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Joined 2026-09-21 Message
Incoming links: Physostigma venenosum
Calabar bean 2026-10-31
The medicinal seed of Physostigma venenosum; the 1867 article is Physostigmatis faba. Its apparently ordinary seed characters do not imply that it is edible.
The required sequence is fresh flowers; sliced and dried bulb; unexpanded petals; heartwood; seeds; expressed seed fat; expressed seed oil; and fresh and dried root. The plant organ, its state, and the actual official material must all be specified.
- Sambucus nigra: fresh flowers. The official article is Sambuci flores, elder flowers, gathered from the native plant. The flower stalks are separated when making elder-flower water; the preparation also allows an equivalent quantity of flowers preserved fresh with common salt. Neither elder berries nor elder bark answers the botanical part asked here.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Sambuci flores”, p. 274; “Aqua sambuci”, p. 45
- Squill: the sliced and dried bulb. The historical botanical source is Urginea scilla, also identified there as Scilla maritima. The medicinal slices consist of the fleshy bulb scales; this is an underground shoot structure, not a root. The official article is Scilla.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Scilla”, pp. 279–280
- Rosa gallica: the fresh and dried unexpanded petals. These are Rosæ gallicæ petala, the red-rose material. “Unexpanded” refers to collection before the flower has opened fully. The petals must be distinguished from the rose hip used for a different official preparation.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Rosæ gallicæ petala”, red-rose monograph
- Pterocarpus santalinus: the sliced or rasped heartwood. This is Pterocarpi lignum, red sandalwood. The answer is the wood, rather than bark or the exudate known as kino. Botanical relationship between two medicinal materials does not make their official definitions interchangeable.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Pterocarpi lignum”, p. 261
- Physostigma venenosum: the seed. Physostigmatis faba, the Calabar bean, is botanically a seed, not the entire pod. Its two large cotyledons lie inside a hard seed coat. The official alcoholic extract is made from the powdered seed.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Physostigmatis faba”, pp. 233–234; “Extractum physostigmatis”, p. 126
- Theobroma cacao: the concrete oil obtained by expression and heat from the ground seeds. The official article is Oleum theobromæ, cocoa butter. Naming the seed gives its source organ, but omits the important fact that the official pharmaceutical material is the separated fat. It is distinct from coconut oil.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Oleum theobromæ”, p. 229
- Croton tiglium: the oil expressed from the seeds. The official material is Oleum crotonis, croton oil, rather than the whole plant or an unspecified leaf preparation. The seeds are its source; the expressed oil is the article used in the official formulations.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Oleum crotonis”, p. 222
- Taraxacum officinale: the fresh and dried root. The official article is Taraxaci radix, dandelion root, called Taraxacum dens leonis in the 1867 standard, gathered between September and February from British meadows and pastures. The collection season and fresh/dried distinction belong to the historical standard; the answer is not the leaves or flowers.[ref]British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Taraxaci radix”, p. 317
The names in the paper sometimes use the shorter terminology of the first British Pharmacopoeia, whereas the 1867 edition explicitly renamed many entries to identify the medicinal organ. Its alteration list, for example, maps Sambucus to Sambuci flores, Pterocarpus to Pterocarpi lignum, and Taraxacum to Taraxaci radix.[ref]
British Pharmacopoeia by the General Medical Council (1867). “Articles the names of which have been altered”, pp. xix–xxi
That is a nomenclature change, not permission to choose any part of the named plant.