---Description---A beautiful evergreen shrub from 4 to 20 feet. When in full flower it forms dense thickets, the stems are always crooked,
the bark rough. It was called Kalmia by Linnaeus in honour of Peter Kalm, a Swedish professor. The hard wood is used in the
manufacture of various useful articles. Leaves ovate, lanceolate, acute on each end, on petioles 2 to 3 inches long. Flowers
numerous, delicately tinted a lovely shade of pink; these are very showy, clammy, interminal, viscid, pubescent, simple or
compound heads, branches opposite, flowering in June and July. The flowers yield a honey said to be deleterious. The leaves,
shoots and berries are dangerous to cattle, and when eaten by Canadian pheasants communicate the poison to those who feed
on the birds. The fruit is a dry capsule, seeds minute and numerous.
---Constituents---Leaves possess narcotic poisoning properties and contain tannic acid, gum, fatty matter, chlorophyll, a substance resembling
mannite, wax extractive, albumen, an acrid principle, Aglucosidearbutin, yellow calcium iron.
---Medicinal Action and Uses---Indians are said to use the expressed juice of the leaves or a strong decoction of them to commit suicide. The leaves are
the official part; powdered leaves are used as a local remedy in some forms of skin diseases, and are a most efficient agent
in syphilis, fevers, jaundice, neuralgia and inflammation, but great care should be exercised in their use. Whisky is the
best antidote to poisoning from this plant. An ointment for skin diseases is made by stewing the leaves in pure lard in an
earthenware vessel in a hot oven. Taken internally it is a sedative and astringent in active haemorrhages, diarrhoea and flux.
It has a splendid effect and will be found useful in overcoming obstinate chronic irritation of the mucous surface. In the
lower animals an injection produces great salivation, lachrymation, emesis, convulsions and later paralysis of the extremities
and laboured respiration. It is supposed, but not proved, that the poisonous principle of this plant is Andromedotoxin.
---Preparations and Dosages---A saturated tincture of the leaves taken when plant is in flower, is the best form of administration, given in doses of 10
to 20 drops every two or three hours. Decoction, 1/2 to 1 fluid ounce of powdered leaves from 10 to 30 grains. Salve made
from juice of the plant is an efficient local application for rheumatism.
|
---Other Species--- Kalmia augusfifolia (Sheep's Laurel or Lambkill, or Narrow-leaved Laurel, so called because it poisons sheep,
which feed on its leaves), this species is said to be the best for medicinal use. A decoction of its leaves, 1 OZ. to 1 quart
of water reduced to a pint, is used by the negroes as a wash for ulcerations between the toes. A poisonous glucoside is found
in the leaves of this species called asebotoxin, and also in K. latifolia.
K. Glauca, or Swamp Laurel, has similar properties.
|