Dictionary.net

A white crystalline bitter alkaloid extracted from ipecacuanha root, and regarded as its peculiar emetic principle.

A white crystalline bitter alkaloid extracted from ipecacuanha root, and regarded as its peculiar emetic principle.

The principal alkaloid of ipecac, from the ground roots of Uragoga (or Cephaelis) ipecacuanha or U. acuminata, of the Rubiaceae. It is used as an amebicide in many different preparations and may cause serious cardiac, hepatic, or renal damage and violent diarrhea and vomiting. Emetine inhibits protein syntheis in eucaryotic but not prokaryotic cells.

A vegetable alkali, discovered by M. Pelletier in ipecacuanha, and to which it owes its emetic power. It is obtained from different ipecacuanhas, but chiefly from psychotria emetica, callicocca ipecacuanha, and viola emetica. It is in transparent scales, of a reddish-brown colour, almost inodorous, of a bitter, slightly acrid taste; is unchangeable in the air, soluble in water and alcohol, and insoluble in ether. Three grains of impure emetia or one grain of pure are equal to 18 of ipecacuanha. See Ipecacuauba.