The following is a resume of the trials reported to the Indigenous Drugs Committee : —
Captain Childe, who used the minimum doses of the tincture, reported that the drug was found useful in acute and subacute dysentery, but that in cases of chronic diarrhoea no good effect was observed. Lieutenant-Colonel Nailer reported that in 30 grains dose the drug acted as an efficient emetic in one case. Captain Waters reported that it was tried in two cases of mild dysentery and appeared to have a slight effect. Captain K. Prasad reported that the powder is a good substitute for ipecacuanha in dysentery and that the tincture is not so efficacious as the powder. Civil Surgeon Maddox reported that an initial dose of 5 grains of the powder first given produced violent vomiting and purging. The pulvis should be given at first in small doses gradually increased. The tincture given in 30 m. doses produced vomiting and purging. In 20 m. doses it however had not that effect, the dose should be gradually increased. Lieutenant-Colonel Bartholomeusz reported that he tried pulvis C. procerie in two cases, of dysentery, but with no satisfactory results. Major Crawford reported that the drug was tried in several cases where ipecacuanha would otherwise have been administered and the results have not been very satisfactory. Major Macnamara reported that it was tried in a few cases, but no good effects were noticeable. Assistant Surgeon Ganga Singh reported that the tincture and powder of C procera have been used in bronchitis and dysentery and have been found efficacious. Major Powell reported that the tincture has been prescribed as a tonic and stomachic for debility and impaired appetite in five cases in doses of 20 m. with satisfactory results.
{{smaller|Chemical composition.— The authors of the Pharmacographia state, that by following the process of Duncan, 200 grammes of the powdered bark of C. gigantea yielded nothing like his mudarine, but 2'4 grammes of an acrid resin soluble in ether and alcohol. The latter solution reddens litmus ; the former on evaporation yields the resin as an almost colourless mass. When the aqueous liquid is separated from the crude resin, and much absolute alcohol added, an abundant precipitate of mucilage is obtained, and the liquid now contains a bitter principle, which after due concentration may be separated by means of tannic acid. Similar results were obtained by exhausting the bark of G. pvocera with dilute alcohol. The tannic compound of the bitter principle was mixed with carbonate of lead, dried, and boiled with spirit of wine. This after evaporation furnished an amorphous, very bitter mass, not soluble in water, but readily so in absolute alcohol. The solution is not precipitated by an alcoholic solution of acetate of lead. By purifying the bitter principle with chloroform or ether, it is at last obtained colourless. This bitter matter is probably the active principle of Calotropis ; we ascertained by means of the usual tests that no alkaloid occurs in the drug. The large juicy stem, especially that of C. gigantea, ought to be submitted to an accurate chemical and therapeutical examination, List's asclepione (Gmelin's Chemistry XVII., 368,) might then be sought for. (Op. cit„ 2nd Ed., p. 426.) Drs. Warden and Waddell (1881) commenced an examination of Madar root bark in Calcutta, and obtained a substance crystallizing in nodular masses,
