part i

. 130.

[314] _Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series_, 1584-1660, Lond. 1860.

[315] O. Swartz, Trans. of the Linnean Soc., i. 96. See also Bonnet, _Monographie des Canellées_, 1876.

=Collection=—In the Bahamas, where the drug is known as _White-Wood Bark_ or _Cinnamon Bark_, it is collected thus:—preparatory to being stripped from the wood, the bark is gently beaten with a stick, which removes the suberous layer. By a further beating, the remaining bark is separated, and having been peeled off and dried, is exported without further preparation.[316]

=Description=—Canella bark occurs in the form of quills, more or less crooked and irregular, or in channelled pieces from 2 or 3 up to 6, 8, or more inches in length, ½ an inch to 1 or 2 inches in width, and a line or two in thickness. The suberous layer which here and there has escaped removal is silvery grey, and dotted with minute lichens. Commonly, the external surface consists of inner cellular layers (_mesophlœum_) of a bright buff, or light orange-brown tint, often a little wrinkled transversely, and dotted (but not always) with round scars. The inner surface is whitish or cinnamon-coloured, either smooth or with slight longitudinal striæ. Some parcels of canella show the bark much bruised and longitudinally fissured by the above-mentioned process of beating. The bark breaks transversely with a short granular fracture, which distinctly shows the three, or in uncoated specimens the two, cortical layers, that of the liber being the largest, and projecting by undulated rays or bundles into the middle layer, which presents numerous large and unevenly scattered oil-cells of a yellow colour.

Canella has an agreeable cinnamon-like odour, and a bitter, pungent acrid taste.[317] Even the corky coat is somewhat aromatic.

=Microscopical Structure=—The spongy suberous coat consists of very numerous layers of large cells with thin walls, showing an undulated rather than rectangular outline. The next small zone is constituted of sclerenchymatous cells in a single, double, or triple row, or forming dense but not very extensive groups. This tissue is sometimes (in unpeeled specimens) a continuous envelope, marking the boundary between the corky layer and the middle portion of the cellular layer; but an interruption in this thick-walled tissue often takes place when portions of it are enveloped and separated by the suberous layer.

The proper cellular envelope shows a narrow tissue with numerous very large cells filled with yellow essential oil. The liber forming the chief portion of the whole bark, exhibits thin prosenchymatous cells, which on traverse section form small bands of a peculiar horny or cartilaginous appearance, on which account they have been distinguished as _horny liber_ (_Hornbast_ of German writers).[318] The liber-fibres show reticulated marks due to the peculiar character of the secondary deposits on their cell-walls. The oil-cells in the liber are less numerous and smaller; the medullary rays are not very obvious unless on account of the crystalline tufts of oxalate of calcium deposited in the latter. This crystalline oxalate retains air obstinately, and has a striking dark appearance.

[316] Information communicated to me by the Hon. J. C. Lees, Chief-Justice of the Bahamas. The second beating would seem to be not always required.—D. H.

[317] A specimen in Sloane’s collection in the British Museum labelled “_Cortex Winteranus of the Isles_,” but under the microscope seen to be absolutely identical with canella alba, still retains its proper fragrance after nearly two centuries.—F. A. F.

[318] First figured and described by Oudemaus, —_Aanteekeningen op het ... Gedeelte der Pharm. Neerlandica_, 1854-56. 467.

=Chemical Composition=—The most interesting body in canella is the volatile oil, examined in 1843 under Wöhler’s direction by Meyer and von Reiche, who obtained it in the proportion of 0·94 from 100 parts of bark. They found it to consist of four different oils, the first being identical with the _Eugenol_ or _Eugenic Acid_ of oil of cloves; the second is closely allied to the chief constituent of cajuput oil. The other oils require further examination.[319]

The bark, of which we distilled 20 lb., afforded 0·74 per cent. of oil. This when distilled with caustic potash in excess was found to be composed of 2 parts of the acid portion and 1 part of the neutral hydrocarbon; the latter has an odour suggesting a mixture of peppermint and cajuput.

Meyer and von Reiche evaporated the aqueous decoction of canella, and removed from the bitter extract by alcohol 8 per cent. of mannite, which they ascertained to be the so-called _Canellin_ described in 1822 by Petroz and Robinet.

The bark yielded the German chemists 6 per cent. of ash, chiefly carbonate of calcium. The bitter principle has not yet been isolated. An aqueous infusion is not blackened by a persalt of iron.

=Commerce=—Canella alba is collected in the Bahama Islands and shipped to Europe from Nassau in New Providence, the chief seat of trade in the group. In 1876 the export of the bark amounted to 125 cwt.

=Uses=—The bark is an aromatic stimulant, now but seldom employed. It is used by the West Indian negroes as a condiment.

BIXINEÆ.

SEMEN GYNOCARDIÆ.

_Chaulmugra Seed._

=Botanical Origin=—_Gynocardia odorata_ R. Br. (_Chaulmoogra_ Roxb., _Hydnocarpus_ Lindl.), a large tree[320] with a globular fruit of the size of a shaddock, containing numerous seeds immersed in pulp. It grows in the forests of the Malayan peninsula and Eastern India as far north as Assam, extending thence along the base of the Himalaya westward to Sikkim.

=History=—The inhabitants of the south-eastern countries of Asia have long been acquainted with the seeds of certain trees of the tribe _Pangieæ_ (ord. _Bixineæ_) as a remedy for maladies of the skin. In China a seed called _Ta-fung-tsze_ is imported from Siam[321] where it is known as _Lukrabo_ and used in a variety of cutaneous complaints. The tree affording it, which is figured in the _Pun-tasao_ (_circa_ A.D. 1596) has not been recognised by botanists, but from the structure of the seed it is obviously closely related to _Gynocardia_.[322]

[319] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xiv. (1860) 210.

[320] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Medic. Plants_, part. 26 (1877). Also in Christy, _New Commercial Plants_, No. 2 (1878).

[321] The _Commercial Report from H. M. Consul-General in Siam for the year 1871_, presented to Parliament, Aug. 1872, states that 48 peculs (6400 lb.) of _Lukrabow seeds_ were exported from Bangkok to China in 1871. Sir Joseph Hooker (_Report on the Royal Gardens at Kew_, 1877, p. 33) has been informed by Mr. Pierre, the director of the Botanic Garden at Saigon, Cochin China, that the seeds have proved to derive from a Hydnocarpus (Gynocardia).—See also our article Semen Ignatii and _Science Papers_, p. 235.

[322] Hanbury, _Notes on Chinese Mat. Med._ (1862) 23.—_Science Papers_, 244. Dr. Porter Smith assumes the Chinese drug to be derived from _G. odorata_, but as I have pointed out, the seeds have a much stronger testa than those of that tree.—D. H.

The properties of _G. odorata_ were known to Roxburgh who, Latinizing the Indian name of the tree, called it (1814) _Chaulmoogra odorata_. Of late years the seeds have attracted the notice of Europeans in India, and having been found useful in certain skin diseases, they have been admitted a place in the _Pharmacopœia of India_.

=Description=—The seeds, 1 to 1¼ inches long and about half as much in diameter, are of irregular ovoid form, and more or less angular or flattened by mutual pressure; they weigh on an average about 35 grains each. The testa is thin (about ¹/₅₀ of an inch), brittle, smooth, dull grey; within there is a brown oily kernel, marked with a darker colour at its basal end. The weight of the kernel is, on an average, twice that of the testa. The former encloses in its copious, soft albumen a pair of large, plain, leafy, heart-shaped cotyledons with a stout radicle. The taste of the kernel is simply oily.

=Microscopic Structure=—The testa is chiefly formed of cylindrical thick-walled cells. The albumen exhibits large angular cells containing fatty oil, masses of albuminous matter and tufted crystals of calcium oxalate. Starch is not present.

=Chemical Composition=—The kernels afforded us by means of ether 51·5 per cent. of fatty oil, which is almost colourless or somewhat brownish if the seeds are not fresh. Either extracted or expressed it is of no peculiar taste. The pressed oil concretes at 17° C.; that extracted by ether or bisulphide of carbon requires for solidification a lower temperature. The expressed oil is slightly fluorescent, less so that extracted by means of bisulphide of carbon. If the oil, either pressed or extracted, is diluted with the bisulphide, and then concentrated sulphuric or nitric acid is added, no peculiar coloration is produced.

From the powdered kernels deprived of oil, water removes the usual constituents, glucose, mucilage and albumin.

=Uses=—The seeds are said to have been advantageously used as an alternative tonic in scrofula, skin diseases and rheumatism. They should be freed from the testa, powdered, and given in the dose of 6 grains gradually increased. Reduced to a paste and mixed with Simple Ointment, they constitute the _Unguentum Gynocardiæ_ of the _Indian Pharmacopœia_, which, as well as an expressed oil of the seeds may be employed externally in herpes, tinea, &c.[323]

[323] For particulars see Christy’s pamphlet alluded to above, p. 75.

=Substitute=—It has been suggested that the seeds of _Hydnocarpus Wightiana_ Bl., a tree of Western India, and of _H. venenata_ Gärtn., native of Ceylon, might be tried where those of _Gynocardia_ are not procurable. The seeds of both species of _Hydnocarpus_ (formerly confounded together as _H. inebrians_ Vahl) afford a fatty oil which the natives use in cutaneous diseases.[324]

POLYGALEÆ.

RADIX SENEGÆ.

_Radix Senekæ_; _Senega or Seneka Root_; F. _Racine de Polygala de Virginie_; G. _Senegawurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Polygala Senega_ L., a perennial plant with slender ascending stems 6 to 12 inches high, and spikes of dull white flowers resembling in form those of the Common Milkwort of Britain. It is found in British America as far north as the river Saskatchewan, and in the United States from New England to Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and the upper parts of North Carolina, as well as in Georgia and Texas, not in the Rocky Mountains.

The plant, which frequents rocky open woods and plains, has become somewhat scarce in the Atlantic states, and as a drug is now chiefly collected in the west, the plant growing profusely in Iowa and Minnesota, west of New York.

=History=—The employment of this root among the Seneca Indians as a remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake attracted the notice of Tennent, a Scotch physician in Virginia; and from the good effects he witnessed he concluded that it might be administered with advantage in pleurisy and peripneumonia. The result of numerous trials made in the years 1734 and 1735 proved the utility of the drug in these complaints, and Tennent communicated his observations to the celebrated Dr. Mead of London in the form of an epistle, afterwards published together with an engraving of the plant, then called the _Seneca Rattlesnake Root_.[325] Tennent’s practice was to administer the root in powder or as a strong decoction, or more often infused in wine. The new drug was favourably received in Europe, and its virtues discussed in numerous theses and dissertations, one written in 1749 being by Linnæus.[326]

=Description=—Senega root is developed at its upper end into a knotty crown, in old roots as much as an inch in diameter, from which spring the numerous wiry aerial stems, beset at the base with scaly rudimentary leaves often of a purplish hue. Below the crown is a simple tap-root ²/₁₀ to ³/₁₀ of an inch thick, of contorted or somewhat spiral form, which usually soon divides into 2 or 3 spreading branches and smaller filiform rootlets.

[324] Waring, _Pharm. of India_, 1868. 27.

[325] Tennent (John), _Epistle to Dr. Richard Mead concerning the epidemical diseases of Virginia_, &c., Edinb. 1738.

[326] _Amœnitates Academicæ_, ii. 126.

The bark is light yellowish-grey, translucent, horny, shrivelled, knotted and partially annulated. Very frequently a keel-shaped ridge occurs, running like a shrunken sinew through the principal root; it has no connexion with the wood, but originates in a one-sided development of the liber-tissue. The bark encloses a pure, white woody column about as thick as itself. After the root has been macerated in water the bark is easily peeled off, and the peculiar structure of the wood can then be studied. The latter immediately below the crown is a cylindrical cord, cleft however by numerous, fine, longitudinal fissures. Lower down these fissures increase in an irregular manner, causing a very abnormal development of the wood. Transverse sections of a root therefore differ greatly, the circular wood portion being either penetrated by clefts or wide notches, or one-half or even more is altogether wanting, the space where wood should exist being in each case filled up by uniform parenchymatous tissue.

Senega root has a short brittle fracture, a peculiar rancid odour, and a very acrid and sourish taste. When handled it disperses in irritating dust.

=Microscopic Structure=—The woody part is built up of dotted vessels surrounded by short porous ligneous cells; the medullary rays consist of one or two rows of the usual small cells. There is no pith in the centre of the root. The clefts and notches are filled up with an uniform tissue passing into the primary cortical tissue without a distinct liber; the large cells of this tissue are spirally striated. In the keel-shaped rider the proper liber rays may be distinguished from the medullary rays. The former are made up of a soft tissue, hence the cortical part of the root breaks short together with the wood.

Neither starch granules nor crystals of oxalate of calcium are present in this root; the chief contents of its tissue are albuminoid granules and drops of fatty oil.

=Chemical Composition=—The substance to which the drug owes its irritating taste was distinguished by the name of _Senegin_ by Gehlen as early as 1804, and is probably the same as the _Polygalic Acid_ of Quevenne (1836) and of Procter (1859). Christophsohn (1874) extracted it by means of boiling water, evaporated the solution and exhausted the residue with boiling alcohol (0·853 sp. gr.). The liquid after a day or two, deposits the crude senegin, which is to be washed with alcohol (0·813 sp. gr.), and again dissolved in water, from which it is precipitated by a large excess of hydrate of baryum. The barytic compound, dissolved in water, is decomposed by carbonic acid, by which carbonate of baryum is separated, senegin remaining in solution. It is lastly to be precipitated by alcohol. It is amorphous, insoluble in ether and in cold water; it forms with boiling water a frothing solution. Like saponin, to which it is very closely allied, it excites violent sneezing.

Dilute inorganic acids added to a warm solution of senegin throw down a flocculent jelly of _Sapogenin_, the liquid retaining in solution uncrystallizable sugar. Alkalis give rise to the same decomposition; but it is difficult to split up the senegin completely, and hence the formulas given for this process are doubtful. Even the formula of senegin itself is not definitely settled. According to Christophsohn, the root yields about 2 per cent. of this substance; according to earlier authorities, who doubtless had it less pure, a much larger proportion. From Schneider’s investigations (1875) it would appear that the rootlets are richest in senegin.

Senega root contains a little volatile oil, traces of resin, also gum, salts of malic acid, yellow colouring matter, and sugar (7 per cent. according to Rebling, 1855). The _Virginic Acid_ said by Quevenne to be contained in it, and the bitter substance _Isolusin_ mentioned by Peschier, are doubtful bodies.

=Uses=—Senega is prescribed as a stimulating expectorant and diuretic, useful in pneumonia, asthma and rheumatism. It is much esteemed in America.

=Adulteration=—The drug is not liable to be wilfully falsified, but through careless collecting there is occasionally a slight admixture of other roots. One of these is American Ginseng (_Panax quinquefolium_ L.) a spindle-shaped root which may be found here and there both in senega and serpentaria. The rhizome of _Cypripedium pubescens_ Willd. has also been noticed; it cannot be confounded with that of _Polygala Senega_. The same may be said with regard to the rhizome of _Cynanchum Vincetoxicum_ R. Brown (_Asclepias_ L., _Vincetoxicum officinale_ Mönch).

RADIX KRAMERIÆ.

_Radix Ratanhiæ_, _Rhatanhiæ v. Rathaniæ_; _Rhatany or Rhatania Root, Peruvian or Payta Rhatany_; F. _Racine de Ratanhia_; G. _Ratanhiawurzel_.[327]

=Botanical Origin=—_Krameriæ triandra_ Ruiz et Pav., a small woody shrub with an upright stem scarcely a foot high and thick decumbent branches 2 to 3 feet long.[328] It delights in the barren sandy declivities of the Bolivian and Peruvian Cordilleras at 3000 to 8000 feet above the sea-level, often occurring in great abundance and adorning the ground with its red star-like flowers and silver-grey foliage.

The root is gathered chiefly to the north, north-east, and east of Lima, as at Caxatambo, Huanuco, Tarma, Jauja, Huarochiri and Canta; occasionally on the high lands about lake Titicaca. It appears likewise to be collected in the northern part of Peru, since the drug is now frequently shipped from Payta.

=History=—Hipolito Ruiz,[329] the Spanish botanist, observed in 1784 that the women of Huanuco and Lima were in the habit of using for the preservation of their teeth a root which he recognized as that of _Krameria triandra_, a plant discovered by himself in 1779. On his return to Europe he obtained admission for this root into Spain in 1796, whence it was gradually introduced into other countries of Europe.

The first supplies which reached England formed part of the cargo of a Spanish prize, and were sold in the London drug sales at the commencement of the present century. Some fell into the hands of Dr. Reece who recommended it to the profession.[330]

About 20 years ago there appeared in the European market some other kinds of rhatany previously unknown: of these the more important are noticed at pp. 81, 82.

[327] Ruiz and Pavon state that the root is called at Huanuco _ratanhia_. The derivation of the word which is of the Quichua language is obscure.

[328] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Medicinal Plants_,