EPIDEMIC-DROPS Y GLA UCOMA this blinding poispn, and recommend it as suitable for research (Hakim, 1950).The grave danger of this mistaken recommendation becomes evident when it is remembered that the Ayurvedic practitioners, both learned and ignorant, serve the medical needs of most of the vast village populations of the Indian sub-continent.The historical study of this herb brings out the dangers of false plant identifications.Textual, historical, geographical, and morphological accur- acy is essential for any real research into the empirical wealth of Ayurvedic drugs.Epidemiology Widespread epidemics of dropsy, at time affecting 7,000 persons and sometimes killing 1,500, have been frequently recorded in India since 1866.McLeod (1877) named the condition "epidemic dropsy", but its real cause remained unknown for another 50 years.The most constant signs were lower-extremity oedema, gastro- intestinal disturbances, and skin changes.Since 1909, an associated primary high-tension glaucoma, often leaving permanent defects in the visual fields, has been recorded.Various theories of malnutrition, infection, or food-intoxication were suggested, as the epidemics were localized and usuaUy confined to poorly-fed populations.Sarkar (1926) was informed by villagers that a local epidemic was due to contamination of a cooking-oil press with seeds of Argemone mexicana.Kamath (1928) recorded a similar contamination of sesame oil used for cooking.These observations revealed the real aetiology of epidemic dropsy, linking the epidemiological records with the migration of Argemone mexicana into India.Research workers in India have collected valuable material on the clinical, ophthalmological, chemical, biochemical, histological, and experimental aspects of the problem.Oedema and haziness has been produced in human volunteers, but not in animal experiments.Epidemics have also been recorded in other tropical countries (Meaker, 1950), and argemone-poisoning has been noted in cattle (Hurst, 1942) and fowls (Hart, 1941; Steyn, 1950).Chemistry Argemone mexicana L. and its Seed-Oil.-Theplant is known to contain several alkaloids including berberine and protopine in the herb (Santos, 1932), sanguinarine and dihydrosanguinarine in the seed-oil (Sarkar, 1948), and some undefined poisonous principles in the latex (Henry, 1949) and probably in other structures.The present experiments have shown that increased ocular tension and pathological damage to the eyes of experimental animals was produced not only by argemone oil and its active alkaloid sanguinarine, but also by seed-oils, alkaloids, and capsule extracts from other papaveraceae.A number of inter-related and inter-convertible alkaloids, all derivable from iso-quinoline, are' found in the natural order Rhoeadares, which includes the papavers (Henry, 1949).These may explain the experimental activity of other papaver substances, and deserve fuller investigation, especially if idiopathic primary glaucoma is shown to be caused by indirect ingestion of papaver herbs through animal vectors.
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Sohrab A.E Hakim (1954) studied this question.