Kaladana resin, which has been introduced into medical practice in India under the name of Pharbitisin,[1655] has a nauseous acrid taste and an unpleasant odour, especially when heated. It melts about 160° C. The following liquids dissolve it more or less freely, namely, spirit of wine, absolute alcohol, acetic acid, glacial acetic acid, acetone, acetic ether, methylic and amylic alcohol, and alkaline solutions. It is on the other hand insoluble in ether, benzol, chloroform, and sulphide of carbon. With concentrated sulphuric acid, it forms a brownish yellow solution, quickly assuming a violet hue. This reaction however requires a very small quantity of the powdered resin. If a solution of the resin in ammonia, after having been kept a short time, is acidulated, no precipitate is formed; but the solution is now capable of separating protoxide of copper from an alkaline solution of the tartrate, which originally it did not alter. Heated with nitric acid, the resin affords sebacic acid ([see p. 446]).
From these reactions of kaladana resin, we are entitled to infer that it agrees with the resin of jalap or Convolvulin. To prepare it in quantity, it would probably be best to treat the seeds with common acetic acid, and to precipitate it by neutralizing the solution. We have ascertained that the resin is not decomposed when digested with glacial acetic acid at 100° C., even for a week.
We have had the opportunity of examining a sample of kaladana resin manufactured by Messrs. Rogers and Co., chemists of Bombay and Poona, which we found to agree with that prepared by ourselves. It is a light yellowish friable mass, resembling purified jalap resin, and like it, capable of being perfectly decolorized by treatment with animal charcoal.
Uses—Kaladana seeds have cathartic powers like jalap. Besides the resin, an extract, tincture and compound powder have been introduced into the Pharmacopœia of India. In many parts of India the natives take the roasted seeds as a purgative.
SOLANACEÆ.
STIPES DULCAMARÆ.
Caules Dulcamaræ; Bitter-sweet, Dulcamara, Woody Nightshade; F. Douce-amère, Morelle grimpante; G. Bittersüss.
Botanical Origin—Solanum Dulcamara L., a perennial shrubby plant, having small purple flowers and red berries, occurring throughout Europe, except in the extreme north. It is also found in Northern Africa, and in Asia Minor, and has become naturalized in North America. It is common in moist, shady hedges and thickets.[1656]
History—Bitter nightshade, “manyglog,” was an ingredient, together with wild sage and betony, of a drink which the Welsh “Physicians of Myddfai” in the 13th century prepared for the bite of a mad dog.[1657] The stalks of bitter-sweet were also used in the medical practice by the German physicians and botanists of the 16th century, one of whom, Tragus (1552), has figured and described it, under the name of Dulcis amara or Dulcamarum.
Description—The older stems are woody; the upper and younger are soft and green, long and straggling, attaining by the support of other plants a height of 6 feet or more, and dying back in the winter. For medicinal use, the shoots of a year or two old should be gathered, either late in the year, or early in the spring before the leaves come out. These shoots are several feet long, by about ⅕ of an inch thick, of a light greenish-brown, sometimes cylindrical, at others indistinctly 4-or 5-sided, slightly furrowed longitudinally, or somewhat warty.