Ipecac

ip-e-kak, the dried root of a South American shrub. The shrub belongs to the cinchona family. The plant grows wild, chiefly in the damp, shady woods of Brazil. The root is offered for sale by the Indians. Unless some means of preserving ipecac be taken it will follow the fate of ginseng. The plant has disappeared already from the vicinity of towns. In its purer form, prepared from the bark of the root, ipecac is a white powder. Ipecac is a standard remedy. It is a prompt emetic and is the chief constituent of Dover's powder.