Pareira.

The root of Cissampelos pareira.—South America.

Dose.—Of an infusion of Pareira, one ounce to a pint and a half of boiling water, macerated for two hours in a tightly covered vessel, and strained, from one to three ounces. Of the tincture, from ten drops to half a drachm.

Therapeutic Action.—Pareira is esteemed diuretic, tonic, lithontriptic, antilithic and aperient. It acts specifically upon the urinary organs as a diuretic, changing the quality of the urine, and lessening irritation of the genito-urinary mucous membrane. At one time it enjoyed a high reputation as a lithontriptic, or dissolver of stone, but it does not at this time retain that repute, although it is believed to change the quality of the urine, and consequently destroy the tendency to the production of calculi, and is therefore pronounced antilithic. It is now employed almost exclusively in discharges from the genito-urinary mucous membrane, as in chronic irritation and inflammation of the kidneys and bladder, gonorrhoea, leucorrhoea, calculous affections, etc.

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