Tapioca

Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage. The seeds of Purging or Barbadoes-nut occasion emetic and drastic cathartic effects, accompanied with a burning sensation in the fauces and stomach, and other unpleasant, and even serious, symptoms. However, if the seeds be entirely deprived of their embryo, the emesis and other disagreeable sensations do not occur.

Description. The seeds are about 1 inch long, oval, flattish on one surface, rounded on the opposite, each side presenting a slight elevation, running lengthwise. It has a fissured testa of a blackish color. Taste at first sweet, afterward acrid. It has no odor and contains oil.

History. This is a large, thick-stemmed, lactiferous shrub, a native of the Cape de Verd Islands (Pickering), but cultivated as a hedge plant, as well as for its oil, and has also been naturalized in the West Indies, South America, and in most parts of the tropics. The plant was formerly referred to Jatropha, from which it differs in having a monopetalous corolla. The seeds are called Purging-nuts, Nuces catharticae Americanae, Semina ricini majoris, Semen curcadis, Ficus infernalis, Nuces Barbadenses, Physic-nut, etc., (New Remedies, 1878, from Zeitschrift des Oesterr. Apoth. Vereins), and affords an oil, upon pressure, which is a drastic cathartic, and which has been used to adulterate croton oil.

Botanical Source. A large shrub, with a milky juice, and leaves that are heart-shaped, smooth, 5-lobed, and borne on leaf-stalks 2 or 3 inches long. The flowers are small, green, monoecious and in axillary, stalked cymes. The corolla and calyx are 5-parted, and the male flowers have 10 stamens. The ovary is 3-lobed, 3-celled, and has a 3-parted style. The fruit is a fleshy black berry, and contains 3 seeds, about an inch in length. The kernel is oily, inodorous, sweetish to the taste, followed by acridity.