Using finely powdered Lu-jung and its extracts extracted with physiological saline solution or alcohol (either liquid being 4 times greater in quantity than the material) in room temperature, the author conducted experiments to inquire into their pharmacological action, and obtained the following results.
1. General action and toxity.
The author administered
per os powdered Lu-jung 1, 0—10, 0 g per kg, or gave intravenous injections of 0, 5—8, 0 ccm of saline or alcohol extract to adult rabbits whose body weight ranged from 1 500 to 2 000 g, but lie failed to note any conceivable change in their general condition.
When 5, 0—15, 0 ccm per kg of saline or alcohol extract was intravenously injected into guinea-pigs whose average weight was 340 g, some suffered from depression, slight convulsion, or dyspnoea, but none of them died.
When 1, 0—1, 5 ccm per 10g of the above extracts were subcutaneously injected into mice, some were observed to have an increase in their spontaneous movements, while others suffered from depression, slight convulsion or dyspnoea. However, these phenomena had disappeared by the following morning.
Injections of 3, 0—5, 0 ccm of saline or alcohol extract into the lymph space of frogs weighing 30—40g, produced no effect in any of the cases.
From the above facts, it may be said that Lu-jung contains scarcely any substance of a toxic nature.
2. Effect on respiration and blood pressure. Intravenous injections of 1, 0—8, 0 ccm per kg of saline or alcohol extract of Lu-jung into adult normal rabbits weighing about 1, 5 kg, produced no effect on respiration or on blood pressure recorded at the carotid arteries.
3. Effect on the isolated heart.
Employing
Langendorff 's method, the effect of Lu-jung on the mammalian heart was studied in rabbits, and the results obtained corresponded closely with those of the hearts of frogs studied by
Yagi's method. Small quantities of the extracts added to a perfusion fluid, stimulated the heart action ; the action was more evident when alcohol extract was used. However, a large quantity of the extract made the contractions—both the systole and the diastole—weaker, and they finally ceased. This depressing action was produced more rapidly and remarkably by the physiological saline solution extract.
4. Effect on blood vessels.
Perfusion experiments were made on the auricles of rabbits and in the hind legs of frogs. Both saline and alcohol extracts of Lu-jung were found to have almost the same action, i. e. a small quantity of either extract produced contraction which shortly returned to normal ; but a large quantity caused the dilation of the vessels. The contraction was produced more noticeably by the alcohol extract and the dilation by the physiological saline solution extract.
5. Effect on smooth muscles.
On treating the isolated small intestinal loops of rabbits and the isolated lion-pregnant uterine strips of guinea-pigs with comparatively large quantities of alcohol extract (5, 0 ccm added to 100 ccm
Ringer's solution), a markedly increased sublimation in the tension and in the amplitude was soon observed in their movements. The same quantity of a physiological saline solution extract, however, had no effect.
6. The effective substance of the alcohol extract oil the smooth muscle still remains even after heating the extract from 65° to 70°C for 30 minutes, but it is entirely absorbed by animal charcoal. [
cf. Original (.Japanese) p. 157.] (Author's abstract.)
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