Asclepias

Family: N.O. Asclepiadaceae

Medicinal Action and Uses

Constituents
Other Species

This genus consists of herbaceous plants with a milky juice, which are for the most part
natives of America. Several species are cultivated for the sake of their showy flowers. All
of them are more or less poisonous. Asclepias curassavica is employed in the West Indies
as an emetic, and goes by the name of Ipecacuanha: the drug known in medicine by that
name is derived from quite a different plant and must not be confused with it. A. tuberosa,
the Butterfly-weed, has mild purgative properties, and promotes perspiration and
expectoration. A. syriaca, a plant misnamed, as it is a native of America and Canada, is
frequently to be met with in gardens; its dull red flowers are very fragrant, and the young
shoots are eaten as asparagus in Canada, where a sort of sugar is also prepared from the
flowers, while the silk-like down of the seeds is employed to stuff pillows. Some of the
species furnish excellent fibre, which is woven into muslins, and in certain parts of India is
made into paper.

In Hindu mythology, Soma - the Indian Bacchus- and one of the most important of the
Vedic gods, is a personification of the Soma plant, A. acida, from which an intoxicating
milky juice is squeezed. All the 114 hymns of the ninth book of the Rig Veda are in his
praise. The preparation of the Soma juice was a very sacred ceremony and the worship of
the god is very old. The true home of the plant was fabled to be in heaven, Soma being
drunk by gods as well as men, and it is under its influence that Indra is related to have
created the universe and fixed the earth and sky in their place. In postVedic literature,
Soma is a regular name for the moon, which is regarded as being drunk by the gods and so
waning, till it is filled up again by the Sun. In both the Rig Veda and Zend Avesta, Soma
is the king of plants; in both, it is a medicine which gives health, long life and removes
death.

The three species of Asclepias most used in medicine are the Calotropis procera, A.
tuberosa (Pleurisy root) and A. Incarnata (Swamp Milkweed).

It is a very common roadside weed in the eastern and central states of North America,
where it is called 'Silkweed,' from the silky down which surmounts the seed, being an inch
or two in length, and which has been used for making hats and for stuffing beds and
pillows. Attempts have been made to use it as a cotton substitute. Both in France and
Russia it has had textile use. The fibres of the stem, prepared in the same manner as those
of hemp and flax, furnish a very long, fine thread, of a glossy whiteness.

---Medicinal Action and Uses---The plant is used medicinally in the United States for the
anodyne properties of its root and its rhizome and root have been employed successfully,
like those of A. tuberosa, both in powder and infusion, in cases of asthma and typhus fever
attended with catarrh, producing expectoration and relieving cough and pain. It has also
been used in scrofula with great success.

---Constituents---It has a very milky juice, which is used as a domestic application to

warts. The juice has a faint smell and subacid taste and an acid reaction. It contains a
crystalline substance of a resinous character, closely allied to lactucone and called
Asclepione; also wax-like, fatty matter, caoutchouc, gum, sugar, salts of acetic acid and
other salts.

Besides the above-named species, various other species of the genus have been used
medicinally.

An indigenous North American species A. verticillata (Linn.), is used in the Southern

States as a remedy in snake bites and the bites of venomous insects. Twelve fluid ounces
of a saturated decoction are said to cause an anodyne and sudorific effect, followed by
gentle sleep.

From A. vincetoxicum (Linn.), 'TamePoison,' besides the glucoside Asclepiadin said

closely to resemble emetine in its physiological properties, the glucoside Vincetoxir has
been isolated. The root of this species sometimes occurs in commercial Senega Root
(Polygala Senega).

An infusion of its root was formerly recommended in dropsical cases and disorders
peculiar to women, as well as for promoting perspiration in fevers, measles and other
eruptive complaints, but is now much less used.

A. curas-savica (Blood-weed and Redhead) is also called in the West Indies 'Bastard
Ipecacuanha.'

It is a native of the West Indies, abounding especially in Nevis and St. Kitts.

Both root and expressed juice are emetic, the former in the dose of 20 to 40 grains, the
latter in that of a fluid ounce.

They are also cathartic and vermifuge in somewhat smaller doses (Amer. Journ. Ph. XIX,
19). The juice, made into a syrup, is given as a powerful anthelmintic to children in the
West Indies. The plant is used by the negroes as an emetic and the root as a purgative .

According to the Kew Bulletin, 1897 this plant has insecticidal properties, being especially
obnoxious to fleas. The rooms infected are thoroughly swept with rough brooms made
from the weed and the pests are said to disappear. D. St. Cyr commends it in phthisis (Ph.
Journ., 1903, 714).

---Other Species---
A. Pulchra (Ehrh.), by many regarded as a variety of incarnata, from which it is
distinguished by its hairiness, the other being nearly smooth, is indiscriminately used under
the same names.

A. syrica (Willd.) (A. Cornuti, Decaisne), found abundantly in Syria, cultivated in some
parts of Europe.

See under:
CALATROPIS
PLEURISY ROOT
SWAMP MILKWEED
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