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XXI.—Strophanthus hispidus: its Natural History, Chemistry, and Pharmacology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2012

Thomas R. Fraser
Affiliation:
Professor of Materia Medica in theUniversity of Edinburgh.

Extract

The preliminary notices published by me in 1870 and 1872, on the action and chemistry of Strophanthus, indicated that it was likely to prove of value as a therapeutic agent; and so early as the year 1874, I had applied the substance in a few cases to the treatment of disease. Before sufficient data, however, had been obtained to justify any conclusions regarding its value as a therapeutic agent, the observations were interrupted by my leaving Edinburgh to occupy a public office in England, in connection with which it was impossible to conduct observations on the treatment of disease. In 1879, opportunities were again afforded to resume the interrupted observations, and results confirmatory of the anticipations which had been raised by the earlier physiological observations were gradually collected. The publication of a few of these results at the Cardiff meeting of the British Medical Association in 1885 has led to Strophanthus gaining a wide recognition as an important therapeutic agent, and to the production of numerous papers dealing with its botany, chemistry, pharmacology and therapeutics, not only in this country, but also in the continent of Europe and in America.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1890

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References

page 955 note * British Medical Journal, vol. ii., 1885, p. 904Google Scholar.

page 956 note * Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. xiv., 1865, p. 274Google Scholar.

page 956 note † “Sur un nouveau poison du coeur provenant de l'Inée ou Onage, et employé au Gabon (Afrique Occidentale) comme poison des flèches” (Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, tome lx., 1865, p. 1209)Google Scholar.

page 957 note * Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. vii., 18691870, pp. 99103Google Scholar.

page 957 note † Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, vol. vii., 1872, pp. 140155Google Scholar.

page 957 note ‡ In a recently written letter (31st Oct. 1888) Sir John Kirk thus graphically describes the discovery he had made in 1861 of the plant from which the Kombé poison is obtained:— “The source of the poison, namely, Strophanthus Kombé, was first identified by me. I had long sought for it, but the natives invariably gave me some false plant, until one day at Chibisa's village, on the river Shiré, I saw the ‘Kombé,’ then new to me as an East African plant (I had known an allied, or perhaps identical, species at Sierra Leone (1858), where it is used as a poison). There climbing on a tall tree it was in pod, and I could get no one to go up and pick specimens. On mounting the tree myself to reach the Kombé pods, the natives, afraid that I might poison myself if I handled the plant roughly or got the juice in a cut or in my mouth, warned me to be careful, and admitted that this was the ‘Kombé’ or poison plant. In this way the poison was identified, and I brought specimens home to Kew, where they were described.”

page 958 note * In 1870, however, M. Legros, at meetings of the Société de Biologie, on the 14th and 21st of May, exhibited frogs under the influence of the Inée poison derived from arrows used at the Gaboon, in order to show that the heart is arrested by it, with the ventricle in systole; and at the latter meeting, M. Bert stated that he had observed similar effects in cats under the influence of the same poison (Comptes Rendus de la Société de Biologie, 1870, pp. 81 and 84Google Scholar).

page 959 note * Tome iv. pp. 523 and 681.

page 959 note † Journal de Pharmacie et de Chernie, t. xxv., 1877, p. 177Google Scholar.

page 959 note ‡ Loc. cit., p. 179.

page 961 note * Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries, 1858–1864, by David, and Livingstone, Charles, 1865, pp. 465467Google Scholar.

page 961 note † Unpublished letter to Dr Sharpey, dated 1st January 1864.

page 961 note ‡ Mr Waller subsequently gave these pods to Sir John Kirk, who brought them to England in 1863.

page 962 note * In a letter to Messrs Burroughs and Wellcome of London, of later date than the above, Mr Buchanan states that the paste for the arrows is made by mixing the pounded seeds with water, and, to confer adhesiveness, with the juice from the bark of a species of Liliaceæ. He also states that before the flesh of an animal killed with poisoned arrows is eaten, the sap from the bark of the Baobab tree is put into the wound made by the arrow, as it is believed to neutralise any poison that may remain in the wound.

page 962 note † Archives de Physiologie normale et pathologique, tome iv., 18711872, p. 524Google Scholar.

page 962 note ‡ Bulletin Général de Thérapeutique, tome cxiii., 1887, p. 529Google Scholar.

page 963 note * Burton, (The Lake Regions of Central Africa, 1860, vol. ii. p. 305)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for example, states that the Wanyika of Mombasah, the Wazaramo, the Wak'hutu, the Western Wasagara and the people of Uruwwa use poisoned arrows in warfare, and that the poison is extracted by the Wazaramo and the Wak'hutu from a plant called Mkande-Kande. They sold the poison at an exorbitant price, “but avoided pointing out to the Expedition the plant, which from their description appears to be a variety of Euphorbia.” Schweinfurth, (The Heart of Africa, translated by Trewer, Ellen E., 1878, vol. i. p. 140)Google Scholar asserts that the Bongo tribe of Central Africa poison their arrows with the milky juice of one of the Euphorbiæ (venifica). Thomson, (To the Central African Lakes and Back, 1881, vol. ii. pp. 40, 139)Google Scholar describes encounters in which he was threatened with poisoned arrows at Kwakissa, and by a Maranga chief. Cameron (Across Africa, 1885, pp. 59, 242, 291) refers to the employment at Ugambo and Mombassa of poisoned arrows, neatly covered with banana leaves, for killing elephants; to the natives at Nékéto, on the Kaça, possessing arrows deeply barbed and poisoned; and to the inhabitants of Ulegga using poisoned arrows for which they had an antidote. Kerr, Montagu (The Far Interior, 1886, vol. i. p. 29)Google Scholar states that the Masarwa bushmen carry small bows and bark pouches containing poisoned arrows, the points of which are made of bone or iron, and the poison is the concentrated milky juice of Euphorbia arborescens. and Farini (Through the Kalahari Desert, 1886, pp. 332, 253) gives a description of the preparation of the poison for arrows from the milky juice of a large bulb mixed with serpents' venom, and states that poisoned arrows are used by the M'kabba, a pigmy tribe, and by the Orange River bushmen.

Further, I am indebted to Dr Felkin for several small arrows, designated “Tikki-Tikki or Akka arrows,” obtained by him at Rohl Bahr-el-Ghazal, a province of Central Africa, north of the Equator. They are from 18½ to 20 inches in length, and are furnished with iron heads, of which the straight portion is hollow, and fits on to the end of the wooden shaft, and the true head is oval or obovate, and in some of the arrows provided with wire-like spikes at the base. The poison is applied by dipping the whole head, including the straight part, into a dark brown gummy fluid, stated to be derived from a Euphorbia, which seems to be afterwards removed from the outside of the iron head, as it is found only on the inside of its hollow straight portion, and on the wood of the shaft covered by it. The thin wooden shaft has no feathering, but its extremity is cut into a circular dise of greater diameter than the rest of the shaft, showing apparently that the arrows are projected from a blow-tube. They are reputed to be very active, and are said to be used in warfare as well as for killing game.

page 964 note * An illustration has not been given of this arrow, as it is the same in every important detail as arrow B. The physical characters of the poison are also the same, and it also consists structurally of fragments of vegetable tissue, amorphous yellowish-brown granular matter, oil globules, and incomplete vegetable hairs. The solution obtained by macerating and triturating one-tenth of a grain with water, somewhat quickly produced, in a frog weighing 329 grains, muscular weakness, gaping movements of the mouth, fibrillary twitches, and stoppage of pulmonary respiration. Thirty-six minutes after the solution had been injected, the exposed heart was found to be motionless, with the ventricle contracted, and the auricles large and dark, and no movement of the heart could be excited by mechanical irritation, although general, but feeble, reflex movements still followed irritation of the skin.

page 966 note * An arrow almost identical with this one was shown to me by the Rev. Ed. H. Baxter, of Mpwapwa, who had obtained it from the Wakamba, a tribe of elephant hunters inhabiting a district adjoining that of the Wanyika tribe The arrow is stated to be used in warfare also.

page 974 note * Carville, Polaillon et, Archives de Physiologie, tome iv., 18711872, p. 708Google Scholar.

page 974 note † Blondel, K., Bulletin Général de Thérapeutique, tome cxiv., 1888, p. 78Google Scholar.

page 975 note * Annales du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 1802, p. 408;Google ScholarBulletin des Sciences, par la Société Philomathique, Paris, 1802, p. 122Google Scholar.

page 975 note † Genera Plantarum, vol. ii. part 2, 1876, p. 714Google Scholar.

page 975 note ‡ Hooker's, Icones Plantarum, 3rd series, vol. i. part 4, 1871, p. 79,Google Scholar and plate 1098.

page 976 note * Unpublished letter.

page 976 note ‡ Loc. cit., p. 79.

page 976 note ∥ Bulletin Général de Théapeutique, tome cxiii., 1887, p. 172Google Scholar.

page 976 note ¶ Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie, 15 Juin 1887, p. 593Google Scholar.

page 976 note ** Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions, March 3, 1888, p. 748Google Scholar.

page 976 note †† Bulletin Général de Thérapeutique, tome cxiv., 1888, p. 81Google Scholar.

page 976 note ‡‡ Contributions a l'histoire médieale des Strophanthus. Thèse. Paris, 1887, p. 15Google Scholar.

page 976 note † Unpublished letter to Dr Sharpey, 1st January 1864.

page 976 note § Archives de Physiologie, tome iv., 18711872, p. 526Google Scholar.

page 977 note * The obstacles which Mr Buchanan has had to contend with in procuring and sending specimens, owing to tribal feuds and the difficulties of carriage, are illustrated in the following extracts from one of his letters:— “Your letter about Strophanthus came duly to hand when I was at Zomba, standing by my property in case of an attack from the Mangoni, who were ravaging the country on the high lands on this side (Blantyre) of the Shiré River. One of my boys who belongs to the river was actually on the road to the river to get a supply when news came of the death of Mr Fenwick and Chipitula, and for long no person dared to go to the river. When these difficulties were got over, the Mangoni came, and I had to go to Zomba, and remain there until they took their departure. Lately, however, I have got a supply, and as I have arranged to come home in December, I shall take the Strophanthus with me. Unless special care be taken, it is sure to be damaged owing to leaky boats and canoes. The African Lakes Company's steamer is at present undergoing repairs, otherwise I should have sent the Strophanthus by her.” (21st October 1884.)

page 979 note * Archives de Physiologic, tome iv., 18711872, p. 526Google Scholar.

page 979 note ‡ Letter to Dr Sharpey, 1st January 1864.

page 979 note † Loc. cit., pp. 412 and 123.

page 979 note § Letter, dated 4th. November 1888.

page 980 note * Dr Macfarlane has suggested to me that these spots are sears marking the positions of the roots of the fallen off hairs, formerly attached to the carpels.

page 989 note * The following are the diameters of the naked portion of the shaft of two comose appendages removed from two average-sized follicles:—

page 990 note * For example, in a follicle 11 inches in length, these hairs were present only in the lower 6½ inches, and this exactly corresponded to the part of the follicle where seeds occurred. Above this part the follicle contained only placenta and comose appendages.

page 991 note * Bulletin Général de Therapeutique, 1888, pp. 100103Google Scholar.

page 1010 note * In the experiments that were made, chloroform dissolved 1 part in 10,000, and absolute and common ethyl ether, petroleum ether, and bisulphide of carbon about 1 part in 20,000.

page 1014 note * The crystals formed at the bottom of the flask have been represented, unmagnified, in Pl. VII. fig. 10, as they appeared on looking down upon them through the fluid in the flask.

page 1016 note * The saliva was obtained, with the usual precautions to exclude impurity, from an adult to whom pilocarpine had been administered. It was alkaline in reaction, and neither before nor after prolonged heating, did it affect Fehling's solution. A small quantity rapidly and abundantly produced glucose in starch solution.