part 18

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[439] The root of a _Zanthoxylum_ sent to us from Java by Mr. Binnendyk of the Buitenzorg Botanical Garden has exactly the aspect of that of _Toddalia_. The root of _Z. Bungei_ which we have examined in the fresh state is also completely similar. It is covered with a soft, corky, yellow bark having a very bitter taste with a strong pungency like that of pellitory.

[440] _Esperienze intorno a diverse cote naturali_, Firenze, 1671. 121.

[441] Oliver, _Flor. of Trop. Africa_, i. (1868) 307.

[442] _Adversaria_, Leidae, p. 78.

[443] Our friend Dr. de Vry informs us that he remembers the price in Holland in 1828 being equivalent to about 24_s._ the ounce!

=Description=—The specimen of the root of _Toddalia aculeata_ which we have examined was collected for us by Dr. G. Bidie of Madras whose statements regarding the stimulant and tonic action of the drug may be found in the _Pharmacopœia of India_, p. 442. It is a dense woody root in cylindrical, flexuous pieces, which have evidently been of considerable length and are from ½ to 1½ inches in diameter, covered with bark ⅒ to ¹/₁₂ of an inch in thickness. The bark has a soft, dull yellowish, suberous coat, wrinkled longitudinally, beneath which is a very thin layer of a bright yellow colour, and still lower and constituting two-thirds or more of the whole, is the firm, brown middle cortical layer and liber, which is the part chiefly possessing the characteristic pungency and bitterness of the drug. The yellow corky coat is however not devoid of bitterness. The wood is hard, of a pale yellow, and without taste and smell. The pores of the wood, which are rather large, are arranged in concentric order and traversed by numerous narrow medullary rays.

In a letter which Frappier[444] wrote to Guibourt from the island of Réunion where _Toddalia aculeata_ is very common, he states that the roots of the plant are of enormous length (_longueur incroyable_) and rather difficult to get out of the basaltic rock into the fissures of which they penetrate. Mr. J. Horne of the Botanical Garden, Mauritius, has sent us a specimen of the root of this plant, the bark of which is of a dusky brown, with the suberous layer but little developed.

=Microscopic Structure=—We have examined the root for which we are indebted to Dr. Bidie, and may state that its cortical tissue is remarkable by the number of large cells filled with resin and essential oil; they are scattered through the whole tissue, the cork excepted. The parenchymatous cells are loaded with small starch granules or with crystals of oxalate of calcium. The vessels of younger roots abound in yellow resin.

=Chemical Composition=—None of the constituents of the Toddalia root of India have yet been satisfactorily examined. The bark contains an essential oil, which would be better extracted from fresh than from dry material. The tissue of the bark is but little coloured by salts of iron. In the aqueous infusion, tannic acid produces an abundant precipitate, probably of an indifferent bitter principle rather than of an alkaloid. We have been unable to detect the presence in the bark of berberine.

Lopez root was examined in Wittstein’s laboratory by Schnitzer[445] who found that the bark contains in addition to the usual substances a large proportion of resin,—a mixture probably of two or three different bodies. The essential oil afforded by the bark had an odour resembling cinnamon and melissa.

=Uses=—The drug has been introduced into the _Pharmacopœia of India_ chiefly upon the recommendation of Dr. Bidie of Madras, who considers it of great value as a stimulating tonic. The bark rasped or shaved from the woody root is the only part that should be used.

[444] _Journ. de Phar._ v. (1867) 403.

[445] Wittstein’s _Vierteljahresschrift für prakt. Pharm._ xi. (1862) i.—The drug examined was the Lopez root sold at that period at Amsterdam.

FOLIA PILOCARPI.

_Folia Jaborandi_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Pilocarpus pennatifolius_[446] Lemaire, a slightly branched shrub, attaining about 10 feet in height. It is distributed through the eastern provinces of Brazil.

_Pilocarpus Selloanus_[447] Engler, occurring in Southern Brazil and Paraguay, appears to be not considerably different from _P. pennatifolius_.

=History=—Piso[448] recommended an infusion made with Ipecacuanha and Jaborandi. Plumier,[449] who also mentioned this, figured under the name of Jaborandi two plants of the order Piperaceæ. The introduction of the leaves of _Pilocarpus pennatifolius_ into medical use is due to Dr. Coutinho of Pernambuco, 1874. The plant has been cultivated in European greenhouses since about the year 1847; we have repeatedly seen it flowering at Strassburg. Baillon in 1875 showed the fragments of Jaborandi as supplied by Coutinho to belong to _P. pennatifolius_, which had been described in 1852 by Lemaire. Holmes (1875) in examining the drug as imported from Pernambuco came to the same conclusion.

=Description=—The leaves of the species under examination are long-stalked, imparipennate, the opposite leaflets in 2 to 5, in cultivated plants most commonly in 2 pairs, the terminal one longer stalked, while the others are provided with a petiole attaining 1½ inch in length or remaining much shorter. The whole leaf is frequently 1½ feet long, the leaflets being often as much as 5 inches long by 2 inches wide. The latter are entire oblong, tapering or rounded at the base, tapering or obtuse or even emarginate at the apex. The leaflets are coriaceous, with a slightly revolute margin and a prominent midrib below. In transmitted light they show very numerous pellucid oil-glands.

The taste of the leaves of Pilocarpus is at first bitterish and aromatic; they subsequently produce a tingling sensation in the mouth and an abundant flow of saliva.

=Microscopic Structure=[450]—The oil-glands consist of large cells of the same structure as those occurring generally in the leaves of Rutaceæ, Aurantiaceæ, Myrtaceæ. In Pilocarpus they are largely distributed in the tissue covered on both sides of the leaf by the epidermis; the oil-cells are also abundantly met with in the petiole and in the bark of the stems and branches.

=Chemical Composition=—The active principle of Jaborandi is the alkaloid _Pilocarpine_, C₂₃H₃₅N₄O₄ + 4OH₂, discovered in 1875 by Hardy. It is an amorphous soft mass, but yielding crystallized salts, among which the hydrochlorate and the nitrate are now more frequently used than the drug itself. The leaves afford about ½ per cent. of the nitrate.

[446] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_,