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Colostrum is the first milk of mammalia secreted after giving birth to young. It differs in composition from ordinary milk;
has a purgative action, and serves to clear the bowels of infants of the meconium or faecal matter which they contain at birth.
 Research Colostrum
Bladder Senna (Colutea arborescens) is a much-branched leguminous shrub of Southern Europe with bladder-like pods and purgative properties. The leaves are pinnately divided, the rounded leaflets up to three centimetres long. The plant bears showy yellow flowers carried in loose stalked clusters arising from the leaf axils of young shoots.
Research Bladder Senna
Bryony (Bryonia) is a genus of plants of the family Cucurbitaceae (gourds). The only British species, the Common Bryony (Bryonia dioica), is a climbing plant common in hedges, has cordate palmate leaves and axillary bunches of flowers, and red berries which are highly poisonous. The thick long fleshy root has acrid emetic and purgative properties, and has been used medicinally. Other species, one found in North America, are known. The so-called Black Bryony belongs to a different natural order, the Dioscoreaceae or yams.
Research Bryony
Chiococca is a genus of tropical plants, of the natural order Rubiaceae, consisting of small, often climbing, shrubs, with funnel-shaped, yellowish flowers and bearing a fruit consisting of a white berry with two seeds. The bark of the root of Chiococca anguifuga is a violent emetic and purgative.
Research Chiococca
Common Bryony (Bryonia dioica) is the only native British species of Bryony. It is a climbing plant found in hedges and has cordate palmate leaves and axillary bunches of flowers and red berries which are highly poisonous. The thick long fleshy root has acrid emetic and purgative properties and has been used medicinally.
Research Common Bryony
Dog's-cabbage or Dog-Cabbage (Thelygonum Cynocrambe) is a smooth succulent herb of the natural order Chenopodiaceae, found in the south of Europe, Though it is slightly acrid and purgative it is sometimes used as a pot herb.
Research Dog's-Cabbage
Elder, a name given to different species of the genus Sambucus of the natural order Caprifoliaceae, related to the honeysuckle. These are small trees or shrubs, with opposite and pinnated leaves, bearing small white flowers in large and conspicuous corymbs, small berries of a black or red colour, and bitter and nauseous leaves possessing purgative and emetic properties. The wood of the young shoots contains a very large proportion of pith.
The common elder of Britain (Sambucus nigra) is a wild shrub or small tree, distinguishable by its winged leaves; its clusters of small, cream-white flowers, and the small black berries by which these are succeeded, and from which a kind of wine is sometimes made. It is remarkable for the large quantity of pith contained in its young branches and for the elasticity of its wood.
The dwarf elder or dane-wort (Sambucus Ebulus) is also found in many parts of Britain, and was popularly supposed to have sprung from the blood of the Danes. Two species inhabit North America; Sambucus canadensis, a common plant from the 49th to the 30th parallel of latitude, the berries of which are black and have a sweet taste; and Sambucus pubescens, which bears red berries, and inhabits Canada, the northern parts of New England, and the Alleghany Mountains.
Elder wood is yellow, and in old trees becomes so hard that it is often substituted for box-wood. Its toughness also is such that it is made into skewers, tops for fishing-rods, etc. The light pith was formerly utilized for balls for electric experiments, and various ointments, drinks, and medicinal decoctions are made from the bark, leaves, flowers, and berries.
Gratiola is a genus of plants of the family Scrophulariaceae containing about twenty species of herbs, widely distributed through the extra-tropical regions of the world. Gratiola officinalis grows in meadows in Europe. It is extremely bitter, and acts violently both as a purgative and emetic, and in overdoses it is a violent poison.
Research Gratiola
Sabadilla (Schoenocaulon officinale) is a Mexican liliaceous plant. It bears linear, grass-like leaves and dense racemes of yellowish flowers. Its seeds, which contain the alkaloid veratrine, were formerly used in medicine as an emetic and purgative. Now the seeds are used to prepare insecticide.
Research Sabadilla
Antipyretics are medicines given for the purpose of reducing fever by lowering the patient's temperature, whether by causing perspiration or otherwise. Quinine, anti-pyrin, phenacetin, are common antipyretics. An aperient or purgative often serves the same purpose.
Research Antipyretics
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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