Plant Depressants: Tranquilizers and Opiates Flashcards
What is the small evergreen shrub discussed in the heart and circulatory system?
Indian Snakeroot.
What does the Indian snakeroot species contain?
Resperine, which revolutionized the treatment of chronic psychoses (especially schizophrenia) and moderate to severe hypertension.
When did European and American pharmaceutical companies begin marketing resperine to treat schizophrenia, hypertension, and a tranquillizing agent for treating mild to moderate anxiety?
1953.
When was resperine discouraged as a tranquillizing agent due to adverse side effects of fatigue and deep depression?
1956 (US Food and Drug Administration).
What is resperine classified as?
A phenothiazines.
What is the small shrub (3m in height), and native to the South Pacific Islands called?
Kava.
What does Kava exist as?
Only a cultigen-does not occur in the wild.
What does Kava consist of?
Numerous sterile polyploid cultivars of variable Biochemistry-nearly 250 types are recognized on Vanuatu alone.
Where and when was plant first domesticated?
Vanuatu about 3000 years ago.
From Vanuatu, where was Kava taken?
Kava was taken westward to New Guinea and parts of Micronesia and eastward to Fiji and Polynesia.
Why must the Kava plant be propagated colonially?
Because the cultivars are sterile.
What plant is of great religious and ceremonial significance to South Pacific islands?
Kava.
What is Kava used for in regard to communicating?
Kava is used for communicating with ancestors and the Gods.
How is Kava used socially?
To relax the body and mind.
How is Kava used medicinally?
To induce sleep, relieve pain, and treat anxiety and insomnia.
Sometimes even to treat rheumatism, menstrual problems, venereal diseases and tuberculosis.
Which part of Kava contains the active principles?
Root stock.
How was rootstock prepared?
1) The chewing method, root broken down into small fragment, and chewed into soft mass, and mixed with cold water or coconut milk, strained then drunk a few hours later.
2) The grating method, the root is grated and macerated in cold water or coconut milk, then filtered and drank.
Of chewing and grating methods, which one is said to have stronger narcotic and depressant affects?
Chewing.
Which of chewing and grating is used to treat the sick and convalescent?
Grating.
What is the pharmacology makeup of Kava?
Made up of 18 related compounds known as kavalactones (kavain), as well as other secondary products.
What do the kavalactones do?
They have muscle-relaxing and antispasmodic effects.
What are the medical symptoms of drinking Kava?
Mild muscle paralysis (in lower limbs), and increase force but decreased rapidity of heartbeat.
How does Kava demonstrate its affects?
It will first stimulate and then depress respiration. Unlike other depressants such as alcohol, it does not impair alertness significantly.
What are the affects of whole extracts of Kava?
Hypnotic-sedative, analgesic, and psychotropic affects.
What do small doses of kava produce?
Small does are relatively benign, producing a euphoric state of tranquility and friendliness lasting for a short period.
What do high doses of kava produce?
They produce a stronger hypnotic effects and may effect muscle coordination and lead to visual distortion (pupil enlargement).
What is kava recommended for in treatment of?
Will treat non-psychotic anxiety symptoms such as nervous tension, stress, agitation and insomnia.
What is kava as affective as in regard to treating non-psychotic anxiety?
Synthetic depressants but with fewer side effects.
What will constant and heavy kava use result in?
Scaly skin eruptions, which are alleviated by abstinence.
Why should alcohol and kava not be taken together?
Due to the fact that they are both depressants and their effects will be additive-full concentration activities should be avoided if they are taking both.
What toxicity has been reported by those taking kava as a dietary supplement?
Liver toxicity.
What has this liver toxicity led to in regard to kava?
It has been banned in some European countries and in Canada, a stop sale order was issued in 2002-but not enforced and kava can be legally purchased.
Why is the liver toxicity of kava controversial?
Because it may be do to adulteration of parts other than the roots or using ethanol rather than traditional water extraction in the preparation of some kava dietary supplements.
What is a robust annual plant, part of the poppy or papaveraceae family?
The opium poppy.
Where is the opium poppy native to?
Southwest Asia.
Where and when was the opium poppy first domesticated?
Western Mediterranean region about 6000 years ago.
Opium poppy is considered the worlds oldest known _____?
Narcotic.
Why is the opium poppy considered the oldest known narcotic?
Because of the reference to the “joy plant” in Sumerian medical clay tablets. (Yet people think they were referring to non-narcotics).
Where was the opium poppy used in ancient times?
The Mycenaean funerary rites (1500-1100 BCE) in Greece and on the islands of Crete and Cyprus.
Where is there earlier evidence of opium poppy use than Greece?
Burial chambers in Spain dated to approximately 4500 years ago contain numerous opium poppy capsules.
What were the early mycenaean opium cults centred around?
The worship of the fertility goddess, which likely inspired later images of the Greek goddess Persephone holding opium poppies.
Where and when was the first direct evidence of the opium poppy found?
3500 year old ivory pipes and other opium smoking equipment on the Mediterranean Islands of Cyprus and Crete.
What did Dioscorides mean by mekonion, and opos?
1) The ground whole opium plant.
2) The latex from opium capsules.
