Veronica. Veronica officinalis. Speedwell.
Related entry: Leptandra
Veronica. Veronica officinalis L. Speedwell. Veronique male, Fr. Ehrenpreis, G. (Fam. Scrophulariaceae.)—Several species of veronica, common to Europe and this country, have been medicinally employed. Of these, V. officinalis L., and V. Beccabunga L., or European brooklime, are the most conspicuous. V. officinalis has a bitterish, warm, and somewhat astringent taste. Enz found in it a bitter principle soluble in water and alcohol, but scarcely so in ether, and precipitated by the salts of lead, but not by tannic acid; an acrid principle; red coloring matter; a variety of tannic acid producing a green color with ferric salts, a crystallizable fatty acid, with malic, tartaric, citric, acetic, and lactic acids; mannite; a soft, dark green, bitter resin. Mayer, of New York, found evidences of an alkaloid and of a saponaceous principle. (A. J. P., 1863, 209.) Vintilesco found a glucoside in V. officinalis and V. chamaedris. (J. P. C., 1910, No. 4.) The plant has been considered diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, tonic, etc., and was formerly employed in pectoral and nephritic complaints, hemorrhages, diseases of the skin, and in the treatment of wounds. V. Beccabunga was used in the fresh state in scurvy.
