Strophanthus extract - Codex 1908
Early/ mid-20th century pharmacy jar in white earthenware
Beautiful labels: Red POISON label with the famous skull and crossbones and the Poisonous Substances label
Signaling to the pharmacist that it is imperative to keep apart the other substances in the cabinet of toxic substances, the famous poison cabinet.
It comes from an old cellar-laboratory in a Parisian pharmacy. The bottles had not moved since the late 1950s on the shelves. The cellar had served as a laboratory for medical analyses and a laboratory for magistral preparations of the pharmacy from 1900 until around 1950.
EMPTY
Description
Strophanthus extract - Codex 1908
Early/ mid-20th century pharmacy jar in white earthenware
Beautiful labels: Red POISON label with the famous skull and crossbones and the Poisonous Substances label
Signaling to the pharmacist that it is imperative to keep apart the other substances in the cabinet of toxic substances, the famous poison cabinet.
Strophanthus is a tropical plant traditionally used as poison on poisoned arrows in Africa.
At the end of the 19th century, the chemist Léon Arnaud received from a famous traveler of the time, Bénédict-Henry Révoil, arrows coated with poison coming from Somalia.
In 1888, he isolated the element responsible for the effects of the poison, which he named ouabain, which became strophantine, a violent cardiac poison used for a time therapeutically as cardiotonic, but due to its toxicity, since abandoned in favor of more manageable synthetic molecules or digoxin.
In the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, this product was prescribed as a potent cardiac stimulant, mainly for treating acute heart failure and arrhythmias. It acted similar to digitalis, but with an action often considered faster.
But the strophantine tends to accumulate in the body if taken too close together. A patient who took his remedy without scrupulously following the prescription could, after a few days, reach unintentionally a total toxic dose in the blood, which led to a heart attack!
The perfect example of a product with a tiny therapeutic margin: the difference between the dose needed to save a failing heart and the toxic dose that stopped it was very (too much?) fine.
It comes from an old cellar-laboratory in a Parisian pharmacy. The bottles had not moved since the late 1950s on the shelves. The cellar had served as a laboratory for medical analyses and a laboratory for magistral preparations of the pharmacy from 1900 until around 1950.
Material: White earthenware, original metal lid
Dimensions: Height: 9.6 cm - Diameter: 7 cm
Period: Early 20th century
EMPTY
