physostigmine

English

Etymology

From German Physostigmin, corresponding to genus name Physostigma +‎ -ine.

Noun

physostigmine (countable and uncountable, plural physostigmines)

  1. (chemistry) A parasympathomimetic, a reversible cholinesterase inhibitor alkaloid of the Calabar bean, used to treat certain medical conditions. [from 19th c.]
    • 1985, Wade Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Simon & Schuster, p. 40:
      The substance is physostigmine, a drug first isolated from the Calabar bean (Physostigmine venenosum), a climbing liana that grows in swampy coastal areas of West Africa from Sierra Leone south and east as far as the Cameroons.
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