Gelsemium nitidum

Gelsemium nitidum (G. sempervirens), the yellow or Carolina jasmine (nat. ord. Loganiaceæ), is a climbing plant of the Atlantic southern United States, having large, axillary, fragrant, clustered blossoms and perennial dark-green leaves. The dried rhizome and rootlets are used in medicine, and contain an alkaloid, gelsemine, $C\_\{11\}H\_\{19\}NO\_2$, to which the plant owes its physiological action. When the powdered rhizome, or any of the pharmaceutical preparations made from it, is taken internally in medicinal doses there ensues a feeling of languor, with slight depression of the circulation and lowering in the frequency and force of the pulse. In larger doses it acts as an active poison, causing cardiac depression, muscular weakness, and marked disturbance of vision—wide dilatation of the pupil and frequently squinting and ptosis. The central nervous system in man is also affected, the gait becomes staggering, general sensibility is much impaired, the respiration is slow and laboured, and the bodily temperature is lowered. If death results it is from failure of respiration. A solution of the alkaloid applied directly to the eye causes dilatation of the pupil and paralysis of accommodation. In medicine gelsemium is used to reduce the temperature in malarial and other sthenic fevers; it is also used in neuralgia, rheumatism, pneumonia, and pleurisy, and by dentists.