Serpentaria. Aristolochia serpentaria.

Synonym—Virginia Snakeroot.

CONSTITUENTS—

Volatile oil, aristolochine (bitter principle), resin, gum, starch, albumen.

PREPARATIONS—

Extractum Serpentariae Fluidum, Fluid Extract of Serpentaria. Dose, from ten to thirty minims.

Specific Medicine Serpentaria. Dose, from one to sixty minims.

Therapy—The action of snakeroot in restoring secretion after a severe cold, in sudden, acute inflammation, and in the early stages of acute fevers, is most strongly marked. It is valuable, also, in the advanced stages of fevers where there is persistent suppression of secretion, and where the prostration contra-indicates active diaphoretics, etc. It exercises a tonic effect on the nervous system, while it promotes secretion. It is of much value during the progress of typhoid fever.

In scarlet fever and measles and in small-pox it is a useful remedy. It hastens a tardy eruption, and restores the eruption promptly if it has receded. It must be given in full doses up to a dram of the tincture. It acts as a mild restorative tonic at the same time.

It was popular among the older physicians as an active eliminative agent. It was used in chronic ague as an antiperiodic and tonic. It was claimed to supersede quinine in some cases; cynanche maligna, has been cured by it; scrofula and evidences of blood dyscrasia are benefited by it. It is of use in chronic rheumatism, and combined with more active agents, in acute cases. It stimulates digestion in enfeebled cases, and encourages a better action from all the glandular organs.

The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1919, was written by Finley Ellingwood, M.D.
It was scanned by Michael Moore for the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine.