Stillingia.
Synonyms.—Queen's Root; Yaw Root.
Stillingia is the dried root of Stillingia sylvatica, Linn. (N.O. Euphorbiaceae), a perennial plant indigenous to the United States. The root is slenderly fusiform, reddish-brown externally, and longitudinally wrinkled. The drug is official in the U.S.P., and occurs usually in cut pieces of variable length, and from 0.5 to 3 centimetres in diameter. It breaks with a fibrous fracture, and has a light reddish-brown bark, from 0.5 to 4 millimetres thick; spongy, finely fibrous, with numerous resin cells, easily separable from the porous, radiate wood. The drug has a distinct odour, and a bitter, acrid, and pungent taste. It yields about 5 per cent. of ash.
Constituents.—Stillingia contains the acrid resin sylvacrol, an acrid fixed oil, 3 to 4 per cent. of volatile oil, 10 to 12 per cent. of tannin, starch, and calcium oxalate.
Action and Uses.—Stillingia is a mild irritant to the mouth and stomach, and therefore acts reflexly as a sialagogue and expectorant. In large doses it has emetic and cathartic properties, and has been used in syphilitic affections, cutaneous diseases, scrofula, and other complaints for which mercury is given. It is administered in the form of fluidextract.
Dose.—1 to 2 grammes (15 to 30 grains).
PREPARATION.
- Fluidextractum Stillingiae, U.S.P.—FLUIDEXTRACT OF STILLINGIA. Syn.—Extractum Stillingiae Fluidum.
- Stillingia, in No. 40 powder, is exhausted with alcohol (49 per cent.), and the volume of the product adjusted so that 1 fluid part represents 1 part or drug. Average dose.—2 mils (30 minims).
