Origin. - The dried root of Polygala Senega L., a plant indigenous in North America, from Canada southward to South Carolina and westward to Wisconsin.

Description and Properties. - About 4 inches (10 Cm.) long, with a knotty crown and spreading, tortuous branches, peeled when dry, fleshy and round after having been soaked in water; externally yellowish-gray or brownish-yellow; bark thick, white within, enclosing an irregular, porous, yellowish wood; odor slight, unpleasant; taste sweetish, afterward acrid. Senega contains senegin, also known as saponin, an acrid principle to which the medicinal property of the drug is due, besides a fixed and a volatile oil.

Dose. - 10-30 grains (0.6-2.0 Gm.) [15 grains (1 Gm.), U. S. P.].

Official Preparations

Fluidextractum Senegae - Fluidextracti Senegae - Fluidextract of Senega. Dose, 10-30 minims (0.6-2.0 Cc.) [15 minims (1 Cc), U. S. P.].

Syrupus Senegae - Syrupi Senegae - Syrup of Senega (20 per cent. of fluid-extract).

Dose. - 30-60 minims (2.0-4.0 Cc.) [1 fluidram (4 Cc), U. S. P.].

Syrupus Scillae Compositus - Syrupi Scillae Compositi - Compound Syrup of Squill (contains 8 per cent. of senega). (Described under Scilla.)

Physiological Action. - Externally and Locally. - The active principle of senega is a decided irritant to the skin and mucous membranes, causing violent sneezing and cough, with marked hydremia and increased secretion from the bronchial and nasal mucous membranes when the powder is inhaled.

Internally. - Digestive System. - Small doses stimulate the mucous membranes of the mouth and stomach, augmenting the salivary and gastric secretions, although frequently occasioning indigestion. Large doses irritate the alimentary canal, producing vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.

Circulatory System. - Small doses have little action.

Nervous System. - Under medicinal doses no important action has been noted.

Respiratory System. - Excretion of the drug through the bronchial mucous membrane irritates the respiratory passages, occasioning hyperemia, increased secretion, and, reflexly, cough.

Absorption and Elimination. - The active principle of senega is absorbed with difficulty, being excreted through the bronchial mucous membrane and the kidneys, irritating these structures during the process, and consequently acting as a stimulant, expectorant, and diuretic. The drug also possesses some diaphoretic virtue, being partially excreted by the skin.

Untoward Action. - Immoderate, and in certain susceptible subjects small, doses of senega have produced irritation and burning in the throat, salivation, impaired appetite, a sense of oppression in the stomach, nausea, vomiting, colicky pains, and profuse diarrhea.

Poisoning. - Senega is not regarded as a poisonous drug, excessive doses producing symptoms analogous to those of "Untoward Action," save that they are intensified. It should be remembered, however, that saponin and sapotoxin, which are found in senega, as also is sarsaparilla, quillaja, caulophyllum, and dulcamara are very active blood poisons and may cause rapidly fatal poisoning. The saponins are common, moreover, in the solanaceous plants, and are responsible for poisoning from unripe tomatoes, sprouting potatoes,, and egg-plant.

Treatment of Poisoning. - Elimination is to be favored, and the symptoms treated as they appear, gastric, sedatives, anodynes, and cardiac stimulants being employed.

Therapeutics. - Externally and Locally. - No action has been observed.

Internally. - The principal use of senega is that of a stimulating expectorant. It is highly beneficial in subacute bronchitis when the power to cough is feeble. In like manner senega is useful in bron-chorrhea and chronic bronchitis with profuse expectoration, though less valuable when the mucus is tough and scanty.

The simple catarrhal laryngitis following croup is greatly relieved by the administration of senega.

The drug is an appropriate remedy in amenorrhea the result of passive uterine congestion, and senegin has been recommended as a remedy for uterine hemorrhage.

Contraindications. - Senega is inadmissible in acute bronchitis and indigestion, or when there is marked irritation and inflammation of the gastro-intestinal tract.

Administration - The syrup of senega is the preparation usually employed as an expectorant. Senegin may be given in doses of 2 grains (0. 13 Gm.) in capsules.