Delphinim cosolida,
Linn
Staphisagria *USP
Staphisagria.
Nat. Ord. Ranunculaceae.
Parts Used: The seed of Delphinium Staphisagria, Linn (Staphisagria macrocarpa, Spach)
Preparations: Ointment of Stavesacre - Tincture of Staphisagria C: Stavesacre; Semen staphisagriae, Staphisagriae semina, Staphidisagriae, Semina pedicularis.
Botanical Source. Delphinium Staphisagria is an elegant, stout, upright herb, and about the same height as the Delphinium Consolida (1 1/2 to 2 feet). The stems and petioles are hispid, with long, soft hairs. The leaves are broad, palmated, petioled, and 5 to 9-cleft. The flowers are bluish-gray, in terminal, lax racemes, with hairy pedicels at least an inch long, and bracts inserted at their base.
History and Description. The Delphinium Staphisagria is a native of the south of Europe, growing in waste places. The seeds are the official part. They are about the size of rye-grains, somewhat triangular, sometimes quadrangular, slightly arched, blackish-brown, and wrinkled externally, and containing a white, oily nucleus; their odor is faint, but unpleasant, and their taste acrid,
bitter, pungent, and disagreeable. They yield their properties to water or alcohol.
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage. Staphisagria possesses the same properties as the Delphinium Consolida (see Related Species), but in a higher degree. In large doses, they are irritant poisons; in medicinal doses, the former is emetic, cathartic, and narcotic, but its action is too violent and uncertain for these indications. An infusion of the seeds of stavesacre may, however, be advantageously used both by the mouth and in injection, as a vermifuge. The powdered seeds, mixed with lard, have been found useful in some forms of cutaneous disease, and to destroy lice in the hair; a tincture or infusion of the bruised seeds, in vinegar, may be employed for the same object. The seeds have likewise been used in some countries to intoxicate fish.
*USP - United States Pharmecopeia
Extracted and abridged from ;
King's American Dispensatory.
by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D., 1898
