Fabiana

    Fabia'na imbrica'ta, Pichi. -- Peru, Chile.  Plant 1.5-2 M. (5-6 degrees) high, growing on rocky hill-tops, resembling somewhat the pines; the woody branches are used, being resinous, with aromatic odor and taste; contain fabianine, resin, volatile oil.  Diuretic, tonic, cholagogue; chronic vesical catarrh, gravel, renal, urethral, or cystic calculi.  Should not be used in organic disease.  Dose, gr. 5-40 (.3-2.6 Gm.).
 

Fagus

    Fa'gus america'na (ferrugin'ea), American Beech. -- Tree, 22.5-30 M. (75-100 degrees) high; bark and leaves used, the latter oblong-ovate, taper pointed, dentate, petioles and midrib soon (nearly) naked, prickles of fruit recurved or spreading; astringent, tonic.
 

    Ferula asafoetida, Linne, foetida, Regal, and other species.  The gum-resin obtained by incising the living rhizomes and roots, yielding not less than 50 p.c. alcohol-soluble extractive, and not more 15 p.c. acid-insoluble ash.
    Habitat.  Persia, Turkestan, Afghanistan; mountain slopes, barren desolate wastes, sandy  deserts.
    Syn.  Asafoet., Gum Asafetida, Devil's Dung (Stercus Diaboli), Food of the Gods  (Cibus Deorum), Gummi-resina Asafoetida; Fr. Asa Foetida; Ger. Asa foetida, Asant,  Stinkasant, Teufelsdreck.
    Fer'u-la.  L. fr. Ferio, ferire, to strike -- i.e., stems used as rods with which, at one time,  schoolboys were punished.
    Fost'i-da.  L. foetidus, fetid, stinking -- i.e., the odor of the plant, and its secretion.
    As'a-foet'i-da.  L. fr. Pers. Aza, asa, mastic, + L. foetida, fetid, stinking -- stinking  mastic -- i.e., its odor, resemblance, and consistency.
    PLANTS. -- Large perennial herbs; stems 1.5-3 M. (5-10 degrees) high, 2.5-7.5 Cm. (1-3') thick, greenish, erect, furrowed, smooth; leaves few, radical and cauline, mostly near stem's base, .3-.6 M. (1-2 degrees) long and broad, on stout round petioles, 22.5 Cm. (9') long, expanding below into inflated sheath surrounding one-half the stem, imparipinnate, ternately divided, each bipinnate with few pinnae, leaflets few; flowers small, monoecious, yellow; roots conical, 45 Cm. (18') long, 10-15 Cm.( 4-6') thick, branched, dark brown, internally whitish.  GUM-RESIN (asafetida), in soft mass, semi-liquid, irregular pliable masses composed of agglutinated tears of variable size imbedded in yellowish-brown matrix, or in loose ovoid tears, 1-4 Cm. (2/5-1 3/5') broad, surface often with streaks of violet, yellowish-red brownish, few vegetable fragments; soft or touch (fresh), hard even brittle (dry); fresh fractured surface of tears milky-white and opaque, changing gradually on exposure to pinkish, reddish-purple; tears moistened with water--milky-white; odor persistent, alliaceous; taste bitter, alliaceous, acrid.  POWDER, light brown.  Tests: 1. Triturate with water (3) -- milk-white emulsion, yellowish with alkalies.  2. Heat tear with sulphuric acid -- reddish-brown solution, which diluted with water, filtered, + excess of alkali -- blue fluorescent solution, more pronounced with excess of ammonia water.  3. Alcohol filtrate (from assay) 10 cc., + few drops of phloroglucinol T.S. + few drops of hydrochloric acid -- cherry-red.  4. Incinerate -- ash 15 (gum-resin)-30 (powder) p.c.  5. Alcoholic filtrate 5 cc., + a few drops of ferric chloride T.S. -- olive green (abs. of most foreign resins); alcoholic filtrate 10 cc., + hydrochloric acid until faint turbidity -- bluish-green, fading on standing (abs. of galbanum).  6. Emulsion 2 cc. + water 5, + sodium hypobromite T.S. (5) to form separate layer -- no red color (abs. of ammoniac).  Impurities: Foreign resins, ammoniac, galbanum, rosin, etc.  Solvent: alcohol.  Dose, gr. 3-10 (.2-.6 Gm.).
    ADULTERATIONS. -- Divisible into 4 groups: 1, plant's tissues (insoluble in alcohol); 2, local associated gums; 3, earthy substances (ash, alcohol-insoluble residue); 4, turpentine products.  Although some of these are added after reaching Europe, most of the adulterating occurs in its native country at Herat, before being conveyed to Bombay, where are used red clay (tawah), sand, stones, wheat or barley flour, gypsum, calcium carbonate, calcium sulphate, cloth, bristles, wood, rosin, resins, translucent gums -- all amounting sometimes to 60-80 p.c., and yielding an ash of 15-20-40 p.c.; at present rigorously inspected with us so as to comply with official requirements.
    Commercial. -- Asafetida has been known in the East from early times and much studied since 1687; plants endure many years, producing each spring simply a crop of radical leaves but finally a scape with flowers and then die; the oldest are most productive, none being cut until the 5th year.  In April, when leaves begin to wither, collection is started by pulling off the leafy stem, laying bare the upper portion of root-stock, 5-7.5 Cm. (2-3') deep, and cutting a slice from the top, whereupon milky juice exudes but is not collected; the fresh exposed surface is protected from the sun's heat by a covering (khora), a crude domed structure several inches high of herbage and twigs, surmounted by clay and stones, save an opening on the north.  On returning in about 40 days (May) the cut surface is found covered with a thick, gummy, reddish substance, not milky but in more or less irregular lumps resembling ordinary asafetida, which is scraped off into cups or leather (kid, goat) bags, and a thin slice of the root removed for fresh exudation -- a process repeated at 10-day intervals until the root perishes or is exhausted (2 months); each subsequent cutting yields a thicker, better juice provided the root be screened properly all the time from the sun.  The product from many plants is mixed, further hardened in the sun and forwarded to Herat, whence it enters commerce via Bombay, in skins, mats (80-90 pounds; 36-40.5 Kg.), boxes (200-400 pounds; 91-182 Kg.), and casks.  Each root yields 1/2-32 ounces (.015-1 Kg.); the purest, called natively hing (usually soft, transparent, and considered a stem product) is consumed in India, while the mixed, called hingra, alone is exported.  It may be powdered when excessively cold, or by drying over freshly burnt lime or exposure to currents of warm air, then reducing at low temperature; starch or magnesium carbonate as a diluent will maintain powdered form.  There are four varieties: 1, Amygdaloid (Lumpo), official kind, considered most reliable; 2, Tears, inferior, consisting of various-sized tears (pea, walnut), yellowish, roundish, flattened, oval, irregular-shaped, distinct or adhesive and agglutinated; 3, Stony, various-sized angular or rounded pieces of gypsum and other earthy matters agglutinated or merely coated with the milky juice, and should not be used in medicine; 4, Liquid, white, opaque, syrupy, or semi-fluid mass turning brown with age, possibly the first exudate or due to moist season.
    CONSTITUENTS. -- Gum 20-30 p.c., Resin 60-70 p.c., Volatile oil 6-9 p.c., vanillin .06 p.c., free ferulic (ferulaic) acid 1.3 p.c., free asaresino-tannol 1 p.c., formic acetic, valeric and malic acids, ash (pure) 3-4 p.c.
    Gum. -- Partly soluble in water, the residue (bassorin) dissolves in alkalies, being reprecipitated by acids.
    Resin. -- Reddish-brown, amorphous, soluble in ether except 3-4 p.c.  It is the ferulic acid ester of asaresino-tannol, and contains ferulic acid, C10H10O4, and resino-tannol, C₂₄H₃₆O₅; upon dry distillation yields umbelliferon, C₉H₆O₃, and blue-colored oils; when fused with potassium hydroxide gives resorcin and protocatechuic acid.
    Volatile Oil. -- This, to which the odor and stimulating property are due, is obtained by distilling with water or alcohol; sp. gr. 0.980; it is a mixture of several sulphides of ferulyl, (C₇H₁₄S₂ and C₁₁H₂₀S₂), two terpenes, (C₁₀H₁₆ and C₁₀H₁₆O), the latter yielding a sesquiterpene, C₁₅H₂₄, and a blue-colored oil in the higher boiling portions.
    PREPARATIONS. -- 1. Emulrum Asafoetidae. Emulsion of Asafetida.  (Syn., Emuls. Asafoet., Milk of Asafetida, Mistura (Lac) Asafoetidae; Fr. Mixture (Lair) d'Asafoetida; Ger. Asafoetidaemulsion, Stinkasantmilch.
    Manufacture: 4 p.c.  Rub asafetida (tears, selected masses) 4 Gm. In a mortar with water 90 cc., gradually added until uniform emulsion results, strain, rinse mortar and strainer with water q.s. 100 cc., mix thoroughly.  Dose, 3ss-1 (15-30 cc.).
    2. Pilulae Asafoetidae.  Pills of Asafetida.  (Syn., Pil. Asafoet.; Fr. Pilules d'Asafetide; Ger. Asafoetidapillen.)
 Manufacture: Incorporate intimately asafetida 20 Gm., soap 6 Gm., using water q.s. 100 pills.  Dose, 2-5 pills.
    3. Tinctura Asafoetidae.  Tincture of Asafetida.  (Syn., Tr. Asafoet.; Fr. Teinture d'Asefetide; Ger. Tinctura Asae-foetidae, Stinkasanttinktur.)
    Manufacture: 20 p.c.  Similar to Tinctura Cardamomi Composita, page 137; menstruum: alcohol.  Dose, 3ss-1 (2-4 cc.).
    Prep.: 1. Mistura Magnesiae, Asafoetidae et Opii, Dewees' Carminative, N.F., 7.5 p.c.         Dose, 3ss-4 (2-15 cc.).
    4. Pilulae Aloes et Asafoetidae, N.F., 1.5 gr. (.09 Gm.).
    Unoff. Preps.: Asafoetida Proeparata -- exhaust with alcohol, thereby eliminating gum, evaporate or pour solution into slightly acidulated water, getting resin and volatile oil.  Fetid Spirit of Ammonia (Br.), asafetida 7.5 p.c., stronger ammonia water 10, alcohol q.s.100.  Compound Galbanum Pill.  Enema (1 in 64 water).  Plaster.  Suppositories.
    PROPERTIES. -- Similar to other drugs with volatile oils; stimulant, antispasmodic, expectorant, laxative, (emmenagogue, anthelmintic, condiment).
    USES. -- Hyeteria, hypochondriasis, convulsions, spasms, whooping-cough, measles, asthma, coughs, catarrhs, flatulent constipation, chorea, nervous apoplexy, consumption.  Used in India, Persia, etc., as a condiment, for flavoring food, etc., like garlic and onions; acts here as a stimulant to the bowels and digestion.  The natives value it highly, not only for its agreeable effect, but also for the odor and taste; a tolerance of this latter in most cases is acquired gradually by usage, as at first it is often nauseous and positively disgusting.
    Incompatibles: Cerebral and arterial depressants, cold, acids, neutral salts; water with alcoholic liquid preparations.
    Synergists: Cerebral excitants, alcohol, ether, gum-resins, balsams, aromatics, volatile oils containing sulphur and phosphorus.  F. Nar'thex (Narthex Asafoetida), U.S.P. 1820-1870, is a plant almost identical with F. Foetida, and from it much gum-resin is collected and sent in with the official, as it is nearly impossible to recognize plant origin by the product.
 

Ferula galbaniflua

    F. Galbanif'lua, Galbanum. -- The gum-resin, U.S.P. 1820-1880: N. Persia.  Plant 1.3-1.6 M. (4-5 degrees) high, 2.5 Cm. (1') thick, solid, striate, leaves radical and cauline; flowers yellow; fruit 12 Mm. (1/2') long, winged near face of mericarps.  Gum-resin in tears size of pin-head to that of a pea, brownish-yellow, inside milk-white, waxy, odor peculiar, balsamic, taste bitter, acrid, with water gives milky emulsion.  Obtained from incisions; contains gum 15-20 p.c., resin 60-66 p.c., volatile oil 10-20 p.c., free umbelliferon .25 p.c., umbelliferon combined with galbano-resino-tannol 20 p.c., ash 8-10 p.c.  Stimulant, expectorant, antispasmodic; hysteria, chlorosis, catarrh, amenorrhea, rheumatism, bronchitis, for church incense, tumors, boils, in pill (Pilula Galbani Composita), emulsion, plasters, tincture.  Dose, gr. 5-20 (.3-1.3 Gm.).  It is intermediate between asafetida and ammoniac.
 

Ferula sumbul

    Ferula Sum'bul, Sumbul, Musk-root, N.F. -- The dried rhizome and roots of this, or other closely related species possessing a characteristic musk-like odor, with not more than 2 p.c. of foreign organic matter; C. And N.W. Asia, Turkestan, Russia -- mountains.  Perennial herb, drying after flowering, 2-3 M. (6-10 degrees) high, 4 Cm. (1 3/5') thick at base, solid, purplish, exuding milk juice when injured; leaves radical and cauline, tripinnate; leaflets ovate, dentate, bright green; flowers polygamous; fruit 12 Mm. (1/2') long, 6 Mm. (1/4') broad, mericarps with 3 dorsal ridges, no dorsal vittae.  Rhizome, fusiform, vertical, in transverse segments, 2.5-10 Cm. (1-4') long, 2.5-7 Cm. (1-2 4/5') thick, extremely light in weight, light brown, wrinkled, heavily annulate; fracture short, fibrous, spongy, yellowish, brownish resinous patches; odor peculiar, musk-like; taste bitter, aromatic.  Powder, grayish-brown -- tracheae, few epidermal cells, sieve tissue, occasional parenchyma fragments, few starch grains; solvent: alcohol (67-80 p.c.); contains volatile oil (bluish, peppermint taste) .33-1 p.c., resin (soft, musk odor) 9 p.c., fixed oil 17 p.c., angelic (sumbulic) acid, valeric acid, bitter extractive, sugar, starch, ash 5-6 p.c.  Stimulant, carminative, tonic, nervine (resembles musk and valerian), antispasmodic; hysteria, female nervousness, epilepsy, chlorosis, amenorrhea, hypochondriasis, often combined with asafetida in nervous troubles, with iron and arsenic in chlorosis.  Dose, gr. 10-30 (.6-2 Gm.); 1. Extractum Sumbul (80 p.c. alcohol -- yield 15 p.c.), dose, gr. 2-5 (.13-.3 Gm.); 2.  Tinctura Sumbul, 10 p.c. (67 p.c. alcohol), dose, 3ss-2 (2-8 cc.).  Fluidextract.  Resin.
 

Ficus

    Fi'cus Car'ica, Ficus, Fig, N.F. -- The clean, sound, partially dried fruit; W. Asia, cult. In S. Europe, California.  Tree, 4.5-7.5 M. (15-25 degrees) high, 10-20 Cm. (4-8') thick, many spreading branches; bark reddish, gray; leaves 10-12.5 Cm. (4-5') long, 3-5-palmately bluntly lobed, dentate, pubescent beneath; flowers monoecious, borne on the inside of the thick, fleshy-walled receptacle, which becomes the fruit.  Fruit, irregular rounded shape, compressed, fleshy 2.5-5 Cm. (1-2') broad, brownish-yellow, frequently with an efflorescence of sugar, apex with small scaly orifice, base with scar or short stalk; internally hollow, with many small brownish-yellow, glossy, hard achenes; odor distinct, fruity; taste sweet, pleasant; pear-shape when softened in water 5-7.5 Cm. (2-3') long.  They occur as natural and pulled, the largest and best being--Smyrna (Turkey, Elemi) the smaller and less pulpy--the Greek; contain grape-sugar 62 p.c., gum, fat, phosphates, chlorides, achenes and cellular tissue 15 p.c., water 16 p.c.  Nutritive, demulcent, dietetic; habitual constipation--fresh juice, indigestible skin and seed causing intestinal irritation, the latter acting mechanically; roasted and split open as a poultice.  Dose, ad libitum; 1. Syrupus Ficus Compositus, 30 p.c., + fldext. senna 20, arom. fldglycer. casc. sagr. 10, dose, 3j-2 (4-8 cc.); 2. Confectio Sennae, 7 p.c
 

Flemingia

    Flemin'gia rhodocar'pa, Wars, Wurrus (Ar. For saffron); E. Africa.  Cylindrical glands and long hairs of the fruit--a deep purple powder, coarser than but used instead of kamala; turns black in water, odor slight; contains flemingin, similar to rottlerin.
 

    Oleum Foeniculi.  Oil of Fennel, U.S.P.
    Foeniculum vulgare, Miller.  The volatile oil distilled from the dried ripe fruit.
     Habitat.  S. Europe, W. Asia; cultivated.
    Syn.  Foenic., Fennel Seed (Fruit), Large, Giant, Sweet or Wild Fennel, Semen Foeniculi; Br. Foeniculi Fructus; Fr. Fenouil dulce, Fruits (Semences) de Fenouil; Ger. Fenchel (fructus, semen); Ol. Foenic., Fennel Oil; Fr. Essence de Fenouil; Ger. Fenchelol.
    Foe-nic'u-lum.  L. Fennel, dim. of fenum or foenum, hay -- i.e., from a resemblance in odor.
    Vul-ga're.  L. Vulgaris, common, ordinary -- i.e., kind growing wild, and in general use, originally not cultivated.
    PLANT. -- Large, perennial (biennial, annual) herb; stem .6-1.2 M. (2-4 degrees) high, furrowed, green glaucous, branched; rootstock thick; leaves twice pinnate, pinnae very narrow, often only as wide as the thin petiole; flowers yellow, 15-20 in umbels, all parts with agreeable aromatic odor; sweet, aromatic taste.  Fruit -- Foeniculum, Fennel (Seed), N.F.  The dried, ripe fruit of cultivated varieties with not more than 4 p.c. of foreign organic matter; mericarps usually separate, broadly elliptical 4-15 Mm. (1/6-3/5') long, 1-3.5 Mm. (1/25-1/7') broad, commissural surface flattened, some with a slender stalk, 2-10 Mm. (1/12-2/5') long, dorsal surface convex, yellowish-green, 5 prominent ribs and short stylopodium at summit.  Powder, yellowish-brown -- endosperm cells with aleurone grains, calcium oxalate rossettes, oil tubes, few strongly lignified fibers, tracheae few, fixed oil globules; solvents: alcohol (extracts virtues -- volatile oil), hot water partially.  Dose, gr. 10-30 (.6-2 Gm.).
    CONSTITUENTS. -- Volatile oil 2-6 p.c., fixed oil 12 p.c., sugar, mucilage, ash 9 p.c.
    Oleum Foeniculi.  Oil of Fennel. -- This volatile oil distilled with water or steam, from the dried ripe fruit of cultivated varieties, is a colorless, pale yellow liquid, characteristic odor and taste of fennel, soluble in 8 vols. of 80 p.c. alcohol, 1 vol. of 90 p.c. alcohol, forming neutral solution, sp. gr. 0.963, dextrorotatory, congeals at 3 degrees C. (37 degrees F.); contains (about the same as oil of anise) pinene, phellandrene (C₁₀H₁₆ -- substances isomeric with oil of turpentine), dipentene (sometimes limonene), fenchone (bitter camphor), C₁₀H₁₆O, anethol, C₁₀H₁₂O, 60 p.c., also its isomer chavicol, anise ketone, anisic aldehyde, and anisic acid.  Anethol gives largely the value, crystallizes out in the cold, and consists of two portions (1) liquid -- eleoptene, (2) solid -- stearoptene, the percentage of the two not always being uniform, some specimens of oil having more of the solid, while others (best) more of the liquid anethol.  The oil from different sources is usually without some of these constituents (either phellandrene, fenchone, or anethol), thus limonene occurs in the Macedonian; pinene and dipentene in the Saxon; fenchone in the Saxon, Galician, Moravian, Roumanian and Japanese, but not in the Roman and Macedonian; phellandrene in the wild (bitter), which, as a rule, has no anethol.  Tests: 1. With ferric chloide T.S. -- not blue or dark (abs. of volatile oils containing phenol).  2. Dropped into water and not shaken -- no milkiness (abs. of alcohol).  Should be kept cool, dark, in well-stoppered amber-colored bottles, and if partly or wholly solidified must be completely liquified by careful warming and thoroughly mixed before dispensing.  Dose, mij-5 (.13-.3 cc.).
    ADULTERATIONS. -- FRUIT: Exhausted fruit (yielding yellowish instead of dark brown infusion) often tinged with chrome-yellow (removed by rubbing with alcohol) and mixed with genuine, entire or ground; damaged wheat, oat, poppy and lentil seeds, stones, pieces of marble, colored yellow with iron-ochre, 16-66 p.c.; OIL: Alcohol, oil deprived more or less of anethol, oil of turpentine (lowering the congealing point), other volatile and fixed oils.
    Commercial. -- Plant variation (in size, habit, shape and cutting of leaves, number of rays in umbels, and shape of fruits) is due to the cultivation for centuries of the wild F. Vulgare, thereby producing several well-marked new species (?) that flourish in all except cold climates, and in turn revert to the original wild form.  Fruit is obtained mostly under cultivation from Germany, France, and Russia, although we produce much of our own supply; the French, German, and Indian conform to the N. F. Description, the Russian and Japanese being only half the size, as is also the wild (bitter) grown in France; all sometimes sold as longs and shorts, the former having preference.  Cultivated in Italy not only for fruit, but for stem and young shoots as a vegetable, while the root is used in medicine with less satisfaction.  There are five varieties: 1, French (Roman, Sweet), large straight, curved, sweetish, greenish-yellow, by some referred to F. Dulce or F. Sativum, but under cultivation it soon reverts to the original wild form, F. Vulgare; 2, German (Saxon--F. Vulgare), large, greenish, by some preferred; 3, Indian (F. Panmo'rium); 4, Russian (Roumanian); 5, Japanese.
    PREPARATIONS. -- OIL: 1 Aqua Foeniculi, Fennel Water.  (Syn., Aq. Foenic.; Fr. Eau de Fenouil; Ger. Fenchelwasser.)
    Manufacture: 1/5 p.c.  A saturated solution; similar to Aquae Aromaticae -- triturate oil .2 cc. with purified talc 1.5 Gm., adding gradually recently boiled distilled water q.s. 100 cc., filter until clear.  Dose, 3ij-8 (8-30 cc.).
    2.  Pulvis Glycyrrhizae Compositus, 2/5 p.c.  3. Elixir Anisi, N.F., 1/20 p.c.  4. Elixir Catariae et Foeniculi, N.F., 1/5 p.c.  5. Fluidglyceratum Cascarae Sagradae Aromaticum, N.F., 1/10 p.c.  6. Mistura Carminativa, N.F., 1/20 p.c.  7. Syrupus Ficus Compositus, N.F., 1/10 p.c.  8. Syrupus Rhamni Catharticae, N.F., 1/50 p.c.; FRUIT: 1. Infusum Sennae Compositum, N.F., 2 p.c.  2. Pilulae Antiperiodicae, N.F., 1/4 gr.  3. Species Laxativae, N.F., 12.5 p.c.  4. Tinctura Antiperiodica, N.F., 2/5 p.c.
    Unoff. Preps.: FRUIT: Fluidextract, mx-30 (.6-2 cc.); Infusion, 5 p.c., 3j-16 (4-60 cc.); Syrup (fruit or oil).
    PROPERTIES. -- Carminative, stimulant, diaphoretic, aromatic, stomachic, galactagogue; employed by the ancients very similarly.
    USES. -- Nausea, colic, amenorrhea, infantile flatulency; increases the secretion of milk, perspiration, mucus, urine; as a corrective to griping medicines, senna, rhubarb, etc.  Much used in cattle medicines, the oil in cordials, elixirs.
 

Frasera

    Frase'ra carolinen'sis (Walte'ri), American Colombo. -- The root, U.S.P. 1820-1870; United States.  Perennial herb, 1-2.5 M. (3-8 degrees) high, dark purple stem 2.5-5 Cm. (1-2') thick; leaves in whorls 4-6, entire, spatulate; flowers July, yellow, purple-dotted, large; root fusiform, fleshy, yellow.  Usually in segments 2.5 Cm. (1') thick, annulate, orange-brown; odor gentian-like; taste sweet, bitter; constituents and uses like gentian.  Dose, gr. 15-30 (1-2 Gm.).
 

Fraxinus americana

    Fraxinus america'na, Fraxinum, White Ash Bark. -- United States; tree 18-24 M. (60-80 degrees) high, durable, tough wood, 5-9 ovate, acuminate leaflets, terete fruit, 2.5-5 Cm. (1-2') long, abruptly dilated into wedge-linear wing.  Dried bark, deprived of corky layer--in flat pieces of varying length, 3-6 Mm. (1/8-1/4') thick, yellowish, warty, inside pale brown, striate, fracture uneven, fibrous; odor faintly aromatic, taste bitter, acrid; contains volatile oil, resin, tannin, alkaloid (?), ash 10 p.c.  Diuretic, diaphoretic, purgative; gout, rheumatism, intermittents.  Dose, gr. 30-60 (2-4 Gm.); infusion, 5 p.c., 3ss-1 (15-30 cc.).
 

    Fraxinus ornus, Linne'.  The dried exudation yielding not less than 75 p.c. of anhydrous alcohol-soluble extractive, when extracted with boiling 90 p.c. alcohol.
    Habitat.  Mediterranean Basin, Asia Minor to Spain; Sicily, France, Italy.
    Syn.  Manna (Flowering) Ash, European Manna Tree; Fr. Manne en Larmes; Ger.  Manna.
    Frax'i-nus.  L. for ash tree, fr. Gr.... -- , to fence in, enclose -- i.e., the wood used for  making hedges or fences, thus protedting things and places.
    Or'nus.  L. Wild Ash, fr. Heb. Oren, Gr... -- i.e., the classic name for wild mountain  ash.
    Man'na.  L. Fr. Gr.    , Heb. man, Ar. mann, gift (of heaven) -- divinely supplied food -- i.e., to the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness of Arabia.
    PLANT. -- Small tree, 4.5-7.5 M. (15-25 degrees) high; stem slender, bark gray, with leaf-scars on young twigs; leaves imparipinnate, 15-20 Cm. (6-8') long; leaflets 4 pairs 2.5-5 Cm. (1-2') long, oval, acuminate, serrate, bright green, petiolate; flowers May-June, small numerous, white, panicles, petals, 4 Mm. (1/6') long; fruit samara, 2.5 Cm. (1') long, 4 Mm. 1/6') broad.  EXUDATION (manna), in irregular, more or less elongated, flattened, 3-sided pieces, yellowish-white, friable; internally nearly white, porous and crystalline in appearance; odor slight, characteristic; taste sweet, slightly bitter, faintly acrid; also in irregular masses, partly brittle or soft fragments, yellowish-white, yellowish-gray -- the latter at least, to the extent of 40 p.c.  Test:  1. Heat to boiling 5 Gm. with alcohol 100 cc. -- filtrate on cooling rapidly deposits crystals of mannite.  Solvents: hot or cold water; alcohol.  Dose, 3j-8 (4-30 Gm.).
    ADULTERATIONS.--Products of allied species, bread crumbs, starch, glucose, wood, bark, etc.
    Commercial. -- The manna ash was introduced into Europe, 1710, and is so graceful as to be planted often in gardens for ornament.  In Sicily whole plantations are cultivated for the juice, which is obtained from trees, at least 8 years old and stem 7.5-10 Cm. (3-4') thick, by cutting through the bark to the wood with a curved knife transverse incisions, 2.5-5 Cm. (1-2') long, and 2.5 Cm. (1') apart, the first cut being nearest the ground, and another made directly above it every day during warm weather, July-August.  The next year another portion of the stem is used, so continuing 10-12 seasons, when the trees, being spent, are felled and shoots allowed to spring from the stump.  Manna exudes from these incisions as a clear liquid, soon concretes on the stem, or on sticks and straws placed in the incisions for the purpose, is dried upon shelves, and packed for market in tin-lined deal boxes having partitions.  There are three varieties: 1, Large Flake (Manna Cannellata, Electa), obtained when juice abundant from upper incisions, giving a product less fatty, in consequence of which it dries easily in tubes of flat pieces -- the very best, Manna a cannola, on sticks, straws inserted in the cuts, being unknown in our market; 2, Small Flake (Manna in tears, lachrymis), same as preceding, only smaller and often of darker shade; 3, Sorts (Tolfa, Manna Communis), in tears from lower incisions, into which leaves, etc., are placed for it to congeal upon; it is inferior, more gummy, sticky, brownish, internally whitish, less crystalline, some being scraped from trees; 4, Fat (Manna Pinguis), flows down the trunk, Oct.-Nov., fragments united by brown viscid matter, without flakes; rarely seen in market or used in medicine.
    CONSTITUENTS. -- Mannite 60-90 p.c., Glucose, sucrose, mucilage, fraxin, resin.
    Mannite, C₆H₈(OH)₆. -- Obtained with boiling alcohol and recrystallizing from the same several times; occurs in white prisms, soluble in water (6), slightly in absolute alcohol, insoluble in ether, sublimes at 200 degrees C. (392 degrees F.) mostly into mannitan, C₆H₁₂O₅, a sweetish, syrupy liquid, by oxidation gives fermentable mannitose and various acids.
    Glucose. -- Sometimes 16 p.c.  Mucilage and Fraxin, C₂₂H₃₆O₂₀, are mostly in inferior grades; to this latter are due the fluorescence of the aqueous solution and the green color seen in some manna.
    PREPARATIONS. -- Laxative, demulcent, expectorant, cholagogue, may cause flatulence and colic; action slow and constringes secondarily.
    USES. -- Usually given with other medicines, as senna, rhubarb, magnesium oxide, neutral salts, etc., to which it adds purgative properties, and by its sweetness disguises disagreeable taste of its associate.  Useful in piles, genito-urinary irritation, constipation of pregnancy; mostly given to children and delicate persons, to whom its sweetness appeals.
    1. Fraxinus excel'sior, European Ash. -- S. Europe.  Produces manna identical with the official.
    2. La'rix Larix (europoea), Briancon Manna (Pinaceae); Quercus Vallo'nea, Armenian Manna (Fagaceae); Alha'gi camelo'rum, Persian Manna (Papilionaceae); Eucalyptus gonioca'lyx, E. Gun'ni and E. Vimina'lis (Myrtaceae); Tam'arix mannif'era, Tamarisk Manna (Tamaricaceae).  All these produce sweet exudations or mannas (not met in commerce), containing melezitose, C12H22O113H2O), or melitose, C12H28O14, or some such saccharine principle.  The saccharine products of some insects as Trehala, cocoon of Lavi'nus mellif'icus (Syria) and Lerp, upon Eucalyptus dumosa (Australia) contain trehalose, a sugar, and are used as manna.
 

Fucus

    Fu'cus vesiculo'sus, F. serra'tus, F. nodo'sus, or F. siliquo'sus, Fucus Bladderwrack, N.F. -- The dried thallus with not more than 3 p.c. of foreign organic matter, yielding not more than 4 p.c. of acid-insoluble ash; Atlantic Ocean; grows on muddy rocks and often floats to the shore.  It is 1M. (3 degrees) long, or less, .5-4 Cm. (1/5-1 3/5') broad, dichotomously branched, brownish-black, whitish incrustation, flat, smooth, entire or serrate, with or without stout midrib, with or without oval air-vesicles, single or pairs, apex of thallus occasionally swollen, numerous conceptacles; odor strongly seaweed-like; taste saline, nauseous.  Powder, reddish-brown -- polygonal and elongated cells, pseudoparenchyma with thick mucilaginous walls; solvents: water, diluted alcohol; contains organic matter (mainly mucilage with little mannite (fucose), fats, etc., 62 p.c., volatile oil (trace), moisture 22 p.c., ash 2.5-20 p.c. -- K, Na, chlorides, bromides iodides, phosphates, sulphates.  Alterative; obesity, enlarged glands, goiter.  Dose, 3ss-2 (2-8 Gm.); 1. Fluidextractum Fuci (75 p.c. alcohol), dose, 3ss-2 (2-8 cc.); Decoction, 5 p.c., 3j-2 (30-60 cc.); Extract (alcoholic), gr. 5-10 (.3-.6 Gm.).