Abstract
The root, stem and leaves of xanthium struularium have from ancient times been used as a popular drug in China, India and also in Europe, but no scientific study of their pharmacological property has been made, except that Zander succeeded in deriving xanthostrumarin and xanthostrumin from its fruit. The writer, on finding that the stems and leaves of wild xanthium strumarium growing in Mukden and its neighbourhood contain pharmacologically new and interesting principles, is carrying on the study of the plant. He wishes to give in this papar some descriptions found in old chinese literature dealing with the plant, and to report the results of experiments made with a water-extract of the stems and leaves.
1. Judging from the old chinese literature, the stems and leaves of this plant seem to have been used in the same way as its fruit, for Feng-Shih ( ?? ) Ting-chung ( ?? ) and various other skin diseases, and as an anodyne and antidote.
2. As the result of the pharmacological study of the water-extract of this plant, it was demonstrated that the stems and leaves contain a component injurious to nerves and muscles, but it is weak in toxic character; whether the reason of this weakness is due to its own nature or to the smallness of the quantity contained, has to be solved by further studies. [Cf. Original (Japanese) p. 364.]
