Aspidium

Farn-krautSl, n. fern oil. -wurzel, /. (Pharm.) aspidium. 

Aspidium falcatum Sw. (Syn. Dryopteris crassirhizoma) Guan Zhong (Wood fem) (whole plant) Filicic acid, tannins, essential oil.49 This herb is slightly toxic. Anthelmintic, hemostatic, antidote. 

N.A. Aspidium filix-mis (L.) Schott. Oleo-resin, triterpenes, alkanes, volatile oil, resins.99 Treat tapeworms. 

Dryopteris crassirhizoma Nakai, D. crassirhizoma Nakai, Aspidium falcatum Sw. 

A. officinalis, Aspidium falcatum, A. gmelini, Atractylis chinensis, A. lancea, A. lyrata, A. ovata, Atractylodes lancea, Bidens bipinnata, B. parviflora, Biota chinensis, B. orientalis, Bletilla hyacinthina,... 

Aspidium falcatum, Dryopteris crassirhizoma, D. laeta, D. filix-mas, Pteris cretica, P. ensiformis,... 

Aspidium filix-mis, Dryopteris filix-mas, D. filix-mas, Euphorbia hirta, Galium verum... 

Achillea millefolium, Anethum graveoleus, Aspidium filix-mis, Aster tataricus, Calendula officinalis, Dryopteris filix-mas, Inula britannica, I.japonica, Lycopodium clavatum, L. obscurum, Myrica cerifera, M. penxylvanica, Peucedanum graveolens, Sambucus nigra, S. canadensis Melia azedarach... 

LIFE HISTORY OF THE MALE FERN [DRYOPTERIS (ASPIDIUM OR NEPHRODIUM) FILIX-MAS]... 

Tbe Male Fern along with the Marginal Fern Dryopteris margin-alis) have long been known to the pharmaceutical and medical professions as the source of the drug Aspidium, a most valuable remedy for the expulsion of tapeworm. The parts of these plants employed are the rhizome and stipes which are collected in autumn, freed of the roots and dead portions and dried at a temperature not exceeding 7o°C. 

Dryopteris marginalis, one of the ferns whose rhizome and stipes constitute the drug, Aspidium. 

The tapeworm infection is a widespread helminth disease which has attracted the attention of native practitioners and physicians. The first so called "effective" herbal preparation for eradicating tapeworms from humans became available in 1775 known as "Madame Nauffer s Tapeworm Cure" [1]. The active ingredient of this remedy was male fern. Since then the extract of the rhizome of male fern (Dryop-terisfilix mas), called aspidium oleoresin, has been used as a folk remedy and also as a drug in clinical medicine to treat tapeworm infections in humans. 

Although a number of natural products have enjoyed wide usage in the treatment of various helminth diseases of man and domestic animals prior to 1960, with the advent of more effective and safer synthetic anthelmintics most of them were eventually abandoned and are now of historical value only [52]. For example, santonin was included in 25th edition of the United States Dispensary (1955), but was removed from the U.S. Medical Compendium of National Formulary (1960). Similarly, aspidium oleoresin was included in the U.S. Pharmacopeia of 1960 and the full clinical usage of this drug was available in the U.S. Dispensary only until 1973 [1]. This makes the description of SAR and synthesis of most of the anthelmintic natural products less meaningful and is, therefore, not discussed in the present text. However, the SAR profile of avermectins and milbemycins is discussed, of which the former have in recent years been used extensively in the treatment of onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis in humans [20]. 

Aspidium filixmas. Native plant of Europe. Extract of the root used to treat tapeworm 45 g extract said to be fatal for an adult, 7-10 g for a child. Active component filicic acid. Pain, heaviness of limbs, faintness, somnolence, dilated pupils, albuminuria, lockjaw, collapse. In animals dragging of legs, salivation, dyspnoea. Widespread oedema and congestion of lung, brain, liver, spleen. 

Aspidium. Male fern male shield-fern filix mas (B.P.). Rhizome and stipes of Dryopteris filix-mas (L.) Schott., Foiypodiaeeae. Habit. North America, Northern Asia. Europe. Northern Africa. Constit. Filicic and flav-aspidic acids, volatile oil, ashaspidin, filicin. filmaron. fiI Lx red, resin. It yields not less than 6.5% oleoresin (U.S.P.)... 

Oleoresin of Aspidium. Oleoresin of male fern. An ether extract of male fern containing not less than 24% crude filicin. 

Filicinic acid Anthelminthic Fern (Aspidium fiiix mas)... 

The suffix letters denote the side-chains (A = acetyl, P = propionyl, B = butyryl). Constits. of Dryopteris and Aspidium spp. ferns. Albaspidin 1 was a mixt. of BB, PB and PP. Albaspidin 2 was a mixt. of AB and AP. The various albaspidins disproportionate under mildly alkaline conds. 

The alphabetical suffixes refer to the acyl sustituents (A = acetyl, P = propionyl, B = butyryl). Isol. from ferns Dryopteris and Aspidium spp. 

Common/vernacular names European aspidium and male fern (D. filix-mas) American aspidium and marginal fern (D. marginalis). 

---