Seeds - PERSIAN DRUGS - Specimen details
Catalogue Number: 68920 | |||||
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No Image | Plant Name | 57.01 LEGUMINOSAE-PAPILIONOIDEAE Abrus precatorius | Entry Book Number | ||
Artefact Name | Seeds - PERSIAN DRUGS | Vernacular Name | |||
Iso Country | Iran | TDWG Region | Iran | ||
Parts Held | Seeds - PERSIAN DRUGS | Geography Description | Iran | ||
Uses | Seeds - PERSIAN DRUGSUse: MATERIALS User: Man | TDWG use | MATERIALS | ||
Storage | Bottles, boxes etc | Related Items | |||
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Notes: | Label source: Fl.Br.Ind ii 175 ; Ph.Ind i 430 The plant grows in India and is cosmopolitan in the tropics; the seeds are exported from India to Persia and other countries in the West. The well known scarlet seeds with a black spot at one end are made int, o necklaces and rosaries. They were formerly used as a standard weight by goldsmiths, the average weight of the seeds being 1.7 grains. The leaves and root contain a sugar (D Hooper Pharm Journ 1894, 937) In medicine the seeds are said to have Halarant pr, operties, and in Persia they are classed among the poisons. In India toxicological enquires have shown the seeds are ground into a paste, the paste is made into suis or needles, and these are inserted hypodermically in the bodies of cattle to bring about, their death. Doctors Warden and Waddell in 1884 separated a protein body called Abrin which is the active pricipal. Spica in 1888 called it a glucoside. Sidney Martin in 1889 found it to be a gobulin or albumose. In 1891 Cobert described it asa toxalbumi, n. From Bull of Misc Info. No 6 1931 RBG Kew - Some Persian Drugs pp 301-2 |