Cephalanthus occidentalis L
Photo commons.wikimedia.org
Botanical name: Cephalanthus occidentalis L.; Family Rubiaceae.
Synonym name: Cephalanthus acuminatus Raf.; Cephalanthus angustifolius Dippel; Cephalanthus berlandieri Wernham; Cephalanthus hansenii Wernham; Cephalanthus obtusifolius Raf.; Cephalanthus occidentalis var. brachypodus DC.; Cephalanthus occidentalis subsp. californicus (Benth.) A.E.Murray; Cephalanthus occidentalis var. californicus Benth.; Cephalanthus occidentalis f. lanceolatus Fernald; Cephalanthus occidentalis var. macrophyllus Raf.; Cephalanthus occidentalis var. obtusifolius Raf.; Cephalanthus occidentalis var. occidentalis; Cephalanthus occidentalis f. occidentalis; Cephalanthus occidentalis var. pubescens Raf.; Cephalanthus oppositifolius Moench; Cephalanthus pubescens Raf.
Common names: Buttonbush, Buttonwood, Pond dogwood, Crane willow, Globe flower, Honey Bells, Button Willow.
Pronunciation: sef-a-LAN-thus ok-si-den-TA-lis
Description: Deciduous shrub (evergreen in warm areas), broad, open, usually with several trunks, to 3-6 ft (0.9-1.8 m) tall, twice that in the southern part of its range. Leaves simple, opposite or in whorls of 3, narrowly ovate to ovate-oblong, 9-11 cm long, 3-4.5 cm wide, margin entire, often short-ciliate, tip pointed, base rounded, upper surface glossy dark green, paler below; petiole 0.5-1 cm long; leaves emerge late in spring. Flowers in 3-cm globular, white clusters, fragrant, each flower small, about 4 mm wide; attract butterflies. Fruit in globose heads, about 3 cm wide, yellowish to red.
Flowering Season: June to September.
Elevation: 1,000 to 5,000 feet; near sea-level to 3,000 feet in California.
Habitat Preferences: Wet soil along streams, sometimes in dry washes with periodic rainfall; lake or stream edges in California.
Recorded Range: Common Buttonbush is found mostly east of the Mississippi River and eastern Canada. It is also native to Arizona, California and Texas, and northwest and central Mexico.
Chemical Composition: Analysis has shown the bark to contain starch, sugar, gum, fatty matter, several resins, tannin, a saponin-like body, and an amorphous, bitter constituent readily soluble in both water and alcohol. A crystalline, fluorescent body has been obtained by precipitation with acetate and subacetate of lead. These acicular crystals are dissolved by alcohol, ether, and water (Hattan, Amer. Jour. Pharm., Vol. XLV).
Mr. Edo Claasen has obtained three bodies from the bark, cephalanthin, cephaletin, and cephalin. The latter occurs as warty crystals, and is thought to be a glucosid, splitting up into glucose and cephaletin on evaporating the solution. Cephalin is in yellowish-white needles, strongly-refracting, acid in reaction, and otherwise tasteless. It is insoluble in petroleum ether, very sparingly soluble in cold water, more soluble in hot water, and dissolving with greater ease in alcohol, ether, benzol, chloroform, and acetic acid. This body is strongly fluorescent in aqueous, alcoholic, and alkaline solutions, all well diluted. Even so minute a trace as 1 part in 2,000,000 of water exhibits this property, and if an alkali be added the blue coloration will be noticeable in a dilution of 1 to 20,000,000. The concentrated alkaline solution has a lemon-yellow color (Proc. A. P. A., 1892).
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage: Tonic, febrifuge, aperient, and diuretic. The bark has been used with much success in intermittent and remittent fevers; and the inner bark of the root forms an agreeable bitter, which is often employed in coughs, and as a diuretic in gravel. The plant deserves further investigation. Tincture, 10 to 30 drops; infusion, fl℥ss to fl℥i.
Cephalanthin is, according to Kobert (1892), distinctly poisonous to both cold and warm-blooded animals, producing emesis, spasms, and paralysis. It destroys the blood corpuscles, converting them into methaemoglobin and oxyhaemoglobin.
Comments: Cephalanthus occidentalis is possibly poisonous to livestock as it contains glucosides, including cephalanthine. It is not very palatable to livestock although native bees are attracted to the showy tubular flowers. Cephalanthus occidentalis is a caterpillar host for 2 moths; Hydrangea sphinx, Darapsa versicolor and Titan sphinx Aellopos titan.
Cephalanthus occidentalis has been used for a variety of purposes by North American indigenous peoples.
Chickasaw Drug, Eye Medicine: Poultice of warmed roots applied to the head for eye troubles.
Choctaw Drug, Antidiarrheal: Strong decoction of tree bark taken as a favorite medicine for dysentery.
Comanche Other, Toys & Games: Wood used to make game sticks.
Kiowa Drug, Antihemorrhagic: Decoction of roots taken for hemorrhages.
Koasati Drug, Antirheumatic (Internal):, Decoction of leaves taken for rheumatism.
Seminole Drug, Other, Decoction of roots taken for menstruation sickness: yellow eyes and skin, weakness and shaking head. If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman during her menstrual period, the results were more serious than the other menstruation sickness. A doctor would never do this, as it would damage the 'medicine' which he has in his body. Other men were, sometimes, willing to take the risk
Related Species: Sarcocephalus esculentus, Afzelius. Senegambia and Sierra Leone furnish this plant, which is known in its habitat as the doundake. The bark, under the names Quinquina Africaine and Kina du Rio Nunez, is employed by the negroes as a febrifuge. More properly it is an astringent tonic, and as such is useful in the anemic state following typhoids, and as a remedy for loss of appetite, and for atonic dyspepsia. No alkaloid is present, according to Heckel and Schlagdenhauffen, but its virtues seem to depend upon three resinous principles—an orange-yellow bitter soluble in water, alcohol, and solution of potassa; a pale-yellow body insoluble in water, but soluble in potassa solution; and the third insoluble in alcohol and water, but dissolving in the potassa solution.
References
southwestdesertflora.com
www.henriettes-herb.com
theplantlist.org
commons.wikimedia.org
0 Comment:
Post a Comment