Euphrasia. Eyebright. Euphrasia officinalis.

Botanical name: 

Euphrasia. E. officinalis L. Eyebright. Eye-wort. Euphraise, Fr. Augentrost, Gr. (Fam. Scrophulariaceae.)—A small annual plant, native of Europe, without odor, and of a bitterish, astringent taste. Enz (Viertelj. f. Prakt. Pharm., viii, 175) obtained a little volatile oil, an acrid and bitter principle, mannite and glucose, and a tannic acid. The name "eyewort" so frequently ascribed to this drug, is derived from the practice of using it in eye affections in older medicine. It is used on the continent to-day as an astringent tonic in the treatment of jaundice. G. M. Garland (A. J. P., 1890) states that ten minims (0.6 mil) of a concentrated tincture every two hours is a specific in acute nasal catarrh.


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