American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy

We should confirm or disapprove the observations that have been made of
this remedy. If confirmed, the agent will be a valuable addition to our
resources.
COTO BARK.
Origin—The botanical source of coto bark is not certainly known, but it is
supposed to be obtained from a species of nectandra, a tree growing in
Bolivia.
CONSTITUENTS—
A volatile alkaloid, volatile oil, resin, starch, gum, sugar, calcium
oxalate, tannin, formic, butyric and acetic acids, cotoin, para-cotoin,
oxyleucotin, leucolin, hydrocotin, dibenzoylhydrocotin, peperonylic
acid.
PREPARATIONS—
Fluid Extract of Coto Bark. Dose, from five to twenty minims.
Specific Symptomatology—Epidemic diarrhea, attacks occurring at
night suddenly, or in early morning stools frequent, ten to twenty in a
few hours; colliquative, rice-water stools, nausea and vomiting with great
distress, sharp, cutting pain in the bowels, involuntary evacuations,
extreme prostration, surface bathed in cold clammy perspiration,
collapse, febrile reaction.
Therapy—It is a carminative, stimulant and astringent. It has a specific
effect on the alimentary canal but is not a suitable remedy where
inflammation exists or is threatened, but rather should be employed in
relaxed states, and where some poisonous element has been taken into
the system in the food or drinking water. It is antiseptic or promotes
asepsis.
It acts favorably in the diarrhoea of typhoid fever, in colliquative diarrhea
from whatever cause, in the diarrhea of consumptives and in atonic and
catarrhal diarrhea.
It possesses astringent properties and contracts the relaxed vessels. It is
one of our most efficient remedies in the exhaustive sweats of
consumptive patients. It may be given in ten drop doses of the fluid
extract, repeated according to the urgency of the case.
Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy - Page 158