed, nearly equal, capsule compressed, flat, two partible, two-celled, seeds flat and attached to the margins of the valves, (Eaton.)
Specific characters.—The G. sempervirens is known at the South under the names yellow jasmine, wild jasmine, and woodbine. In Florida it flowers in March, and in Mississippi and Tennessee in May and June. Its stem is twining, smooth and glabrous; its leaves are opposite, perennial, lanceolate, entire, dark green above, paler beneath; with short petioles. The flowers, which are esteemed poisonous, are yellow, about an inch long and half an inch wide at the top, of a fine yellow color, and have an agreeable odor, which perfumes the air when they bloom. It grows luxuriantly, climbing from tree to tree, forming a delightful shade. According to Eaton, from whose botany we glean part of the above botanical notice, there is a variety called inodorum which has scentless flowers.
The Gelseminum is indigenous to the Southern States, and its beauty has caused its introduction into the gardens. {370}
Medical properties and uses.—The root is the part used, and the tincture is the preparation most usually employed, and, as made, must be a saturated tincture. The roots, in a green state, well bruised, are introduced into a suitable vessel, and covered with whiskey, or diluted alcohol. After standing two weeks, the tincture is separated by expression and filtered. It has a dark red color, and a pleasant bitter taste. The dose is from ten to fifty drops. The following account of its medical properties and effects is taken from a paper in the “Eclectic Medical Journal,” August, 1852, page 353, by F. D. Hill of Cincinnati: