Thuja

THUJA, Thuja occidentalis L., a plant of the pine family (Coniferae), a wild-growing tree in the swampy places of Canada and the USA. In the Caucasus, Thuja occidentalis grows, and in the Crimea, Thuja orientalis L. The tops (Summitates Thujae) and leaves (Folia arboris vitae) are gathered. The odor of the preparation is strongly balsamic, the taste is spicy and bitter. Thuja contains a fatty oil somewhat similar to turpentine, resin, sugar, citric acid, tannin, the glycoside thujin, C₂₀H₂₂O₁₂, in the form of lemon-yellow plates soluble in water and alcohol; thujic acid, C₁₂H₁₂O₃, insoluble in water and alcohol; thujigemin, thujetin, C₁₄H₁₄O₆, and a volatile substance pini-picrin, C₂₂H₃₈O₁₁, contained in amounts from 0.5% to 1%. The essential oil is yellowish-green in color, with a camphoraceous odor and bitter taste. It contains: d-alpha-pinene, l-fenchone, C₁₀H₁₆O, l-borneol, and d-thujone, C₁₀H₁₆O. The yield of essential oil from fresh leaves is 0.12–3.07%. According to Hildebrandt, fenchone and thujone have an excitatory effect on the heart muscle. Thuja leaves, formerly used against fever and rheumatism, are no longer used as such; instead, a liquid extract or tincture prepared from them (100 parts to 120 parts of wine alcohol) is used externally for condylomas, epitheliomas, etc. (the juice against warts). There is information that when the tincture is taken internally for enuresis and menstruation, an effect similar to Hydrastis was obtained (dose 1–3 g). The essential oil is used against worms. F. K. Bailey notes a case of poisoning with symptoms of convulsive phenomena after taking 16 drops of the essential oil.