183. Chelidonium.—Celandine.
Chelidonium is dicey; it's been implicated in liver disease. Don't use it. -Henriette.
183. CHELIDONIUM.—CELANDINE. The entire plant of Chelido'nium ma'jus Linné. Off. in U.S.P. 1890. Stem hairy, arising from a reddish-brown, branching root, and bearing light green, lyrate-pinnatified leaves about 200 mm. (8 in.) long; odor slight; taste acrid. Cathartic, diuretic, diaphoretic, and expectorant. In certain sections it is used in the treatment of jaundice. Dose: 15 to 60 gr. (1 to 4 Gm.).
Alkaloids and Principles of Chelidonium and Allied Plants.—Important researches of J. O. Schlotterbeck have shown that chelerythrine, yielding lemon-colored salts, exists also as a prominent alkaloid in sanguinaria and other plants of the same family. Protopine, C20H19NO5, a frequently occurring alkaloid in the poppy family, occurs also in the plants of the fumariaceae. In physical properties protopine agrees, in every particular with fumarine. Protopine has been found in Papaver somniferum, Eschscholtzia californica, Sanguinaria canadensis, Stylophorum diphyllum, and Adlumium cirrhosa; it constitutes two-thirds of the entire alkaloidal content of Bocconia cordata. ("Proc. Amer. Phar," 1900, p. 131.) Wintgen found the constituent, chelidonine, to be C29H19NO59 + H2O. Schlotterbeck finds its more exact formula as, C20H18(OH)NO4 + H2O. ("Proc. Am. Ph.," 1903, P. 321.) It occurs in colorless monoclinic prisms, melting at 135° to 136 °C. The coloring-matter, known as chelidoxanthin, found in chelidonium and stylophorum diphyllum, has been found to be identical with the alkaloid berberine. ("Pharm. Rev.," Jan., 1902, pp. 4, 5.)
