Asclepias Incarnata.
Related entry: Asclepias syriaca - Asclepias tuberosa
The root of Asclepias incarnata, Linné (Nat. Ord. Asclepiadaceae). Common in damp and wet grounds throughout the United States. Dose, 1 to 60 grains.
Common Names: Flesh-colored Asclepias, Swamp Milkweed, Swamp Silkweed, White Indian Hemp, Rose-colored Silkweed.
Principal Constituents.—A fixed and a volatile oil, two acrid resins, and an unstable amorphous alkaloid asclepiadine, resembling emetine in action.
Preparation.—Specific Medicine Swamp Milkweed. Dose, 1 to 60 drops.
Action and Therapy.—Diuretic and vermifuge. There is good reason to believe this agent a good diuretic to be substituted for digitalis in cases of edema dependent upon cardiac insufficiency. Its action is similar to that of foxglove, without the irritating effects upon the gastric membranes. In fact, in small doses it is a stomachic and of some value in chronic catarrh of the stomach. In powder, 10 to 20 grains, 3 times a day, it is said to expel lumbricoids.
