Carota.
Carota. U. S. 1870. Carotte, Fr. Möhre, Gelbe Rübe, G. Daucus Carota L.—The wild carrot (Fam. Umbelliferae) is widely distributed, growing along fences, and in neglected fields. It grows wild also in Europe. The well-known garden carrot is the same plant altered by cultivation. The fruits are very light, of a brownish color, an oval shape, flat on one side and convex on the other, and on their convex surface present four longitudinal ridges, which are beset with stiff, whitish hairs or bristles. They have an aromatic odor, and a warm, pungent, and bitterish taste. By distillation they yield a pale yellow volatile oil, upon which their virtues chiefly depend. Schimmel & Co. found the distilled brownish-yellow oil to possess the odor of carrots only to a slight extent and to yield 1.26 per cent. (Schim. Rep., 1907, 31.) Pictet isolated from the leaves of carrots a liquid alkaloid. (Chem. Ztg; 1905, No. 97.) Subsequently two volatile alkaloids, pyrrolidine and daucine, were reported to be present by Pictet and Court. Carrot seeds are slightly aromatic, moderately excitant and diuretic, and have been employed as a diuretic in chronic renal diseases and in dropsy. An ounce of them may be given in infusion, in a day. The flowers are sometimes substituted for the seeds, and the scraped root has been used as a local stimulant to sloughing of indolent ulcers. For additional information concerning this drug, see U. S. D., 19th ed., p. 1432.
