Semen Nucis Vomicæ; Nux Vomica; F. Noix vomique; G. Brechnuss.
Botanical Origin—Strychnos Nux vomica L., a moderate sized tree with short, thick, often crooked stem, and small, greenish-white, tubular flowers ranged in terminal corymbs. It is indigenous to most parts of India, especially the coast districts, and is found in Burmah, Siam, Cochin China and Northern Australia.
The ovary of S. Nux vomica is bilocular, but as it advances in growth the dissepiment becomes fleshy and disappears. The fruit, which is an indehiscent berry of the size and shape of a small orange, is filled with a bitter, gelatinous white pulp, in which the seeds, 1 to 5 in number, are placed vertically in an irregular manner. The epicarp forms a thin, smooth, somewhat hard shell, which at first is greenish, but when mature, of a rich orange-yellow. The pulp of the fruit contains strychnine,[1591] yet it is said to be eaten in India by birds.[1592] The wood, which is hard and durable, is very bitter.
History—Nux Vomica, which was unknown to the ancients, is thought to have been introduced into medicine by the Arabians. But the notices in their writings which have been supposed to refer to it, are far from clear and satisfactory. We have no evidence moreover that it was used in India at an early period. Garcia de Orta, an observer thoroughly acquainted with the drugs of the west coast of India in the middle of the 16th century, is entirely silent as to nux vomica. Fleming,[1593] writing at the beginning of the present century, remarks that nux vomica is seldom, if ever, employed in medicine by the Hindus, but this statement does not hold good now.
The drug was however certainly made known in Germany in the 16th century. Valerius Cordus[1594] wrote a description of it about the year 1540, which is remarkable for its accuracy. Fuchs, Bauhin and others noticed it as Nux Metella, a name taken from the Methel of Avicenna and other Arabian authors.[1595]
It was found in the English shops in the time of Parkinson (1640), who remarks that its chief use is for poisoning dogs, cats, crows, and ravens, and that it is rarely given as a medicine.
Description—Nux Vomica is the seed, removed from the pulp and shell. It is disc-like, or rather irregularly orbicular, a little less than an inch in diameter, by about a quarter of an inch in thickness, slightly concave on the dorsal, convex on the ventral surface, or nearly flat on either side, often furnished with a broad, thickened margin so that the central portion of the seed appears depressed. The outside edge is rounded or tapers into a keel-like ridge. Each seed has on its edge a small protuberance, from which is a faintly projecting line (raphe) passing to a central scar, which is the hilum or umbilicus; a slight depression marks the opposite side of the seed. The seeds are of a light greyish hue, occasionally greenish, and have a satiny or glistening aspect, by reason of their being thickly covered with adpressed, radiating hairs. Nux vomica is extremely compact and horny, and has a very bitter taste.
After having been softened by digestion in water, the seed is easily cut along its outer edge, then displaying a mass of translucent, cartilaginous albumen, divided into two parts by a fissure in which lies the embryo. This latter is about ³/₁₀ of an inch long, having a pair of delicate 5-to 7-nerved, heart-shaped cotyledons, with a club-shaped radicle, the position of which is indicated on the exterior of the seed by the small protuberance already named.
Microscopic Structure—The hairs of nux vomica are of remarkable structure. They are formed as usual of the elongated cells of the epidermis, and have their walls thickened by secondary deposits, which are interrupted by longitudinally extended pores; they are a striking object in polarized light. The albumen is made up of large cells, loaded with albuminoid matters and oily drops, but devoid of starch. In water the thick walls of this parenchyme swell up and yield some mucilage; the cotyledons are built up of a narrow, much more delicate tissue, traversed by small fibro-vascular bundles.
The alkaloids are not directly recognizable by the microscope; but if very thin slices of nux vomica are kept for some length of time in glycerin, they develop feathery crystals, doubtless consisting of these bases.