part 11

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[505] In the Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg in Java, three varieties are grown, namely—_fructibus oblongis_, _fructibus subglobosis_, and _macrocarpa_.

[506] We are indebted to Professor Monier Williams of Oxford for pointing out to us many references to _Bilva_ in the Sanskrit writings.

Garcia de Orta, who resided in India as physician to the Portuguese viceroy at Goa in the 16th century, wrote an account of the fruit under the name of _Marmelos de Benguala_ (Bengal Quince) _Cirifole_ or _Beli_[507], describing its use in dysentery.

In the following century it was noticed by Bontius, in whose writings edited by Piso[508] there is a bad figure of the tree as _Malum Cydonium_. It was also figured by Rheede,[509] and subsequently under the designation of _Bilack_ or _Bilack tellor_ by Rumphius.[510] The latter states that it is indigenous to Gujarat, the eastern parts of Java, Sumbawa and Celebes, and that it has been introduced into Amboina.

But although _Ægle Marmelos_ has thus been long known and appreciated in India, the use of its fruit as a medicine attracted no attention in Europe till about the year 1850. The dried fruit which has a place in the _British Pharmacopœia_ is now not unfrequently imported.

=Description=—We have already described the form and structure of the fruit, which for medicinal use should be dried when in a half ripe state. It is found in commerce in dried slices having on the outer side a smooth greyish shell enclosing a hard, orange or red, gummy pulp in which are some of the 10 to 15 cells existing in the entire fruit. Each cell includes 6 to 10 compressed oblong seeds nearly 3 lines in length, covered with whitish woolly hairs. When broken the pulp is seen to be nearly colourless internally, the outside alone having assumed an orange tint. The dried pulp has a mucilaginous, slightly acid taste, without aroma, astringency, or sweetness.

There is also imported Bael fruit which has been collected when ripe, as shown by the well-formed seeds. Such fruits arrive broken irregularly and dried, or sawn into transverse slices and then dried, or lastly entire, in which case they retain some of their original fragrance resembling that of elemi.

=Microscopic Structure=—The rind of the fruit is covered with a strong cuticle, and further shows two layers, the one exhibiting not very numerous oil-cells, and the other an inner made up of sclerenchyme. The tissue of the pulp, which, treated with water, swells into an elastic mass, consists of large cells with considerable cavities between them. The seeds when moistened yield an abundance of mucilage nearly in the same way as White Mustard or Linseed. In the epidermis of the seeds certain groups of cells are excessively lengthened, and thus constitute the curious woolly hairs already noticed. They likewise afford mucilage in the same way as the seed itself.

=Chemical Composition=—We are unable to confirm the remarkable analyses of the drug alluded to in the _Pharmacopœia of India_;[511] nor can we explain by any chemical examination upon what constituent the alleged medicinal efficacy of bael depends.

[507] _Sirí-phal_ and _Bel_ are Hindustani names.—See also Flückiger, _Documente_, 29.

[508] _De Indiæ re nat. et med._ 1658, lib. vi. c. 8.

[509] _Hort. Malab._ iii. (1682) tab. 37 (Covalam).

[510] _Herb. Amb._ i. tab. 81.

[511] Edition 1868, pp. 46 and 441.

The pulp moistened with cold water yields a red liquid containing chiefly mucilage, and (probably) pectin which separates if the liquid is concentrated by evaporation. The mucilage may be precipitated by neutral acetate of lead or by alcohol, but is not coloured by iodine. It may be separated by a filter into a portion truly soluble (as proved by the addition of alcohol or acetate of lead), and another, comprehending the larger bulk, which is only swollen like tragacanth, but is far more glutinous and completely transparent.

Neither a per-nor a proto-salt of iron shows the infusion to contain any appreciable quantity of tannin,[512] nor is the drug in any sense possessed of astringent properties.

=Uses=—Bael is held in high repute in India as a remedy for dysentery and diarrhœa; at the same time it is said to act as a laxative where constipation exists.

=Adulteration=—The fruit of _Feronia Elephantum_ Correa, which has a considerable external resemblance to that of _Ægle Marmelos_ and is called by Europeans _Wood Apple_, is sometimes supplied in India for bael. It may be easily distinguished: it is _one-celled_ with a large five-lobed cavity (instead of 10 to 15 cells) filled with numerous seeds. The tree has pinnate leaves with 2 or 3 pairs of leaflets. We have seen _Pomegranate Peel_ offered as _Indian Bael_.[513]

SIMARUBEÆ.

LIGNUM QUASSIÆ.

_Quassia_, _Quassia Wood_, _Bitter Wood_; F. _Bois de Quassia de la Jamaïque_, _Bois amer_; G. _Jamaica Quassiaholz_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Picræna excelsa_ Lindl. (_Quassia excelsa_ Swartz, _Simaruba excelsa_ DC., _Picrasma excelsa_ Planchon), a tree 50 to 60 feet in height, somewhat resembling an ash and having inconspicuous greenish flowers and black shining drupes the size of a pea. It is common on the plains and lower mountains of Jamaica, and is also found in the islands of Antigua and St. Vincent. It is called in the West Indies _Bitter Wood_ or _Bitter Ash_.

=History=—Quassia wood was introduced into Europe about the middle of the last century. It was derived from _Quassia amara_ L., a shrub or small tree with handsome crimson flowers, belonging to the same order, native of Panama, Venezuela, Guiana, and Northern Brazil. It was subsequently found that the _Bitter Wood_ of Jamaica which Swartz and other botanists referred to the same genus, possessed similar properties, and as it was obtainable of much larger size, it has since the end of the last century been generally preferred. The wood of _Q. amara_, called _Surinam Quassia_, is however still used in France and Germany.[514]

[512] We are thus at variance with Collas of Pondichéry, who attributes to the ripe fruit 5 _per cent. of tannin_.—_Hist. nat. etc. du Bel ou Vilva_ in _Revue Coloniale_, xvi. (1856) 220-238.

[513] 40 bags in a drug sale, 8th May, 1873.

[514] The _Pharmacopœa Germanica_ of 1872 expressly forbids the use of the wood of _Picræna_ in place of _Quassia_.

The first to give a good account of Jamaica quassia was John Lindsay,[515] a medical practitioner of the island, who writing in 1791 described the tree as long known not only for its excellent timber, but also as a useful medicine in putrid fevers and fluxes. He adds that the _bark_ is exported to England in considerable quantity—“for the purposes of the brewers of ale and porter.”

Quassia, defined as the wood, bark, and root of _Q. amara_ L., was introduced into the London Pharmacopœia of 1788; in the edition of 1809, it was superseded by the wood of _Picræna excelsa_. In the stock-book of a London druggist (J. Gurney Bevan, of Plough Court, Lombard Street) we find it first noticed in 1781 (as _rasuræ_), when it was reckoned as having cost 4_s._ 2_d._ per lb.

=Description=—The quassia wood of commerce consists of pieces of the stem and larger branches, some feet in length, and often as thick as a man’s thigh. It is covered with bark externally of a dusky grey or blackish hue, white and fibrous within, which it is customary to strip off and reject. The wood, which is of a very light yellowish tint, is tough and strong, but splits easily. In transverse section it exhibits numerous fine close medullary rays, which intersect the rather obscure and irregular rings resembling those of annual growth of our indigenous woody stems. The centre is occupied by a cylinder of pith of minute size. In a longitudinal section, whether tangential or radial, the wood appears transversely striated by reason of the small vertical height of the medullary rays.

The wood often exhibits certain blackish markings due to the mycelium of a fungus; they have sometimes the aspect of delicate patterns, and at others appear as large dark patches.

Quassia has a strong, pure bitter taste, but is devoid of odour. It is always supplied to the retail druggist in the form of turnings or raspings, the former being obtained in the manufacture of the _Bitter Cups_, now often seen in the shops.

=Microscopic Structure=—The wood consists for the most part of elongated pointed cells (libriform), traversed by medullary rays, each of the latter being built up of about 15 vertical layers of cells. The single layers contain from one to three rows of cells. The ligneous rays thus enclosed by medullary parenchyme, are intersected by groups of tissue constituting the above-mentioned irregular rings. On a longitudinal section this parenchyme exhibits numerous crystals of oxalate of calcium, and sometimes deposits of yellow resin. The latter is more abundant in the large vessels of the wood. Oxalate and resin are the only solid matters perceptible in the tissues of this drug.

=Chemical Composition=—The bitter taste of quassia is due to _Quassiin_, which was first obtained, no doubt, from the wood of _Quassia amara_, by Winckler in 1835. It was analysed by Wiggers,[516] who assigned it the formula C₁₀H₁₂O₃, now regarded as doubtful. According to the latter, quassiin is an irresolvable, neutral substance, crystallizable from dilute alcohol or from chloroform. It requires for solution about 200 parts of water, but is not soluble in ether; it forms an insoluble compound with tannic acid. Quassia wood is said to yield about ⅒ per cent. of quassiin. A watery infusion of quassia, especially if a little caustic lime has been added to the drug, displays a slight fluorescence, due apparently to quassiin. Goldschmiedt and Weidel (1877) failed in obtaining quassiin. They isolated the yellow resin which we mentioned above, and stated that it yields protocatechuic acid when melted with potash. Quassia wood dried at 100° C. yielded us 7·8 per cent. of ash.

[515] _Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh_, iii. (1794) 205. tab. 6.

[516] Liebig’s _Annalen der Pharm._ xxi. (1837) 40.

=Commerce=—The quantity of Bitter Wood shipped from Jamaica in 1871 was 56 tons.[517]

=Uses=—The drug is employed as a stomachic and tonic. It is poisonous to flies, and is not without narcotic properties in respect to the higher animals.

=Substitutes=—The wood of _Quassia amara_ L., the _Bitter Wood of Surinam_, bears a close resemblance, both external and structural, to the drug just noticed; but its stems never exceed four inches in diameter and are commonly still thinner. Their thin, brittle bark is of a greyish yellow, and separates easily from the wood. The latter is somewhat denser than the quassia of Jamaica, from which it may be distinguished by its medullary rays being composed of a single or less frequently of a double row of cells, whereas in the wood of _Picræna excelsa_, they consist of two or three rows, less frequently of only one.

Surinam Quassia Wood is exported from the Dutch colony of Surinam. The quantity shipped thence during the nine months ending 30th Sept, 1872, was 264,675 lb.[518]

The bark of _Samadera indica_ Gärtn., a tree of the same natural order, owes its bitterness to a principle[519] which agrees perhaps with quassiin. The aqueous infusion of the bark is abundantly precipitated by tannic acid, a compound of quassiin probably being formed. A similar treatment applied to quassia would possibly easier afford quassiin than the extraction of the wood by means of alcohol, as performed by Wiggers.

BURSERACEÆ.

OLIBANUM.

_Gummmi-resina Olibanum_, _Thus masculum_[520]; _Olibanum_, _Frankincense_; F. _Encens_; G. _Weihrauch_.

[517] _Blue Book_, Island of Jamaica, for 1871.

[518] _Consular Reports_, No. 3, presented to Parliament, July 1873.

[519] Rost van Tonningen, _Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers (Canstatt) for 1858. 75; _Pharm. Journ._ ii. (1872) 644. 654.

[520] The λίβανος of the Greeks, the Latin _Olibanum_, as well as the Arabic _Lubân_, and the analogous sounds in other languages, are all derived from the Hebrew _Lebonah_, signifying _milk_: and modern travellers who have seen the frankincense trees state that the fresh juice is _milky_, and hardens when exposed to the air. The word _Thus_, on the other hand, seems to be derived from the verb θύειν, _to sacrifice_.

=Botanical Origin=—Olibanum is obtained from the stem of several species of _Boswellia_, inhabiting the hot and arid regions of Eastern Africa, near Cape Gardafui and of the southern coast of Arabia. Notwithstanding the recent elaborate and valuable researches of Birdwood,[521] the olibanum trees are still but imperfectly known, as will be evident in the following enumeration:—

1. _Boswellia Carterii_ Birdw.—This includes the three following forms, which may be varieties of a single species, or may belong to two or more species,—a point impossible to settle until more perfect materials shall have been obtained.

a. _Boswellia_ No. 5, Oliver, _Flora of Tropical Africa_, I. (1868) 324, _Mohr meddu_ or _Mohr madow_ of the natives; _meddu_, according to Playfair and Hildebrandt, means black. The leaflets are crenate, undulate, and pubescent on both sides.

This tree is found in the Somali Country, growing a little inland in the valleys and on the lower part of the hills, never on the range close to the sea. It yields the olibanum called _Lubân Bedowi_ or _Lubân Sheheri_ (Playfair).

Hildebrandt describes the Mohr meddu as a tree 12 to 15 feet high, with a few branches, indigenous to the limestone range of Ahl or Serrut, in the northern part of the Somali Country, where it occurs in elevations of from 3000 to 5000 feet. To this tree belongs the figure 58 in Bentley and Trimen’s _Medicinal Plants_ (