rauwolfia
(raʊˈwɒlfɪə, -vɒlfɪə)
Also rauvolfia and with capital initial.
[mod.L. (P. C. Plumier Nova Plantarum Americanarum Genera (1703) 19), f. the name of Leonhard Rauwolf (d. 1596), German physician, botanist, and traveller + -ia1.]
1. A tropical shrub or small tree of the genus so called, belonging to the family Apocynaceæ and bearing clusters of small white flowers and red or black berries; esp. a shrub of one of the several species cultivated for the medicinal drugs obtained from their roots.
| 1752 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. (ed. 6) s.v. Rauvolfia, Four-leaved Rauvolfia, with narrow Leaves. 1823 Curtis's Bot. Mag. L. 2440 (heading) Three-leaved Rauwolfia. 1902 L. H. Bailey Cycl. Amer. Hort. IV. 1503/2 The Rauwolfia flourishes with great luxuriance in the shade of other shrubs. 1955 Sci. Amer. Oct. 81/1 Reserpine is an alkaloid extract from the snakeroot plant (named Rauwolfia for a 16th-century German physician). 1962 N. Maxwell Witch-Doctor's Apprentice i. 1 Many types of rauwolfia were employed by jungle shamans centuries before our medical men thought of tranquillizers. 1976 Hortus Third (L. H. Bailey Hortorium) 942/1 Rauvolfias are cultivated as ornamentals and for curiosity. 1976 W. A. R. Thompson Herbs that Heal ix. 148 This unleashed the flood-gates of the pharmaceutical industry, whose scouts started scouring the earth for rauwolfia. |
2. Pharm. Also
rauwolfia serpentina. The dried roots of
Rauvolfia serpentina or related species, or an extract therefrom, containing a number of alkaloids (notably reserpine) and used medicinally,
esp. to treat hypertension.
| [1949 Brit. Heart Jrnl. XI. 350/2 This overwhelming body of support in favour of regarding R. Serpentina as the remedy of choice. Ibid. 354/1 The hypotensive action of R. Serpentina.] 1952 Ann. Internal Med. XXXVII. 1149 In our clinic we have relied chiefly upon various combinations of hydrazinophthalazine, Rauwolfia and veratrum, principally because these drugs appear to be the safest..of any medicinal regimen we have tried. 1954 Brit. Pharmaceutical Codex 649 Rauwolfia has a depressant action on the central nervous system. 1957 H. W. Youngken in R. E. Woodson et al. Rauwolfia ii. 32 The drug Rauwolfia or Rauwolfia Serpentina consists of the dried root of Rauwolfia serpentina... The commercial sources of the drug..have been India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma, and Siam. 1966 New Scientist 27 Jan. 236/2 Physicians and pharmacists..are inclined to think that only a few vegetable drugs such as..digitalis, penicillin and rauwolfia are important in the present day materia medica. 1977 Lewis & Elvin-Lewis Med. Bot. vii. 187/1 Rauvolfia acts synergistically with other hypotensive drugs, and in the more severe cases of hypertension it is used in combination with Veratrum viride or protoveratrines A and B. |
3. attrib., as
rauwolfia alkaloid,
rauwolfia berry.
| 1942 Biol. Abstr. XVII. 117/2 The various effects suggest that the Rauwolfia alkaloids probably act on the vasomotor system and also directly on plain muscles of the blood vessels and intestines. 1977 S. Loebl et al. Nurse's Drug Handbk. 252 The rauwolfia alkaloids decrease blood pressure and have a sedative effect accompanied by bradycardia. |
| 1932 Discovery July 231/1 Three kinds of starlings come with the great blue pigeons to the Rauwolfia berries. |