Adonis vernalis - Pheasant's eye
"PREPARATIONS: Adonidin. Dose: from 1/10 to 1/3 grain. Fluid Extract of Adonis Vernalis; miscible in water without material precipitation. Dose: one to two minims. Specific Medicine Adonis. Dose: from one-fourth of a minim to one minim. It is usually prescribed: ten drops in four ounces of water, a teaspoonful every two hours.
Therapy: Adonis is indicated in chronic weak heart where the venous circulation is engorged, and where there is a tendency to varicosed ulcers. In functional heart disorders with weakness, the agent is contraindicated.
In the treatment of varicosis, one writer advises it in small doses persisted in.
The agent is of value in those conditions which result from imperfect arterial tension, due to incompetent heart action. It is useful in many cases of dropsy, especially if the kidneys are inefficient in their action. It contracts the enfeebled and dilated heart muscle and improves its tone. In general dropsy its influence is quite as satisfactory as that of the other heart remedies, probably, however, not more so than digitalis, although its diuretic influence is sometimes great. In those cases in which digitalis fails to produce diuresis, the diuretic influence of adonis vernalis is more constant. It is valuable in irregularity of the heart and in dyspnea from feeble heart. It is also serviceable in dyspnea from asthma with cardiacal feebleness. It has produced marked results in these cases.
It has been advised by some prominent authorities in the treatment of epilepsy The following formula has been suggested: Forty grains are dissolved in five ounces of water and filtered. To this are added 160 grains of potassium bromide and three grains of caffeine. A teaspoonful of this four times daily has cured some stubborn cases. The agent is often given in infusion."
(Finley Ellingwood: The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1915)