VEGETABLE MATERIA MEDICA.
Class 1. Dicotyledones vel Erogenae.
RANUNCULACEÆ
ACONITUM NAPELLUS, Linn. ACONITE or MONKSHOOD.
(Engl. Bot., t. 2730; ed. Syme, t. 48.)
Habitat.—Mountainous parts of Central Europe and Asia, extending to Northern India.
Officinal Parts.—1. The dried root (Aconiti Radix) collected in the winter or early spring before the leaves have appeared.(1) It has the following characters: Usually from one to three inches in length, seldom thicker than the middle finger at the crown, tapering, blackish brown, internally whitish. A minute portion cautiously chewed causes prolonged tingling and numbness. 2. The fresh leaves (Aconiti Folia) and flowering tops, gathered, when about one-third of the flowers are expanded, from plants cultivated in Britain. The leaves are smooth, palmate, divided into five deeply cut wedge-shaped segments; exciting, when chewed, a sensation of tingling. Flowers numerous, irregular, deep blue, in dense racemes. Active principle, an Alkaloid, Aconitia.
Properties.—Powerfully sedative, anodyne, and antiphlogistic. In large doses a virulent poison.
Therapeutic Uses.—In various forms of neuralgia, tetanus, acute and chronic rheumatism, gout, erysipelas, and in affections of the heart characterised by increased action, it is a remedy of established value, but its operation on the system requires to be carefully watched.
Preparations of the Root.—Tincture of Aconite (Tinctura Aconiti), Take of Aconite Root, in
