ions, of colloidal metals, with an action analogous to that of ferments, and of known and unknown physical properties, such as radio-activity, probably enter into the action of many drugs. All the phenomena of plant life are not explicable in terms of chemistry and physics; there are certain residual phenomena which point to the existence of what may be called in the present state of our knowledge, "vital force."[1]
It is hence, that many medical practitioners have been disappointed with tinctures and other preparations of medicinal plants, because such preparations did not give any satisfactory results when prescribed to patients. Speaking of Oolut-Kumbal, (Abroma augusta) Dr. Bhoobun Mohun Sirkar wrote in the Indian Medical Gazette for May, 1900:—
"Attempts have been made to administer the drug in the more acceptable forms of tincture, pill or powder, but none prove so efficacious as the fresh viscid sap in substance in which form I have used it with wonderful results."
It is well-known that the people of India use the juice of fresh vegetables for medicinal purposes. But on chemical analysis, these vegetables do not yield any peculiar chemical substances to which their curative virtues could be justly attributed. It has been the tendency of late, therefore, to disapprove the use of such vegetable remedies. A well-known medical man writes in Allbutt's System of Medicine:—
"The chemical composition of a drug is not unfrequently the key to its pharmacological action If a drug have no active properties, it is surely devoid of medicinal effect unless it be a food; for medicinal action is the outcome of the effects of active principles on tissues. It is always possible that in any particular drug the active medicinal agent may have escaped notice; but in the present state of chemical science it is not likely that undiscovered principles reside in such substances as sarsaparilla and hemidesmus : yet these drugs are given on
- ↑ Biochemistry of plants and animals has not yet been fully investigated. We do not know even much about the function of enzymes, regarding which two views are held one that they are a property and the other that they are a substance. Chemistry cannot produce them. They are found only as the products of protoplasm of living cells. It may be that many processes taking place in living cells are the results of Enzyme activity.
