Country or Indian Ipecacuanha.
Botanical Origin—Tylophora asthmatica Wight et Arnott (Asclepias asthmatica Roxb.), a twining perennial plant, common in sandy soils throughout the Indian Peninsula and naturalized in Mauritius. It may be distinguished from some of its congeners by its reddish or dull pink flowers, with the scale of the staminal corona abruptly contracted into a long sharp tooth.[1584]
History—The employment of this plant in medicine is well known to the Hindus, who call it Antamul and use it with considerable success in dysentery, but we have not succeeded in tracing it in the ancient Indian literature. During the last century it attracted the attention of Roxburgh[1585] who made many observations on the administration of the root, while physician to the General Hospital of Madras from 1776 to 1778. It was also used very successfully in the place of ipecacuanha by Anderson, Physician-General to the Madras army.[1586] In more recent times, the plant has been prescribed by O’Shaughnessy, who pronounced the root an excellent substitute for ipecacuanha if given in rather larger doses.[1587] Kirkpatrick[1588] administered the drug in at least a thousand cases, and found it of the greatest value; he prescribed the dried leaf, not only because superior to the root in certainty of action, but also as being obtainable without destruction of the plant. The drug has been largely given by many other practitioners in India. Tylophora is also employed in Mauritius, where it is known as Ipéca sauvage or Ipéca du pays. It has a place in the Bengal Pharmacopœia of 1844, and in the Pharmacopœia of India of 1868.
Description[1589]—The leaves are opposite, entire, from 2 to 5 inches long, ¾ to 2½ inches broad, somewhat variable in outline, ovate or subrotund, usually cordate at the base, abruptly acuminate or almost mucronate, rather leathery, glabrous above, more or less downy beneath with soft simple hairs. The pedicel, which is channelled, is ½ to ¾ of an inch in length. In the dry state the leaves are rather thick and harsh, of a pale yellowish green; they have a not unpleasant herbaceous smell, with but very little taste.[1590]
Chemical Composition—A concentrated infusion of the leaves has a slightly acrid taste. It is abundantly precipitated by tannic acid, by neutral acetate of lead or caustic potash, and is turned greenish-black by perchloride of iron. Broughton of Ootacamund (India) has informed us (1872) that from a large quantity of the leaves he obtained a small amount of crystals,—insufficient for analysis. Dissolved and injected into a small dog, they occasioned purging and vomiting.
Uses—Employed in India, as already mentioned, as a substitute for ipecacuanha, chiefly in the treatment of dysentery. The dose of the powdered leaves as an emetic is 25 to 30 grains, as a diaphoretic and expectorant 3 to 5 grains.
Radix Tylophoræ—This root is met with in the Indian bazaars, and has been employed, as before stated, as much or more than the leaf. It consists of a short, knotty, descending rootstock, about ⅛ of an inch in thickness, emitting 2 to 3 aerial stems, and a considerable number of wiry roots. These roots are often 6 inches or more in length by ½ a line in diameter, and are very brittle. The whole drug is of a pale yellowish-brown; it has no considerable odour, but a sweetish and subsequently acrid taste. In general appearance it is suggestive of valerian, but is somewhat stouter and larger.
Examined microscopically, the parenchymatous envelope of the rootlets is seen to consist of two layers, the inner forming a small nucleus sheath. The outer portion is built up of large cells, loaded with starch granules and tufted crystals of oxalate of calcium. Salts of iron do not alter the tissue.