Sabal.
Synonym.—Saw Palmetto.
Sabal is the partially dried ripe fruit of Serenoa serrulata (Roemer and Shultes), Hooker films (N.O. Palmae), a plant which flourishes on the Atlantic coast of the United States, from South Carolina to Florida. The drug is official in the U.S.P. The fruits are irregularly spherical to oblong-ovoid, 10 to 25 millimetres long, 10 to 15 millimetres in diameter, blackish-brown, shrivelled and somewhat oily externally, with thin epicarp, greenish-yellow, soft, spongy, sarcocarp about 1 millimetre thick; thin, friable endocarp, and hard, chocolate-brown seed; they have an aromatic odour, and a sweetish, acrid and oily taste.
Constituents.—The fruit yields about 1,5 per cent. of a brownish-yellow to dark red fixed oil, containing about 63 per cent. of free acids and 37 per cent. of ethyl esters of those acids. The oil is soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, and benzene, and partly soluble in dilute solutions of potassium hydroxide.
Action and Uses.—Sabal is reputed to have a stimulant action upon the mucous membrane of the genito-urinary tract, this action being ascribed to the oil; it is therefore employed in sub-acute gonorrhoea, gleet, as well as in chronic and sub-acute cystitis. It is said also to stimulate and augment the secretion of the respiratory mucous membrane, and has been used in chronic bronchitis, laryngitis, and catarrhs. The drug is best administered in the form of liquid extract.
Dose.—1 gramme (15 grains).
PREPARATION.
- Extractum Sabal Liquidum, B.P.C.—LIQUID EXTRACT OF SABAL. Syn.—Liquid Extract of Saw Palmetto. 1 in 1.
- Dose.—6 to 15 decimils (0.6 to 1.5 milliliters) (10 to 25 minims).
