Xanthoxylum Fraxineum. (Prickly Ash.)

Preparation. —Prepare a tincture from the berries, ℥viij. to Alcohol 98° Oj. Dose from the fraction of a drop to five drops.

The Xanthoxylum has been employed as a diffusible and topical stimulant. Its general stimulant action is not very marked, and there are many other remedies preferable. But as a stimulant to mucous tissues it has no equal in the Materia Medica. Whenever it is desirable to obtain such influence, whether of the throat the gastro-intestinal tract, the mucous membranes of the air-passages, or of the urinary organs, we are rarely disappointed in its action. Upon the throat, the stomach, and upon the intestines, it exerts a topical influence before absorption.

In small doses we occasionally employ it in chronic diseases of mucous surfaces, with good results. The cases are as above, when the mucous membranes are enfeebled and relaxed, with hypersecretion.

Specific Medication and Specific Medicines, 1870, was written by John M. Scudder, M.D.