Dicentra.

Related entry: Corydalis

Dicentra.—The Dicentra pusilla Sieb. et Zucc. is a Japanese plant belonging to the Fumariaceae which is used in that country as a folk remedy in dysentery. Asahina (A. Pharm., 1909, ccxivii) has found it in an alkaloid, C₂₀H₂₁NO₄, which is isomeric with papaverine. It has been studied physiologically by K. Iwakawa (A. E. P. P., 1911, lxiv), who finds that it produces in both cold and warm blooded animals a light narcosis, followed, if the dose be large, by convulsions. It also caused a fall in the blood pressure with slowing of the heart and depression of the respiratory center.

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, was edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others.