Aralia.

Related entries: Aralia nudicaulis, A. racemosa under alteratives - Aralia spinosa under diaphoretics - Aralia hispida under diuretics

The bark of the Aralia spinosa.

Preparation.—Tincture of Aralia.

Dose.—From ten drops to one drachm.

Therapeutic Action.—The Aralia Spinosa is stimulant, diaphoretic, alterative, sialagogue and febrifuge. Its properties appear to be those of a stimulant and diaphoretic, and as such it has been principally employed. We have used it mostly in the same cases in which the xanthoxylum is recommended, as a substitute for that agent. It is employed with advantage in chronic rheumatism; and in colic, flatulence, dyspepsia and torpor of the bowels, it will be found a useful stimulant and carminative. Purch asserts that the tincture of the berries is remarkable for relieving rheumatic pains. It has also been employed with advantage in colic. Porcher says it has been successfully used in South Carolina in syphilis, and it was employed by the negroes in snake-bites with success. It has been used in chronic cutaneous diseases, and other affections requiring the use of alteratives, like other species of the Aralia. The tincture of the bark was prescribed with advantage in the cholera. As a general excitant, diaphoretic and alterative, this agent is possessed of active medicinal properties, which should entitle it to greater attention than it has yet received.

The American Eclectic Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 1898, was written by John M. Scudder, M.D.