VERATRUM VIRIDE BY JOHN URI LLOYD, Cincinnati, O. REPRINTED FROM THE WESTERN DRUGGIST, Chicago, October, 1897. C, L$ L^IV VERATRUM VIRIDE.* I BY JOHN URI LLOYD. BOTANICAL HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION. This is quite a common plant in many parts of the United States, particularly in the eastern states. It grows in swampy situations, wet meadows, and along the borders of streams. It is usually well known to the people in sections where it is found, who call it itch-weed, Indian poke, poke-rootf, or American hellebore, swamp helle- bore, etc. The earliest travelers made mention of it. Josselyn 1 records that it is used as an ordeal by the Amer- ican Indians, somewhat on the same order as the ordeals by the negroes of Africa at the present day. He sup- posed it was the same as veratrum album of Europe, and notes its abundance, stating ‘ ‘ that you may in a small compass gather whole cart-loads of it.” Peter Kalm 2 states that it is very common in marshy places, and frequently caused the death of stock which ate the young leaves in spring; also that the settlers em- ployed a decoction of the root to poison the seed-corn, to prevent the birds from eating it § ; and also that the root was used as an insecticide. According to Loudon, the plant was introduced into Europe in 1742, though most authorities ascribe to Peter Collinson its introduction in 1763. 4 It was named and described in the first edition of Aiton’s Hortus Kewensis (vol. 3, p. 422, 1789) as veratrum viride, and Aiton by most writers, is given as the author of the name. In justice, however, the credit should be given to William Solander, an English botanist and illustrious pupil of Linnasus, who (although no mention of the fact is made in the publication) furnished the descriptions and nomen- clature of the new species described in Aiton’s work.J; *The thanks of the writer are extended to Mr. C. G. Lloyd for bo- tanical notes and to Dr. Sigmond Waidbott, librarian of the Lloyd Library, for invaluable assistance. +A name that is universally used with phytolacca decandra. §The statement being that the marauding birds were sickened and did not return. ^Dictionary of National Biography. “ Aiton, Wm.” New York, 188 i> to date. p S3 Veratrum viride appears among the earliest swamp plants in the spring, usually associated with skunk-cab- bage (symplocarpus foetidus, Nutt.) At first a bunch of radical leaves appears, then it sends up a stout leafy stem four to eight feet high. The leaves below are large, six to twelve inches long, one-half as wide. They closely cover the stem with their sheathing bases and gradually become smaller toward the top of the plant, where they are finally reduced to bracts. They are broadly oval in shape, acute at the end, margins entire, and have prominent parallel ribs. The flowers appear in June. They are borne in a dense terminal pyramidal panicle a foot or more in length. When in bloom the plant with its large bunch of terminal yellowish-green flowers is a conspicuous object. Each flower has six segments to the perianth, six stamens opposite the seg- ments, and a three-styled ovary which develops in fruit into a three-celled, three-lobed, dry capsule. Veratrum viride is conceded by all modern botanists to be a distinct species ; it is so close, however, to vera- trum album of Europe that the early explorers of America and some of the earlier botanists and travelers — Michaux (Flor. bor. am. Vol. II, p. 249), Josselyn, 1 Kalm 9 , David Schoepf 3 — thought it was the same species. Certainly the rhizomes of both plants bear a close resemblance to each other, even in their microscop- ical aspects 28 . Skunk-cabbage root has been used as an adulterant of veratrum viride, but according to Bastin it may easily be recognized microscopically by its characteristic starch grains, while the smell is an indication of its presence in the fresh condition only. 27 Veratrum viride, as it occurs in commerce, consists of the rhizome with the numerous rootlets attached, and frequently is sliced. Sometimes it appears in trade coarsely ground and pressed into ounce or pound pack- ages. MEDICINAL PROPERTIES AND CHEMICAL CONSTITU- ENTS. The medicinal virtues of the drug seem to reside in the rhizome alone ; at least Maisch 11 has found that the dried leaf-stalks, which sometimes occur attached to the rhizome, 4 are inert, though containing a saponaceous principle. The American Indians have long known the plant to be an emetic, and Rafinesque 7 reports that this emetic property is so strong in the drug that cases are on record where external application to the legs (in cutaneous diseases) has caused emesis. The acrid properties of the root are well knowm ; when masticated it burns the mouth and fauces, and when snuffed up the nostrils in the form of powder, it causes violent sneezing and a copious discharge of mucus. 6 Another conspicuous property of the drug is its sedative action on the circulation of the blood, it hav- ing the power to reduce the pulse from 75 or 80 to 35 or 40 beats in a minute. « Osgood observed the stability of veratrum preparations as early as 1835 ; an aqueous extract inspissated in the sun retained its activity for more than three years. * This statement is well supplemented by some recent investiga- tions of Pellacani regarding the power of resistance of vari- ous alkaloids in putrefying media; it was observed by him that veratrine (which is at least closely related to the ac- tive principles of our plant) held out longest of all alka- loids examined, i. e., for 39 months. 23 Dr. Osgood, in 1835, probably was the first in this country to institute experiments, though unsuccessfully, with a view of isolating from veratrum viride its active principle. 8 Mitchell, in 1 837, found in the rhizome gum, resin, starch, red coloring matter, wax, sugar, a bitter principle probably analogous to veratrine, and gallic acid. 9 Richardson, in 1857, obtained an alkaloid, which from parallel tests he judged to be veratrine, the alkaloid that previously had been obtained from veratrum saba- dilla. 10 In 1865 Bullock 12 isolated a resin and two alka- loids, neither, however, responding to the tests for vera- trine. One of these alkaloids was soluble in ether, and later was named by Dr. Geo. B. Wood, veratroidia; the other was insoluble in ether, and was called viridia by the same authority. The latter alkaloid (viridia) was es- tablished by Mitchell 14 in 1874 to be identical with jervine, an alkaloid discovered by E. Simon in 1837 in the root of veratrum album, and at first named by him barytine. Bullock 16 observed with jervine a perceptible sedative ef- fect; more recently 24 it has also been shown to be faintly toxic. Mitchell observed the insolubility of jervine sul- fate, a property clearly recognized by the discoverer of jervine (Simon), who for that reason had first assigned to it the name barytine. The nitrate of jervine was also found by Bullock to be soluble with difficulty in water or solution of potassium nitrate, a property which permits its separation from other alkaloids. 15 In 1876 Bullock withdrew veratroidia, 16 stating that jervine is the only alkaloid in the root of veratrum viride, veratroidia being a mixture of jervia with a light-colored resin, the presence of which increases the solubility of jervine in ether. Th. Wormley, in 1876, made the statement 17 that in both V. album and V. viride an alkaloid exists which un- mistakably responds to all the tests for veratrine. Again, Robbins, in 1877, declared the nonexistence of veratrine and the existence of jervine in veratrum viride, to which he adds a new alkaloid, which he calls veratridine . 20 In 1878 Tobin established new formulas for jervine and veratroidine, 18 while E. Schmidt assigned to veratrine the formula C32H50NO9 as the result of nine analyses. 19 In the same year, C. R. Alder Wright and A. P. Luff undertook an exhaustive study of the alkaloids of both veratrum album and viride. 21 They obtained per kilo- gram of drug the following alkaloids in gram weights : Veratrum Album. Veratrum Viride. Jervine Pseudojervine . . . Rubijervine Veratralbine Veratrine Cevadine 1.8 0.20 0.4 0.16 0 25 0.02 2.20 trace 0.05 (less than) 0.004 Apparently absent 0. 43 4.20 0.80 Hence, half the proportion of the total alkaloids of veratrum viride would consist of cevadine (C32H49NO9) Wright and Luff’s sternutatory alkaloid from sabadilla seed, the remainder being about an even mixture of jer- vine (C26H37NO3) and pseudojervine (C29H43NO7). However, other and later investigators have not ac- quiesced in these conclusions. In 1890 G. Salzberger 24 published the results of a prolonged investigation of veratrum album, discovering in this plant the exceedingly poisonous, sternutatory and unstable alkaloid proto - veratrine , and the nonpoisonous bitter alkaloid protover - atridine. Besides, he confirmed Wright and Luff’s formu- lae for the crystallizable alkaloids, jervine, pseudojervine and rubijervine. In the same year Pehkschen 25 also con- tributed a paper and included veratrum viride in his researches. From the latter drug he obtained 0.08 per cent of total crude alkaloids, which he found to con- sist principally of jervine, C 14 H 22 NO 2 , and a small amount of veratroidine, C 22 H 6 3 N 0 9 . The latter alka- loid and some rhombic crystals that he obtained from veratrum album, possessed marked sternutatory proper- ties, while jervine did not exhibit this property. Re- viewing these results, it seems evident that the existence of jervine in veratrum viride is well established. How- ever, in consequence of the otherwise somewhat dis- cordant reports, another critical study of veratrum viride is desirable in order to establish its exact quali- tative and quantitative composition beyond a doubt. An exceedingly painstaking compilation and classification of the results hitherto arrived at in the chemistry of vera- trum is contained in Charles Sohn, “A Dictionary of Active Principles of Plants,” London, 1894. PHARMACOPEIA L RECORD. While veratrine, a mixture of alkaloids obtained from the seeds of cevadilla (asagraea officinalis, Linn.) has found a place practically in all pharmacopeias, veratrum viride and some preparations of this drug occur only in the British and the United States pharmacopeias. The latter has carried this drug since the 1820 edition. LITERATURE ON VERATRUM VIRIDE. (1.) Josselyn, John, (a) New England’s Rarities Discovered, London, 1672 (p. 48 of Reprint), p. 83; (b) Account of Two Voyages to New England, 1674 (p. 60 of Reprint), p. 76. Reprint, with notes by E. Tuckcrman, Boston, 1855. (2.) Peter Kalm, Travels to North America, original work, 3 vols. Stockholm, 1753-1761. Eng. Trans, by J. R. Foster. 2d ed„ Vol. I, p. 382, London, 1772. (3.) Dr. Schoepf, Materia Medica Americana, p. 152, Erlangae, 1787. (4.) Wm. Aiton, Hortus Kewensis, Vol. Ill, p. 422, London, 1789. (5.) Jacob Bigelow, American Medical Botany, Vol. II, p. 121-136, Boston, 1818. (6.) James Thacher, The Amer. New Dispensatory, p. 404, Boston, 1821. (7). Rafinesque, Medical Flora and Botany of the U. S., Vol. II, p. 272, Philadelphia, 1830. (8 ) Charles Osgood, Obs. on the Med. Properties of Veratrum Vir A. J. Ph., Vol. VII, p. 202, 1835. (9.) Thomas R. Mitchell, A. J. Ph., 1837, p. 181. (10.) Jos. G. Richardson, A. J. Ph., 1857, p. 204. (11.) John M. Maisch, Practical and Scientific Notes. A. J. Ph., 1864, p. 98. (12.) Chas. Bullock, A. J. Ph., 1865, p. 321; 1866, p. 97; 1868, p. 64. See also Proc. Am. Pharm. Asso., 1867, p. 360. (13.) Dr, Oulmont, N. Rep. der Pharm. . 1868, p. 177. See also A. J. Ph., 1868, p. 443. (14.) Chas. Mitchell, Jervia in Veratrum Viride, A. J. Ph.,’1874, p. 100, and Proc. A. Ph. A., 1874, p. 397-426. (15.) Bullock, Jervia— Its History, etc., A. J. Ph., 1875, p. 450. (16.) Bullock, A. J. Ph., 1876, p. 147. (17.) Th. G. Wormley, Proc. Am. Ph. Asso., No. 24, p. 356, 1876. (18.) A. Tobien, On the Veratrum Alkaloids, Diss. Dorpat, 1877, A. J Ph., 1878, p. 122. (19.) E. Schmidt, Veratria, A. J. Ph., 1878, p. 456. (20.) C. A. Robbins, A. J. Ph., 1877, p. 517. (21.) Wright & Luff, The Alkaloids of the Veratrums, Jour. Chem. Soc. 1878, p. 338-359 and 18V 9, p. 405-426. Also see A. J. Ph., 1878, p. 489, and 1879, p. 367. (22.) Bentley & Trimen, No. 286, London, 1880. (23.) Pellacani, Detection of Alkaloids after Death, A. J. Ph , 1888, p. 569. (24.) G. Salzberger, Arch. d’Pharm., 1890, Vol. CCXXVIII, p. 462- 483. Also see A. J. Ph., 1890, p. 492, and 1891, p. 292. (25 ) S. C. Pehkschen, On the Veratrum Alkaloids, Pharm. Zsch". f Russl., 1890. See also A. J. Ph., 1891, p. 196. (26.) Fltickiger, Pharmacogn. d. Pflanzenreichs, 3d ed., Berlin, 1891, p. 334. (27.) E. S. Bastin, The Starches in Subterranean Stem-drugs. The Apothecary, Vol. II, p. 151, 1893. (28.) E. S. Bastin, Structure of Veratrum Viride, A. J. Ph., 1895, p. 196 8 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/veratrumvirideOOIIoy