Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An alkaloid obtained from the Calabar bean, Physostigma venenosum, assumed by some authorities to be identical with physostigmine.

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

  • noun (Chem.) An alkaloid found in the Calabar bean, and the seed of Physostigma venenosum; physostigmine. It is used in ophthalmic surgery for its effect in contracting the pupil.

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

  • noun chemistry Physostigmine.

Etymologies

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

[Efik esere, Calabar bean + –ine.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From éséré, West African name for the Calabar bean.

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Examples

  • Today, when we know that oculomotor stimulation releases AC. Ch., the action of eserine is revealed as being simply to increase the effect of the Ac.Ch. by inhibiting that of the esterase, and Anderson's results become absolutely clear.

    Otto Loewi - Nobel Lecture 1965

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

    Brief Look at Glaucoma 2008

  • It was imperative that this sort of dilation, which could eventually trigger a certain amount of suspicion, be compensated with eserine which, in turn, causes an opposite contraction within the pupil.

    Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2003

  • It was imperative that this sort of dilation, which could eventually trigger a certain amount of suspicion, be compensated with eserine which, in turn, causes an opposite contraction within the pupil.

    Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2003

  • Hitherto the conception of chemical transmission at nerve endings and neuronal synapses, originating in Loewi's discovery, and with the extension that the work of my colleagues has been able to give to it, can claim one practical result, in the specific, though alas only short, alleviation of the condition of myasthenia gravis, by eserine and its synthetic analogues.

    Sir Henry Dale - Nobel Lecture 1965

  • The effects of eserine, on the transmission of excitation in the ganglion, are complicated by a paralyzing action of this alkaloid on the ganglion cells, and still need further elucidation.

    Sir Henry Dale - Nobel Lecture 1965

  • With the start of regeneration of the oculomotor nerve the Ac.Ch. appears again, but in too small quantities to cause miosis with light stimulus alone, i.e. without the increased activity provided by eserine.

    Otto Loewi - Nobel Lecture 1965

  • The basal ganglia of the brain are peculiarly rich in acetylcholine, the presence of which must presumably have some significance; and suggestive effects of eserine and of acetylcholine, injected into the ventricles of the brain, have been described.

    Sir Henry Dale - Nobel Lecture 1965

  • On the one hand, this eserine action provided a means of revealing the minimal quantities of Ac.Ch. being released by nerve stimulation which would otherwise, because of their rapid destructibility, have remained undisclosed.

    Otto Loewi - Nobel Lecture 1965

  • It has been proved that when the breaking up of the Ac.Ch. by an esterase, is inhibited by eserine, the Ac.Ch. penetrates with the blood to other organs in sufficient quantities to cause activity.

    Otto Loewi - Nobel Lecture 1965

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