The dried bark of Aspidosperma Quebracho-blanco, Schlechtendal (Nat. Ord. Apocynaceae). An evergreen tree of Chili and the Argentine Republic. Dose, 5 to 60 grains.
Common Name: Quebracho.
Principal Constituents.—Six alkaloids: Aspidospermine (C22H30N2O2), Aspidospermatine (C22H26N2O2), Aspidosamine (C22H28N2O2), Quebrachine (C21H26N2O2), Hypoquebrachine (C21H26N2O2), and Quebrachamine, the latter sometimes absent.
The commercial amorphous Aspidospermine is a mixture probably of all the alkaloids or is chiefly Aspidosamine.
Preparations—1. Fluidextractum Aspidospermatis, Fluidextract of Aspidosperma, (Fluidextract of Quebracho). Dose, 5 to 60 drops.
2. Aspidospermine. ¼ to ½ grain.
Specific Indications.—Dyspnea of functional origin, with or without emphysema; face pale, anxious and livid; lips cyanotic; pulse small, soft and compressible, irregular or intermittent; cardiac palpitation with cough.
Action.—The various alkaloids of quebracho act more or less antagonistically to each other, but the chief good effect is the increase in depth and regulation of the rate of respiration. It should not be used intravenously.
Therapy.—Quebracho is a remedy for dyspnea when not due to pronounced organic changes. Being a centric stimulant to the pneumogastric it affects chiefly the cardiac and pulmonary plexuses, and is a remedy of power in imperfect oxygenation with a disturbed balance between the pulmonic circulation and the action of the heart. It is used in cardiac and renal asthma, emphysema, the dyspnoea of capillary bronchitis and of chronic pneumonia, advanced bronchitis, phthisis, bronchial asthma and uncomplicated asthma with insufficient cardiac force. It relieves the cough of la grippe, when associated with dyspnoea. From 5 to 60 drops of the fluidextract may be given in water or plain or aromatized syrup.