Monotropa
uniflora, Linn
Compiled
by Ivor Hughes
Common names: Indian pipe, Ice-plant, Bird's nest, Fit-plant, Ova-ova, Pipe-plant, etc.
Part Used: The root of Monotropa uniflora, Linn.
Botanical Source and Description: This plant has a dark-colored, fibrous, perennial root, matted in masses about as large as a chestnut-burr, from which arise one or more short, ivory-white stems, 4 to 8 inches high, furnished with sessile, lanceolate, white, semi-transparent, approximate leaves or bracts, and bearing a large, white, terminal, solitary flower, which is at first nodding, but becomes upright in fruit. The calyx is represented by two to four scale-like deciduous bracts, the lower rather distant from the corolla. The corolla is permanent, of 5 distinct, erect, fleshy petals,
which are narrowed below
with a small, nectariferous pit at the base. Stamens 10, sometimes 8;
anthers short on the thickened apex of the hairy filament, 2-celled, opening
by transverse chinks. Stigma 5-crenate, depressed, and beardless. Pod or
capsule 5-celled and 5-valved; the seeds numerous, and invested with an
arillus-like membrane.
History and Chemical Composition.
This is a singular plant, found in various parts of the Union from Maine to
Carolina, and westward to Missouri, growing in shady, solitary woods, in
rich, moist soil, or soil composed, of decayed wood and leaves, and near the
base of trees, on whose roots it is said to be parasitic. The whole plant is
ivory-white in all its parts, resembling frozen jelly, and is very succulent
and tender, so much so that when handled it dissolves and melts away in the
hands like ice. The flowers are inodorous, and appear from June until
September; their resemblance to a pipe has given rise to the names Indian
pipe or Pipe-plant. The root is the part used; it should be gathered in
September and October, carefully dried, pulverized, and kept in well-stoppered
bottles. A. J. M. Lasch (Pharm. Rundschau, 1889, p. 208) has found in this
plant a crystallizable poisonous principle, which also occurs in several
other ericaceous plants; it is named andromedotoxin (C31H51O10).
Action, Medical
Uses, and Dosage. Ice-plant root is
a tonic, sedative, nervine, and antispasmodic. It has also been employed in
febrile diseases, as a sedative and diaphoretic. The powder has been
employed in instances of restlessness, pains, nervous irritability, etc., as
a substitute for opium, without any deleterious influences. It is reputed to
have cured remittent and intermittent fevers, and to be an excellent
anti-periodic. In convulsions of children, epilepsy, chorea, and other
spasmodic affections, its administration has been followed with prompt
success; hence its common name Fit or Convulsion root. The juice of the
plant, alone, or combined with rose water, has been found an excellent
application to obstinate ophthalmic inflammation, to ulcers, and as an
injection in gonorrhoea, and inflammation and ulceration of the bladder.
Dose of the powdered root, from 1/2 to 1 drachm, 2 or 3 times a day. It has
been used as a substitute for opium.
Abstracted from;
King's American Dispensatory. Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D., and John Uri
Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D., 1898
See Indian Pipe
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