SABADILLA, CEBADILLA, or CEVADILLA, Asagra'a officinalis, formerly Helonias offici nails, a Mexican plant of the natural order melanthaceo3,. the seeds of which are employed in medicine, because of properties analogous to those of white hellebore (reratrum adtum). The plant has a bulbous root, and grows in tufts; the leaves arc linear and grassy, about four ft. long, and not above a quarter of an inch broad; among them rises a round scope (leafless flower-stem), abort six ft. high, bearing a very dense raceme, a foot and a half long.. of small white flowers. The seed-vessels are papery follicles. three together; the seeds one, two, or three in each follicle, two or three lines long, winged, and wrinkled. The powdered seeds have been known in medicine since the end of the 16th century. On submitting them to chemical analysis, they are found to consist of fatty matter, two special organic acids, to which the names ceradic and verotric acids have been given; of varieties of resin, yellow coloring matter, gum, and a highly poison ous alkaloid named veratria in combination with gallic acid; and to these constituents a French chemist, Couerbe, has added a crystalline body named sabodilline.
Notwithstanding its highly poisonous properties, Sabadilla is prescribed on many parts of the continent as a vermifuge in cases of tape-worm and ascarides, and it may be administered to an adult in 8 or 10 grain doses, mixed with a little sugar, and a few drops of oil of fennel. In the form of powder, it is sometimes applied to the head to
destroy lice, but if the skin be broken, some other remedy should be selected, as absorp tion to a dangerous extent might ensue. From its stimulating properties, it is employed in the form of tincture (which, however, is not an 011.161E11 preparation) as an external application in chronic rheumatism and paralysis, and in cases of nervous palpi tation.
The active principle of Sabadilla, the in doses of of a grain, gradually increased, and taken thrice a day, has been found very efficacious iu acute rheumatism; and applied in the form of ointment, it has been highly recommended in scrofulous di, eases of the joints. When prescribed internally, its use should be at once suspended if the patient complain of pain in the throat or stomach, vomiting or diarrhea.—Simiiiir qualities are said to exist in the seeds of Vel'atru11a sabaclilla, a native of Mexico and dia West Indies, and in some of the species of helonias, natives of the southern parts of North America.