Aconitum napellus - Monkshood
"CONSTITUENTS: Aconitine, amorphous and crystalline; Pseudo-Aconitine, Aconine, Pseudo-Aconine, Picraconitine, Aconitic Acid, Sugar, Fat and Resin.
PREPARATIONS: Extractum Aconiti Radicis Fluidum, Fluid Extract of Aconite Root. Dose: one minim. Tinctura Aconiti Radicis, Tincture of Aconite Root. Dose: from one to ten minims. Specific Medicine Aconite. Dose: from one-twentieth to one-half minim. Aconitine Crystalline. Dose: one five hundredth of a grain. Aconitine Amorphous. Dose: one one-hundred and thirty-fourth of a grain.
Therapy: In a moderate dose of five minims of the tincture, a sense of numbness and tingling is felt in the tongue and lips, with muscular weakness and depression; by doubling the dose these symptoms are intensified and prolonged, the pulse falls and the breathing is slowed. A poisonous dose causes tingling in the skin, pain in the joints, vertigo, dimness of vision, extreme debility, pulse forty to fifty per minute and irregular, skin cool and moist, burning heat in the esophagus and stomach, nausea, vomiting and purging. There may be severe gastric and intestinal spasms, headache, complete loss of sight, hearing and speech, while consciousness remains; pupils dilated. muscles tremulous or convulsed, pulse imperceptible; death by syncope.
Aconite acts on the vaso-motor nervous system. It is a powerful depressant of the heart, and if given in sufficient quantity will paralyze that organ. Its apparent influence is upon the terminal filaments of the sensory nerves first, and afterwards, more slowly, upon the nerve trunks. It depresses the nerve centers of the cord, and destroys reflex activity and voluntary power.
A drop of a solution of aconite in the eye causes the pupil to contract. Larger amounts induce toxic symptoms, the principal of which are increase of tingling and numbness, excessive perspiration, rapidly lowering temperature, pupillary dilation, dimness of sight, loss of hearing and sense of touch, and diminished action of the sensory filaments supplying the skin.
Muscular weakness is marked; trembling and occasional convulsions may ensue. Excessive depression comes on, and the power of standing is early lost. The feet and legs become. cold, the face pale, and the patient has a tendency to faint. There may be violent burning in the stomach with great thirst and dyspagia, and vomiting and diarrhea may occur. The pulse is weak, rapid, and almost imperceptible; acute, lancinating pain may be felt, and more or less delirium may result, though as a rule the intellect remains unimpaired.
"The manner in which aconite affects the nervous system is not yet definitely known. That it is a heart paralyzer seems to be an accepted fact. Death may result from syncope, though usually it occurs from respiratory paralysis. The action of a lethal dose is rapid, toxic symptoms showing themselves within a few moments." (Lloyd and Felter.)"
(Finley Ellingwood: The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1915)