Famous tranquillizer plant of India, where for 3,000 years it has been used to treat mental illness. Long ignored by the West until the 1950s. Today highly valued in medicine for its powerful hypnotic and sedative properties.
Indian snakeroot shrub from which is derived reserpine, the first major tranquilizer used as an antipsychotic drug.
A tranquillising drug extracted from the plant Rauwolfia serpentine, sometimes used to treat high blood pressure.
Any of several alkaloids, including reserpine from the Rauwolfia serpentina shrub of Asia, used chiefly to treat hypertension.
The dried root of the shrub Rauwolfia serpentina, which contains several alkaloids, including reserpine. Rauwolfia and its alkaloids lower blood pressure and depress activity of the central nervous system. They were formerly used as tranquilizers in the treatment of mental illness but have been replaced by more effective and reliable drugs. Rauwolfia is still sometimes used to lower blood pressure.
The dried roots of a tropical shrub of the family Apocynaceae, whose extracts are potent hypotensive and sedative drugs. Derivatives include reserpine, serpentine, and serpentinine.