Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A colorless or yellow poisonous compound, C11H16N2O2, obtained from the leaves of the jaborandi and used to induce sweating, promote salivation, and treat glaucoma.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An alkaloid (C11H16N2O2) isolated from pilocarpus, which it resembles in its medicinal properties.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem.) An alkaloid extracted from jaborandi (Pilocarpus pennatifolius) as a white amorphous or crystalline substance which has a peculiar effect on the vasomotor system.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biochemistry A muscarinic alkaloid obtained from the leaves of tropical American shrubs from the genus Pilocarpus.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun cholinergic alkaloid used in eyedrops to treat glaucoma

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin Pīlocarpus, jaborandi genus (Greek pīlos, wool, felt + Greek karpos, fruit; see –carp) + –ine.]

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Examples

  • The team measured the subjects 'responses to a drug called pilocarpine, which induces sweat and saliva production, and another which constricts the airways in people with exercise-induced asthma.

    Sweaty people 'less prone to asthma' 2008

  • Doctors use such drugs as pilocarpine and eserine to treat Glaucoma.

    Brief Look at Glaucoma 2008

  • He returned to the lab and cooked up a brew consisting of some exotic poisons: atropine (a naturally occurring alkaloid of atropia belladonna or deadly nightshade), sparteine (a compound derived from the European shrub Scotch broom, Cytisus scoparius), and pilocarpine hydrochloride (an alkaloid found in the leaves of a South American shrub, Pilocarpus jaborandi).

    The Very Nutty Professor 2005

  • Emetine creates nausea within five to eight minutes; pilocarpine contracts the pyloric sphincter and inhibits the emptying of the stomach into the duodenum; and ephedrine controls blood pressure fluctuations.

    Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

  • Emetine creates nausea within five to eight minutes; pilocarpine contracts the pyloric sphincter and inhibits the emptying of the stomach into the duodenum; and ephedrine controls blood pressure fluctuations.

    Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

  • In a similar manner, if yet not so intensely, operated saltpeter and coffeine, as also urea and pilocarpine.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 586, March 26, 1887 Various

  • Hypodermic injections of strychnine, eserine, or pilocarpine are useful in the treatment of this disease.

    Common Diseases of Farm Animals R. A. Craig

  • We must encourage the elimination of waste products by way of the skin in the larger animals by vigorous rubbing, blanketing and the administration of such drugs as pilocarpine.

    Common Diseases of Farm Animals R. A. Craig

  • _ -- Wash out the stomach freely; a hypodermic injection of apomorphine as an emetic, followed by hypodermic injections of pilocarpine or morphine.

    Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

  • It is worthy of trial in tetanic and eclamptic seizures, and in tonic angiospasms such as occur during the chill of malarial fevers, although in the last-mentioned condition pilocarpine is perhaps more suitable, provided the energy of the heart be unimpaired.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 299, September 24, 1881 Various

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