American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy

conditions of the heart muscle.
In its influence upon the gastro-intestinal tract it is tonic, restorative and
soothing in its action. It promotes the appetite, increases the secretion of
the gastric and intestinal juices and conduces to a restoration of the
normal condition. It increases peristaltic action and general muscular
tonus in the structure of walls of the stomach and intestines.
The alkaloids have been given in sufficient quantities to produce death
in the lower animals in experimental investigation, but it cannot be
considered toxic in medicinal doses. It produces convulsive action,
followed by decreased irritability of the vagus, the blood pressure is
suddenly decreased and the heart fails in diastole.
Its elimination is comparatively active and is largely accomplished
through the kidneys.
Therapy—In its therapeutic influence its widest range of action is upon
the stomach, in functional disorders of that organ. It is the most natural
of stimulants to the normal function of digestion. Its influence upon the
mucous surfaces renders it most important in catarrhal gastritis and
gastric ulceration. It supersedes all known remedies as a local, and also
as a constitutional tonic when this condition is present.
In administering this remedy, if there be irritation, the fluid and less
bulky preparations are preferable. If there be marked atonicity with
inactivity of the stomach and lack of nerve sensibility, the powdered drug
in five grain doses is the most useful. This increases the tone, reduces
abnormal secretion, stimulates normal excretion, promotes the appetite
and increases the quantity of the digestive juices, and thus favors the
digestion. It is most excellent in indigestion—in such cases, acting in a
more rational manner than the digestives which have no influence
beyond that immediately exercised upon the food within the stomach.
In extremely irritable conditions a solution which contains one or two
drops of the specific hydrastis, or the colorless hydrastis, or in extreme
cases the one-twelfth to the one-fourth of a grain of the sulphate of
hydrastine or of the hydrochlorate of hydrastine is preferable to large
doses of hydrastine or the powdered hydrastis. In some cases powders, or
the precipitated principle, will irritate the stomach, producing weight,
distress or even mild pain if the stomach is empty. In such cases it is best
given after a little food has been taken, or in conjunction with the
Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy - Page 254