Argemone
Argemone. Argemone mexicana, L. Prickly Poppy. Argemone, Fr. Stachelmohn, G.—An annual plant, belonging to the Papaveraceae, growing in our Southern and Western States, Mexico, the West Indies, Brazil and in many parts of Africa and Southern Asia. For an illustrated paper on the structure of the seed of this plant by Schlotterbeck and Eckler, see Proc. A. Ph. A., 1906, 467. The whole plant abounds in a milky, acrid juice, which becomes yellow on exposure, and has been used as a local application in obstinate cutaneous diseases, especially that affection known in Upper India as dhad, and also in cases of warts and even chancres. The alleged presence of morphine in Argemone mexicana has been disproven by J. O. Schlotterbeck (Proc. A. Ph. A., 1901, p. 247), who finds that the plant contains berberine, besides an alkaloid, protopine (argemonine of Peckoldt). The seeds of the plant have been used in colic, 8 grains (0.5 Gm.), given in emulsion, and repeated if necessary every half hour until three doses have been taken. (P. J., xiii, 642.) For further information concerning this drug, see U. S. D., 19th ed., p. 1395.
