Physostigma venenosum - Calabar bean, Ordeal bean, Chop nut
"CONSTITUENTS: Physostigmine or Eserine, Calabarine, Eseridine, Phytosterin.
PREPARATIONS: Extractum Physostigmatis, Extract of Physostigma. Dose: from one-twentieth to one-eighth of a grain. Tinctura Physostigmatis, Tincture of Physostigma. Dose: from three to ten minims. Specific Medicine Physostigma. Dose: from one-fourth of a drop to five drops. Prescribed, from eight drops to two and one-half drams, in four ounces of water. A teaspoonful every two to four hours, Physostigmine or Eserine—A crystalline solid, white or pinkish colored, readily soluble in alcohol, sparingly soluble in water. Dose: 1/150 to 1/30 of a grain. Physostigmine Sulphate—A crystalline powder, whitish or yellowish white, changing on exposure to a pink or reddish color, bitter, odorless, deliquescent; freely soluble in alcohol and water. Kept for preservation in amber-colored vials. Dose: 1/150 to 1/30 of a grain. Solutions of one grain of physostigmine or its sulphate to the ounce of distilled water is used in the eye, one drop three or four times daily.
Therapy: The agent may be given internally to allay the tension induced by extreme nervous irritation. Convulsive disorders from irritation are allayed by it, but it is not in general use for this purpose.
It has been used in tetanus, in epilepsy and in convulsions from all causes, also in locomotor ataxia, in chorea and in progressive paralysis of the insane. Its influence has not been such as to justify dependence upon it in these cases.
It stimulates the respiratory function and heart's action where there is great depression with difficult breathing, with a sense of compression or constriction of the chest, with soft, feeble pulse, cool, moist skin, and usually dilated pupils. It is the remedy for dyspnea under such circumstances. It is also advantageous where the dyspnea is caused by a clogging up of the bronchi and air cells without power to expel the thick tenacious mucus. It will liquefy the secretion and increase the power to expel it.
In emphysema and in asthma with great muscular relaxation, in bronchitis with dilatation, it is useful. It restores tone in phthisis and overcomes night sweats of that disorder.
It may be of advantage in dilatation of the stomach, and in atony and extreme inactivity of the intestinal muscular structure. In intestinal catarrh from this cause it is of much service. It is also valuable in catarrh of the mucous linings of the kidneys and bladder, and in extreme atony, relaxation and plethora of the abdominal structures. It will assist in overcoming chronic constipation and a tendency to flatulence in atonic cases...."
(Finley Ellingwood: The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1915)