IPECACITAN'HA, the name both of a very valuable medicine and of the plant produc ing it. The plant (cephaelis ipecacuanha) belongs to the natural order einekonacem, and grows in damp shady woods in Brazil and some other parts of South America. It is somewhat shrubby, with a few oblongo-lanceolate leaves near the ends of the branches, long-stalked heads of small white flowers, and soft dark purple berries. The part of Ipeeacttanha used in medicine is the root, which is simple or divided into a few branches, flexuous, about as thick as a goose-quill, and is composed of rings of various size, some what fleshy when fresh, and appearing as if closely strung on a central woody cord. The different kinds known in commerce (gray, red, brown) are all produced by the same plant; the differences arising from the age of the plant, the mode of drying, etc. Ipecactianha root is prepared for the market by mere drying. It is collected at all -seasons, although chiefly from Jan. to March; the plant is never cultivated, but is sought for in the forests chiefly by Indians, some of whom devote themselves for months at a time to this occupation. It has now become scarce in the neighborhood of towns.
Various other plants, containing emetine, are used as substitutes for true ipecacuanha. The ipecacuanha of Venezuela is produced by sarcostemma ,qlaucum, of the order asclepiadece; and to this order belongs tylophora asthmatica, the root of which is found a valuable substitute for ipecacuanha in India.
It is in the bark of the root that the active principle, the emetine, almost entirely lies, and in good specimens it amounts to 14 or 16 per cent; the other ingredients. such as fatty matters, starch, lignin, etc., being almost entirely inert. Emetine is represented by the formula It is a white, inodorous, almost insipid powder, moderately.
soluble in alcohol, and having all the charaeters.ofithe vegetable Ltlkaloids. It acts as a -iJ 4 violent emetic in doses of one-sixteenth of a grain or less, and is a powerful poison. The incautious inhalation of the dust or powder of ipecacuanha—as in the process of powdering it—will often bring on a kind of spasmodic asthma.
In small and repeated doses—as, for instance, of a grain or less—ipecacuanha increases the activity of the secreting organs, especially of the bronchial mucous membrane, and of the skin. In larger doses of from 1 to 5 grains it excites nausea and depression, while in doses of from 15 to 30 grains it acts as an emetic, without producing such violent action or so much nausea and depression as tartar emetic.
Ipecacuanha is useful as an emetic when it is neceesary to unload the stomach in cases where there is great debility, or in childhood. As a nauseant, expectorant, and diaphoretic, it is prescribed in affections of the resipratory organs, as catarrh, hooping cough, asthma, etc.; in affections of the alimentary canal, as indigestion, dysentery, etc.; and in disorders in which it is desired to increase 'the action of the skin, as in diabetes, febrile affections, etc.
Besides the powder, the most useful preparations are the wine of ipecaeuanha—of which the dose to an adult as a diaphoretic and expectorant ranges from 10 to 40 minims, and as an emetic from 2 to 4 drachms—and the compound ipecacuanha powder, commonly known as Dover's powder (q.v.). To produce the full a sudorific, a dose of ten grains of Dover's powder should be followed by copious draughts of white-wine whey, treacle-posset, or some other warm and harmless drink.