part i

. 180.

=Description=—The fruit is ovoid-oblong, nodding, about 1½ inch long, hispid from numerous short fleshy prickles terminating in white elongated points. It is attached by a long scabrous peduncle, is fleshy and green while young, becoming slightly yellowish when mature; it is 3-celled and contains numerous oblong seeds lodged in a very bitter succulent pulp. The fruit when ripe separates suddenly from the stalk, and at the same moment the seeds and juice are forcibly expelled from the aperture left by the detached peduncle. This interesting phenomenon[1123] is due to the process of exosmosis, by which the juice of the outer part of the fruit gradually passes through the strong contractile tissue which lines the central cavity, until the pressure becomes so great that the cell gives way at its weakest point. This point is that at which the peduncle is articulated with the fruit; and it is the sudden and powerful contraction of the elastic tissue when relieved from pressure that occasions the violent expulsion of the contents of the central cavity.

For the preparation of the officinal elaterium, the fruit has to be employed while still somewhat immature, for the simple reason that it would be impossible to gather it so as to retain its all-important juice if left till quite ripe. When it is sliced longitudinally as in making elaterium, some of the juice is expelled by virtue of the endosmotic action already described, as can easily be seen on examining the contracted lining of the sliced fruit.

Pereira observes[1124] that if the juice of a fruit is received on a plate of glass, it is seen to be nearly colourless and transparent. In a few minutes however, by exposure to the air, it becomes slightly turbid, and small white coagula are formed in it. By slow evaporation, minute rhomboidal crystals make their appearance: these are _elaterin_.

Hot, dry weather favours the development of the active principle of the drug.[1125]

=Microscopic Structure=—The middle layer of the fruit is built up of large somewhat thick-walled cells, traversed by a few fibro-vascular bundles. The former abound in small starch grains, and also contain granules of albuminous matter.

=Chemical Composition=—The experiments of Clutterbuck (1819) proved that the active properties of the elaterium plant reside chiefly, though not exclusively, in the juice that surrounds the seeds; and it is to this juice and to the medicinal product which it yields, that the attention of chemists has been hitherto directed.

The juice obtained by lightly pressing the sliced fruits is at first greenish and slightly turbid. After having been set aside a few hours, it yields a deposit, which has to be collected on calico, rapidly drained with gentle pressure between layers of bibulous paper and porous bricks, and dried in a warm place. The substance thus obtained is the _Elaterium_ of pharmacy.[1126] The method recommended by Clutterbuck[1127] involves no pressing. The juice of the sliced fruit is saved, and the pulp, scooped out by the thumb of the operator, is thrown on a sieve and slightly washed with pure water. From these liquors, elaterium is deposited.

[1123] I have not yet seen Yule’s paper on the dehiscence of this fruit in the _Journ. of Anat. and Physiology_, 1877. The structure of the testa of the seed is explained by Fickel, in the _Botanische Zeitung_, 1876. 774.—F. A. F..

[1124] _Elem. of Mat. Med._ ii. (1853) 1745.

[1125] Having had to procure elaterium fruits at Mitcham in the very fine summer of 1868, I was told that the people occupied in slicing the fruits had never suffered so severely from their work as in that year.—D. H.

[1126] There is a genus of _Cucurbitaceæ_ founded by Linnæus, also called _Elaterium_.

[1127] _Lond. Med. Repository_, xii. (1820) 1.

Elaterium occurs in irregular cake-like fragments, light, friable, and opaque; when new, of a bright pale green, becoming by age greyish and exhibiting minute crystals on the surface. It has a herby tea-like odour and a very bitter taste. The produce is extremely small: 240 lb. of fruit gathered at Mitcham, 1Oth August 1868, yielded 4⅝ ounces of elaterium = 0·123 per cent.

Elaterium consists, according to Pereira, of _Elaterin_, to which the

## activity of the drug is due, contaminated with green colouring matter,

cellular tissue, and starch, together with a little of the residue of the bitter liquor from which these substances were deposited. Yet, in our opinion, this description is not applicable to the best varieties of elaterium. We have examined elaterium carefully prepared in the laboratory of Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, London, and a fine specimen imported from Malta. Both are devoid of starch, as well as of cellular tissue, but were seen to be largely made up of crystals. The first sample contained 12 per cent. of water, and yielded after drying, 8·4 per cent. of ash.

The most interesting principle of elaterium is _Elaterin_, C₂₀H₂₈O₅, discovered about the year 1831 by Morries, and independently by Hennell. The best method of obtaining it, according to our experience, is to exhaust elaterium with chloroform. From this solution, a white crystalline deposit of elaterin is immediately separated by addition of ether. It should be washed with a little ether, and recrystallized from chloroform. We have thus obtained 33·6 per cent. of pure elaterin from the above-mentioned elaterium of London, and 27·6 per cent. from that of Malta. Elaterin crystallizes in hexagonal scales or prisms; it has an extremely bitter, somewhat acrid taste. It is readily soluble in boiling alcohol, amylic alcohol, bisulphide of carbon, or chloroform. Its alcoholic solutions are neutral and are not precipitated by tannin, nor by any metallic solution. It is but very little coloured by cold concentrated sulphuric acid.

Elaterin is the drastic principle of _Ecballium_; if to its boiling alcoholic solution, solid caustic potash is added, the liquid thus obtained is stated by Buchheim (1872) to be no longer precipitable by water. The elaterin is then in fact converted into an acid body, which may be separated by supersaturating the solution with a mineral acid. The principle thus obtained has been found by Buchheim to be devoid of drastic power.

The fresh juice of the fruits was found by Köhler (1869) to contain 95 per cent. of water, 3 to 3·5 of organic and 1 to 1·6 of inorganic constituents. The same chemist observed that the percentage of elaterin gradually diminished as the season advanced, until in the month of September he was unable to obtain any of it whatever.

Walz (1859) found in the juice of the fruits and herb of _Ecballium_, as well as in that of _Cucumis Prophetarum_ L., a second crystallizable bitter principle, _Prophetin_, and the amorphous substances _Ecballin_ or _Elateric Acid_, _Hydro-elaterin_, and _Elateride_, all of which require further examination.[1128] Prophetin is a glucoside,—not so the other principles. The four together constitute, according to Walz, 8·7 per cent. of elaterium, which moreover contains about the same percentage of pectic matter.

[1128] Gmelin’s _Chemistry_, xvii. (1866) 335-367.

=Uses=—Squirting cucumbers are only employed for making elaterium, which is a very powerful hydragogue cathartic.[1129] Elaterin is not employed in medicine, but seeing how much elaterium is liable to vary from climate or season, it might probably be introduced into use with advantage.

FRUCTUS COLOCYNTHIDIS.

_Colocynth_, _Coloquintida_, _Bitter Apple_; F. _Coloquinte_; G. _Coloquinthe_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Citrullus Colocynthis_ Schrader (_Cucumis Colocynthis_ L.)—The colocynth gourd is a slender scabrous plant with a perennial root, native of warm and dry regions in the Old World, over which it has an extensive area.

Commencing eastward, it occurs in abundance in the arid districts of the Punjab and Sind, in sandy places on the Coromandel coast, in Ceylon, Persia as far north as the Caspian, in Arabia (Aden), Syria, and in some of the Greek islands. It is found in immense quantities in Upper Egypt and Nubia, spreading itself over sand hillocks of the desert after each rainy season. It further extends throughout North Africa to Morocco and Senegambia, in the Cape de Verd Islands, and on maritime sands in the south-east of Spain and Portugal. Finally, it is said to have been collected in Japan.

=History=—Colocynth was familiar to the Greek and Roman, as well as to the Arabian physicians; it also occurs in Susruta (“Indravārunī”); and if we may judge by the mention of it in an Anglo-Saxon herbal of the 11th century,[1130] was not then unknown in Britain. The drug was collected in Spain at an early period, as is evident from an Arabic calendar of A.D. 961.[1131]

The plant has been long cultivated in Cyprus, and its fruit is mentioned in the 14th century as one of the more important products of the island.[1132] Tragus (1552) figured the plant, and stated that the fruit is imported from Alexandria.

=Description=—The colocynth plant bears a gourd of the size and shape of an orange, having a smooth, marbled-green surface. It is sometimes imported simply dried, in which case it is of a brown colour; but far more usually it is found in the market peeled with a knife and dried. It then forms light, pithy, nearly white balls, which consist of the dried internal pulp of the fruit with the seeds imbedded in it. This pulp is nearly inodorous, but has an intensely bitter taste, perceptible by reason of its dust when the drug is slightly handled. The balls are generally more or less broken; when dried too slowly they have a light brown colour.

[1129] Clutterbuck says ⅛ of a grain purges violently.

[1130] Cockayne, _Leechdoms_, etc., i. (1865) 325.

[1131] _Le Calendrier de Cordoue_, publié par R. Dozy, Leyde, 1873. 92.

[1132] De Mas Latrie, _Hist. de l’ile de Chypre_, iii. (1852-61) 498.

The seeds are disposed in vertical rows on 3 thick parietal placentæ, which project to the centre of the fruit, then divide and turn back, forming two branches directed towards one another. Owing to this structure, the fruit easily breaks up vertically into 3 wedges in each of which are lodged 2 rows of dark brown seeds. The seeds, of which a fruit contains from 200 to 300, are of flattened ovoid form, ³/₁₀ of an inch long by ²/₁₀ broad, not bordered. The testa which is hard and thick, having its surface minutely granulated, is marked on each side of its more pointed end by two furrows directed towards the hilum. The seed, as in other _Cucurbitaceæ_, is exalbuminous, and has thick oily cotyledons, enclosing an embryo with short straight radicle directed towards the hilum.

Colocynth fruits are mostly supplied by wholesale druggists, broken up and having the seeds removed, the drug in such case being called _Colocynth Pulp_ or _Pith_.

=Microscopic Structure=—The pulp is made up of large thin-walled parenchymatous cells, their outer layer consisting of rows of smaller cells more densely packed. The tissue is irregularly traversed by fibro-vascular bundles, and also exhibits numerous large intercellular spaces. The cells contain but an insignificant amount of minute granules, to which neither iodine nor a persalt of iron imparts any coloration. The tissue is not much swollen by water, although one part of the pulp easily retains from 10 to 12 parts of water like a sponge.

=Chemical Composition=—The bitter principle has been isolated in 1847 by Hübschmann.[1133] He observed that alcohol removes from the fruit a large amount of _resin_. By submitting this solution to distillation, the bitter principle remains partly in the aqueous liquid, partly in the resin, from which the “_Colocynthin_” is to be extracted by boiling water. The whole solution was then concentrated and mixed with carbonate of potassium, when a thickish viscid liquid separated. Hübschmann dried it and redissolved it in a mixture of 1 part of strong alcohol and 8 parts of ether. After treatment with charcoal, the solvents were distilled and the remaining bitter principle removed by means of water. This on evaporating afforded 2 per cent. of the pulp of a yellow extremely bitter powder, readily soluble in water or alcohol, not in pure ether. Colocynthin is precipitated from its aqueous solution by carbonate of potassium. Colocynthin was further extracted by Lebourdais (1848) by evaporating the aqueous infusion of the fruit with charcoal, and exhausting the dried powder with boiling alcohol.

[1133] _Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Pharmacie_, 1858. 216.

Again, another method was followed by Walz (1858). He treated alcoholic extract of colocynth with water, and mixed the solution firstly with neutral acetate of lead, and subsequently with basic acetate of lead. From the filtered liquid the lead was separated by means of sulphuretted hydrogen, and then tannic acid added to it. The latter caused the colocynthin to be precipitated; the precipitate washed and dried was decomposed by oxide of lead, and finally the colocynthin was dissolved out by ether.

Walz thus obtained about ¼ per cent. of a yellowish mass or tufts, which he considered as possessing crystalline structure and to which he gave the name _Colocynthin_. He assigns to it the formula C₅₆H₈₄O₂₃, which in our opinion requires further investigation. Colocynthin is a violent purgative; it is decomposed according to Walz by boiling dilute hydrochloric acid, and then yields _Colocyntheïn_, C₄₄H₆₄O₁₃, and grape sugar. The same chemist termed _Colocynthitin_ that part of the alcoholic extract of colocynth which is soluble in ether but not in water. Purified with boiling alcohol, colocynthitin forms a tasteless crystalline powder.

The pulp perfectly freed from seeds and dried at 100° C., afforded us 11 per cent. of ash; the seeds alone yield only 2·7 per cent. They have, even when crushed, but a faint bitter taste, and contain 17 per cent. of fat oil.

The fresh leaves of the plant if rubbed emit a very unpleasant smell.

=Commerce=—The drug is imported from Mogador, Spain and Syria.

=Uses=—In the form of an extract made with weak alcohol, and combined with aloes and scammony, colocynth is much employed as a purgative. The seeds, roasted or boiled, are the miserable food of some of the poorest tribes of the Sahara.[1134]

The people of the Berber upon the Nile make a curious application for the tar they obtain from the fruit. The latter is heated in an earthen vessel with a hole in it; the tar drips through to another vessel and is fit for smearing leather water-bags. The bad smell of the tar (and of the leaves) prevents the camels from cutting open the water-bags.[1135]

=Substitutes=—_Cucumis trigonus_ Roxb. (_C. Pseudo-colocynthis_ Royle), a plant of the plains of Northern India, with spherical or elongated, sometimes obscurely trigonous, bitter fruits, prostate _rooting_ stems, and deeply divided leaves, resembles the colocynth gourd and has been mistaken for it. Another species named by Royle _C. Hardwickii_, and known to the natives of India as _Hill Colocynth_, has oval oblong bitter fruits, but leaves entirely unlike those of the _Citrullus Colocynthis_.

UMBELLIFERÆ.

HERBA HYDROCOTYLES.

_Indian Hydrocotyle_, _Indian Pennywort_; F. _Bevilacqua_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Hydrocotyle asiatica_ L., a small creeping herb,[1136] with slender jointed stems, common in moist places throughout tropical Asia and Africa, ascending in Abyssinia to elevations of 6,000 feet. It also occurs in America from South Carolina to Valdivia, in the West Indies, the islands of the Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia.

=History=—Hydrocotyle is called in Sanskrit _mandūka-parnī_, in Hindi _khulakhudi_. The former name denotes various plants, but is thought to refer in Susruta to the plant under notice (Dr. Rice). It was known to Rheede[1137] by its Malyalim name of _Codagam_ (or _Kutakan_), and also to Rumphius.[1138] It has been long used medicinally by the natives of Java and of the Coromandel coast. In 1852, Boileau, a French physician of Mauritius, pointed out its virtues in the treatment of leprosy,[1139] for which disease it was largely tried in the hospitals of Madras by Hunter[1140] in 1855. It has since been admitted to a place in the _Pharmacopœia of India_.

[1134] See my paper on _Cucumis Colocynthis_ considered as a nutritive plant in the _Archiv der Pharmacie_, 201 (1872) 235.—F. A. F.

[1135] Col. Grant, Botany of the Speke and Grant expedition, _Journ. Linn. Soc._ xxix. pt. 2 (1873) 77.

[1136] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen. _Med. Plants_, pt. 24, 1877.

[1137] _Hort. Mal._ x. tab. 46.

[1138] _Herb. Amboin._ v. 169.

[1139] Bouton, _Med. Plants of Mauritius_, 1857. 73-83.

[1140] _Medical Reports_, Madras, 1855. 356.

=Description=[1141]—The peduncles and petioles are fasciculed; the latter are frequently 2½ inches long; the peduncles are shorter and bear a 3-or 4-flowered simple umbel with very short rays. The leaves are reniform, crenate, ½ to 2 inches in longest diameter, 7-nerved, glabrous, or when young somewhat hairy on the under side. The fruit is laterally compressed, orbicular, acute on the back; the mericarps reticulated, sometimes a little hairy, with 3 to 5 curved ribs; they are devoid of vittæ. The main root is an inch or two long, but roots are also thrown out by the procumbent stem.

When fresh, the herb is said to be aromatic and of a disagreeable bitter and pungent taste; but these qualities appear to be lost in drying.

=Chemical Composition=—An analysis of hydrocotyle has been made by Lépine, a pharmacien of Pondicherry,[1142] who found it to yield a somewhat peculiar body which he called _Vellarin_, from _Valālrai_, the Tamil name of the plant, and regarded as its active principle. Vellarin, which is said to be obtainable from the dry plant to the extent of 0·8 to 1·0 per cent., is an oily, non-volatile liquid with the smell and taste of fresh hydrocotyle, soluble in spirit of wine, ether, caustic ammonia, and partially also in hydrochloric acid. These singular properties do not enable us to rank vellarin in any well-characterized class of organic compounds.

By exhausting 3 ounces of the dried herb with rectified spirit, we did not obtain any thing like vellarin, but simply a green extract almost entirely soluble in warm water, and containing chiefly tannic acid, which produced an abundant green precipitate with salts of iron. With caustic potash, neither the herb nor its extract evolved any nauseous odour. The dried plant afforded Lépine 13 per cent. of ash.

=Uses=—As an alterative tonic, hydrocotyle is allowed to be of some utility, but the power claimed for it by Boileau of curing leprosy is generally denied. Dorvault[1143] regards it as belonging to the class of narcotico-acrid poisons such as hemlock, but we see no evidence to warrant such an opinion. Besides being administered internally, it is sometimes locally applied in the form of a poultice. Boileau says that the entire plant is preferable to the leaves alone.[1144]

=Substitutes (?)=—_H. rotundifolia_ Roxb., another species common in India, may be known from _H. asiatica_ by having 10 or more flowers in an umbel and much smaller fruits. The European _H. vulgaris_ L., easily distinguishable from the allied tropical species just described, by having its leaves orbicular and peltate (not reniform), is said to possess deleterious properties.

[1141] Drawn up from Indian specimens.

[1142] _Journ. de Pharm._ xxviii. (1855) 47.

[1143] _L’Officine_ (1872) 554.

[1144] It is probably by oversight that the _leaves alone_ are ordered in the _Pharmacopœia of India_.

FRUCTUS CONII.

_Hemlock fruits_; F. _Fruits de Ciguë_; G. _Schierlingsfrucht_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Conium maculatum_ L., an erect biennial herbaceous plant, flourishing by the sides of fields and streams, and in neglected spots of cultivated ground, throughout temperate Europe and Asia. It occurs in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean islands, and has been naturalized in North and South America. But the plant is very unevenly distributed, and in many districts is entirely wanting. It is found in most parts of Britain from Kent and Cornwall to the Orkneys.

=History=—Κώνειον, occurring as early as the fourth or fifth century B.C. in the Greek literature, was the plant under notice, at least in most cases. The famous hemlock potion of the Greeks by which criminals were put to death[1145] was essentially composed of the juice of this plant. The old Roman name of Conium was _Cicuta_; it prevails in the mediæval Latin literature, but was applied, about 1541, by Gesner (and probably before him by others) to _Cicuta virosa_ L., another umbelliferous plant which is altogether wanting in Greece and in Southern Europe generally, and does not contain any poisonous alkaloid. To avoid the confusion arising from the same appellation given to these widely different and quite dissimilar plants, Linnæus, in 1737, restoring the classical Greek name, called it Conium maculatum.[1146]

Hemlock was used in Anglo-Saxon medicine. It is mentioned as early as the 1Oth century in the vocabulary of Alfric, archbishop of Canterbury, as “_Cicuta_, hemlic,”[1147] and also in the Meddygon Myddfai. Hemlock is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words “hem,” border, shore, and “leác” leek. Its use in modern medicine is due chiefly to the recommendation of Störck of Vienna, since whose time (1760) the plant has been much employed. The extreme uncertainty and even inertness of its preparations, which had long been known to physicians and had caused its rejection by many, have been recently investigated by Harley.[1148] The careful experiments of this physician show what are the real powers of the drug, and by what method its active properties may be utilized.

=Description=—The fruit has the structure usual to the order; it is broadly ovoid, somewhat compressed laterally, and constricted towards the commissure, attenuated towards the apex, which is crowned with a depressed stylopodium. As met with in the shops, it consists of the separated mericarps which are about ⅛ of an inch long. The dorsal surface of these has 5 prominent longitudinal ridges, the edges of which are marked with little protuberances giving them a jagged or crenate outline, which is most conspicuous before the fruits are fully ripe. The furrows are glabrous but slightly wrinkled longitudinally; they are devoid of vittæ. When a mericarp is cut transversely, the seed exhibits a reniform outline, due to a deep furrow in the albumen on the side of the commissure.

[1145] See Imbert-Gourbeyre, _De la mort de Socrate par la Ciguë_, Paris, 1876.

[1146] An extensive paper has been devoted by Albert Regel to the _History of Conium_ and _Cicuta_ in the _Bulletin de la Soc. imp. des Naturalistes de Moscou_, tome li. (1876, first part) 155-203 and lii. (1877) first part, 1-52.

[1147] _Volume of Vocabularies_, edited by Wright, 1857. 31.

[1148] _Pharm. Journ._ viii. (1867) 460-710; ix. (1868) 53.

The fruits of hemlock are dull greenish grey, and have but little taste and smell; but when triturated with a solution of caustic alkali they evolve a strong and offensive odour.

=Microscopic Structure=—Hemlock fruits differ from other fruits of the order by the absence of vittæ.[1149] In the endocarp, there is a peculiar layer of small nearly cubic cells surrounding the albumen. The cells of the endocarp are loaded with a brown liquid consisting chiefly of conine and essential oil.

=Chemical Composition=—The most important constituent of the fruits of hemlock _Conine_ or _Conia_, C₈H₁₄NH, a limpid colourless oily fluid, 0·846 sp. gr. at 12°·5 C. It has a strong alkaline reaction, and boils at 170° C. in an atmosphere devoid of oxygen, without decomposition. It was first observed by Giseke at Eisleben, Saxony, in 1827, recognized as an alkaloid by Geiger in 1831, and more amply studied by Wertheim in 1856 and 1862. To obtain it, an alcoholic extract is submitted to distillation with a little slaked lime. The product should be neutralized with oxalic acid, and the oxalate of conine removed by absolute alcohol mixed with a little ether, oxalate of ammonium being insoluble. The oxalate of the alkaloid shaken with caustic lye and ether, affords the conine, on evaporating the solvent and distilling the alkaloid in a current of dry hydrogen. In the plant it is combined with an acid (malic?), and accompanied by ammonia, as well as by a second, less poisonous crystallizable base, called _Conhydrine_, C₈H₁₇NO, which may be converted into conine by abstraction of the elements of water. From these alkaloids a liquid non-poisonous hydrocarbon, _Conylene_, C₈H₁₄, has been separated by Wertheim. Even in nature one hydrogen atom of conine is frequently replaced by methyl, CH₃; and commercial conine commonly contains, as shown by A. von Planta and Kekulé, methyl-conine, C₈H₁₄NCH₃. Lastly there is present in hemlock fruits a third alkaloid having probably the composition C₇H₁₃N.

As to the yield of conine, it varies according to the development of the fruits, but it is at best only about ⅕ per cent. According to Schroff (1870), the fruits are most active just before maturity, provided they are gathered from the biennial plant. At a later stage, conine is probably partly transformed into conhydrine, which however is present in but very small proportion,—about 1¼ per mille at most.

In its deleterious action, conine resembles nicotine, but is much less powerful.

Schiff (1871-1872) has artificially produced an alkaloid partaking of the general properties of conine, and having the same composition; but it is optically indifferent. Conine, on the other hand, we find turns the plane of polarization to the right.

The fruits of hemlock contain also a volatile oil which appears devoid of poisonous properties; it exists in but small quantity and has not yet been fully examined.

[1149] See _Moynier de Villepoix_, _Annales des Sciences naturelles_, Botanique, v. (1878) 348.

=Uses=—The fruits of hemlock are the only convenient source of the alkaloid conine. They were introduced into British medicine in 1864, as a substitute for the dried leaf in making the tincture. But it has been shown that a tincture, whether of leaf or fruit, is a preparation of very small value, and that it is far inferior to the preserved juice of the herb. It has however been pointed out by W. Manlius Smith,[1150] and his observations have been confirmed by Harley,[1151] that the _green unripe fruits_ possess more than any other part the peculiar energies of the plant, and that they may even be dried without loss of

## activity. A medicinal fluid extract of considerable power has been made

from them by Squibb of New York.

FOLIA CONII.

_Hemlock Leaves_; F. _Feuilles de Ciguë_; G. _Schierlingsblätter_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Conium maculatum_ L., see p. 299.

=History=—See p. 299.

=Description=—Hemlock in its first year produces only a tuft of leaves; but in its second a stout erect stem which often grows to the height of 5 or 9 feet, is much branched in its upper part, and terminates in small umbels, each having about 12 rays. The lower leaves, often a foot in length, have a triangular outline, and a hollow stalk as long as the lamina, clasping the stem at its base with a membranous sheath. Towards the upper portion of the plant, the leaves have shorter stalks, are less divided, and are opposite or in cohorts of 3 to 5. The involucral bracts are lanceolate, reflexed, and about a ¼ of an inch long. Those of the partial umbel are turned towards the outside, and are always 3 in number. The larger leaves are twice or thrice pinnate, the ultimate segments being ovate-oblong, acute, and deeply incised.

The stem is cylindrical and hollow, of a glaucous green, generally marked on its lower part with reddish-brown spots. The leaves are of a dull dark green, and like the rest of the plant quite glabrous. They have when bruised a disagreeable fœtid smell.

For medicinal purposes the plant should be taken when in full blossom.[1152]

=Chemical Composition=—The leaves of hemlock contain, though in exceedingly small proportion, the same alkaloids as the fruits. Geiger obtained from the fresh herb not so much as one ten-thousandth part of conine. It is probable however that the active constituents vary in proportion considerably, and that a dry and sunny climate promotes their development.

The same observer, as well as Pereira, has pointed out that hemlock leaves when dried are very frequently almost devoid of conine, and the observation is supported by the more recent experiments of Harley (1867). It has also been shown by the last named physician, that the inspissated juice known in pharmacy as _Extractum Conii_ usually contains but a mere trace of alkaloid, the latter having in fact been dissipated by the heat employed in reducing the juice to the required consistence. On the other hand, Harley has proved that the juice of fresh hemlock preserved by the addition of spirit of wine, as in the _Succus Conii_ of the Pharmacopœia, possesses in an eminent degree the poisonous properties of the plant.

[1150] _Trans. of the New York State Medical Society_ for 1867.

[1151] _The old Vegetable Neurotics_, Lond. 1869.

[1152] The London herbalists often collect it while much of the inflorescence is still in bud, in which state it affords far more of leaf than when well matured; but it is in the latter condition that the plant is to be preferred.

The entire amount of nitrogen in dried hemlock leaves was estimated by Wrightson (1845) at 6·8 per cent.; the ash at 12·8 per cent. The latter consists mainly of salts of potassium, sodium, and calcium, especially of sodium chloride and calcium phosphate.

A ferment-oil may be obtained from _Conium_; it is stated to have an odour unlike that of the plant and a burning taste, and not to be poisonous.[1153]

[1153] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xiv. 405.

=Uses=—Hemlock administered in the form of _Succus Conii_, has a peculiar sedative action on the motor nerves, on account of which it is occasionally prescribed. It was formerly much more employed than at present, although the preparations used were so defective that they could rarely have produced the specific action of the medicine.

=Plants liable to be confounded with Hemlock=—Several common plants of the order _Umbelliferæ_ have a superficial resemblance to _Conium_, but can be discriminated by characters easy of observation. One of these is _Æthusa Cynapium_ L. or _Fool’s Parsley_, a common annual garden weed, of much smaller stature than hemlock. It may be known by its primary umbel having no involucre, and by its partial umbel having an involucel of 2 or 3 linear pendulous bracts. The ridges of its fruit moreover are not wavy or crenate as in hemlock, nor is its stem spotted.

_Chærophyllum Anthriscus_ L. (_Anthriscus vulgaris_ Pers.) and two or three other species of _Chærophyllum_ have the lower leaves not unlike those of hemlock, but they are _pubescent_ or _ciliated_. The fruits too are _linear-oblong_, and thus very dissimilar from those of _Conium_.

The latter plant is in fact clearly distinguished by its smooth spotted stem, the character of its involucral bracts and fruit, and finally by the circumstance that when triturated with a few drops of solution of caustic alkali, it evolves conine (and ammonia), easily observable as a white fume when a rod moistened with strong acetic acid is held over the mortar.

FRUCTUS AJOWAN.

_Semen Ajavæ vel Ajouain_; _Ajowan_, _True Bishop’s weed_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Carum Ajowan_ Bentham et Hooker (_Ammi copticum_ L. _Ptychotis coptica_ et _Pt. Ajowan_ DC.)—an erect annual herb, cultivated in Egypt and Persia, and especially in India where it is well known as _Ajvan_ or _Omam_.

=History=—The minute spicy fruits of the above-named plant have been used in India from a remote period, as we may infer from their being mentioned in Sanskrit writings, as, for instance, by the grammarian Pānini, in the third century B.C. (or later?), and in Susruta.

Owing to their having been confounded with some other very small umbelliferous fruits, it is difficult to trace them precisely in many of the older writers on materia medica. It is however probable that they are the _Ammi_ which Anguillara[1154] met with in 1549 at Venice, where it had then, exceptionally, been imported in small quantity from Alexandria. It is also, we suppose, the _Ammi perpusillum_ of Lobel (1571), in whose time the drug was likewise imported from Egypt, as well as the _Ammi alterum parvum_, the seed of which Dodonæus (1583) mentions as being “minutissimum, acre et fervidum.” Dale,[1155] who says it is brought from Alexandria, reports it as very scarce in the London shops. Under the name of _Ajave Seeds_, the drug was again brought into notice in 1773 by Percival,[1156] who received a small quantity of it from Malabar as a remedy for colic; and still more recently, it has been favourably spoken of by Fleming, Ainslie, Roxburgh, O’Shaughnessy, Waring and other writers who have treated of Indian materia medica.

=Description=—Ajowan fruits, like those of other cultivated _Umbelliferæ_, vary somewhat in size and form. The largest kind much resemble those of parsley, being of about the same shape and weight. The length of the large fruits is about ⅒, of the smaller form scarcely ¹/₁₆ of an inch. The fruits are greyish brown, plump, very rough on the surface, owing to numerous minute tubercles (_fructus muriculatus_). Each mericarp has five prominent ridges, the intervening channels being dark brown, with a single vitta in each. The commissural side bears two vittæ. The fruits when rubbed exhale a strong odour of thyme (_Thymus vulgaris_ L.), and have a biting aromatic taste.

=Microscopic Structure=—The oil-ducts of ajowan are very large, often attaining a diameter of 200 mkm. The ridges contain numerous spiral vessels; the blunt tubercles of the epidermis are of the same structure as those in anise, but comparatively larger and not pointed. The tissue of the albumen exhibits numerous crystalloid granules of albuminous matter (aleuron), distinctly observable in polarized light.

=Chemical Composition=—The fruits on an average afford from 4 to 4·5 per cent. of an agreeable aromatic, volatile oil; at the same time there often collects on the surface of the distilled water a crystalline substance, which is prepared at Oojein and elsewhere in Central India, by exposing the oil to spontaneous evaporation at a low temperature. This stearoptene, sold in the shops of Poona and other places of the Deccan, under the name of _Ajwain-ka-phul_, i.e. _flowers of ajwain_, was showed by Stenhouse (1855) and by Haines (1856) to be identical with

{OH Thymol, C₆H₃ {CH₃, as contained in Thymus vulgaris. {C₃H₇

We obtained it by exposing oil of our own distillation, first rectified from chloride of calcium, to a temperature of 0° C., when the oil deposited 36 per cent. of thymol in superb tabular crystals, an inch or more in length. The liquid portion, even after long exposure to a cold some degrees below the freezing point, yielded no further crop. We found the thymol thus obtained began to melt at 44° C., yet using somewhat larger quantities, it appeared to require fully 51° C. for complete fusion. On cooling, it continues fluid for a long time, and only recrystallizes when a crystal of thymol is projected into it.

[1154] _Semplici_, Vinegia, 1561. 130.

[1155] _Pharmacologia_, 1693. 211.

[1156] _Essays, Medical and Experimental_, ii. (1773) 226.

Thymol is more conveniently and completely extracted from the oil by shaking it repeatedly with caustic lye, and neutralizing the latter.

The oil of ajowan, from which the thymol has been removed, boils at about 172°, and contains cymene (or cymol), C₁₀H₁₄, which, with concentrated sulphuric acid, affords cymen-sulphonic acid, C₁₀H₁₃SO₂OH. The latter is not very readily crystallizable, but forms crystallized salts with baryum, calcium, zinc, lead, which are abundantly soluble in water. In the oil of ajowan no constituent of the formula C₁₀H₁₆ appears to be present; mixed with alcohol and nitric acid (see p. 279) it at least produces no crystals of terpin.

The residual portions of the oil, from which the cymene has been distilled, contains another substance of the phenol class different from thymol.

We have found that neither the thymol nor the liquid part of ajowan oil possesses any rotatory power.

=Uses=—Ajowan is much used by the natives of India as a condiment.[1157] The distilled water which has been introduced into the _Pharmacopœia of India_, is reputed to be carminative, and a good vehicle for nauseous medicines. It has a powerful burning taste, and would seem to require dilution. The volatile oil may be used in the place of oil of thyme, which it closely resembles.

Ajowan seeds are largely imported into Europe since thymol has been universally introduced into medical practice (see Folia Thymi). They have proved much more remunerative for the manufacture of thymol than Thymus vulgaris. The largest quantities, we believe, of thymol have been made from ajowan at Leipzig.

=Substitutes=—Under the name _Semen Ammi_, the very small fruits of _Ammi majus_ L. and of _Sison Amomum_ L. have been often confounded with those of Ajowan; but the _absence of hairs_ on the two former, not to mention some other differences, is sufficient to negative any supposition of identity.

The seeds of _Hyoscyamus niger_ L. being called in India _Khorāsāniajwān_, a confusion might arise between them and true ajowan; though the slightest examination would suffice to show the difference.[1158]

[1157] Roxburgh, _Flor. Ind._ ii. (1832) 91.

[1158] To such a mistake may probably be referred the statement of Irvine (_Account of the Mat. Med. of Patna_, 1848, p. 6) that the seeds of henbane are “used in food as carminative and stimulant”!

FRUCTUS CARUI.

_Semen Carui vel Carvi_; _Caraway Fruits_, _Caraway Seeds_, _Caraways_; F. _Fruits ou Semences de Carvi_; G. _Kümmel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Carum Carvi_ L., an erect annual or biennial plant not unlike a carrot, growing in meadows and moist grassy land over the northern and midland parts of Europe and Asia, but to what extent truly wild cannot be always ascertained.

It is much cultivated in Iceland, and is also apparently wild.[1159] It grows throughout Scandinavia, in Finland, Arctic, Central, and Southern Russia, Persia, and in Siberia. It appears as a wild plant in many parts of Britain (Lincolnshire and Yorkshire), but is also cultivated in fields, and may not be strictly indigenous. The caraway is found throughout the eastern part of France, in the Pyrenees, Spain, Central Europe, Armenia, and the Caucasian provinces; and it grows wild largely in the high alpine region of Lahul, in the Western Himalaya.[1160]

[1159] Babington in _Journ. of Linn. Soc._, Bot. xi. (1871) 310.

[1160] Aitchison in _Journ. of Linn. Soc._, Bot., x. (1869) 76. 94.

But the most curious fact in the distribution of _Carum Carvi_ is its occurrence in Morocco, where it is largely cultivated about El Araiche, and round the city of Morocco.[1161] The plant differs somewhat from that of Europe; it is an annual with a single erect stem, 4 feet high. Its foliage is more divided, and its flowers larger, with shorter styles and on more spreading umbels than the common caraway, and its fruit is more elongated.[1162]

=History=—The opinion that this plant is the Κάρος of Dioscorides, and that, as Pliny states, it derived its name from Caria (where it has never been met with in modern times) has very reasonably been doubted.[1163]

Caraway fruits were known to the Arabians, who called them _Karawya_, a name they still bear in the East, and the original of our words _caraway_ and _carui_, as well as of the Spanish _alcarahueya_. In the description of Morocco by Edrisi,[1164] 12th century, it is stated that the inhabitants of Sidjilmâsa (the south-eastern province) cultivate cotton, _cumin_, _caraway_, henna (_Lawsonia alba_ Lamarck). In the Arab writings quoted by Ibn Baytar,[1165] himself a Mauro-Spaniard of the 13th century, caraway is compared to cumin and anise. The spice probably came into use about this period. It is not noticed by St. Isidore, archbishop of Seville in the 7th century, though he mentions fennel, dill, coriander, anise, and parsley; nor is it named by St. Hildegard in Germany in the 12th century. Neither have we found any reference to it in the Anglo-Saxon _Herbarium of Apuleius_, written _circa_ A.D. 1050,[1166] or in other works of the same period, though cumin, anise, fennel, and dill are all mentioned.

On the other hand, in two German medicine-books of the 12th and 13th centuries[1167] there occurs the word _Cumich_, which is still the popular name of caraway, in Southern Germany; and _Cumin_ is also mentioned. In the same period the seeds appear to have been used by the Welsh physicians of Myddvai.[1168] Caraway was certainly in use in England at the close of the 14th century, as it figures with coriander, pepper and garlick in the _Form of Cury_, a roll of ancient English cookery compiled by the master-cooks of Richard II. about A.D. 1390.

[1161] Leared in _Pharm. Journ._ Feb. 8, 1873. 623.

[1162] I have cultivated the Morocco plant in 1872 and 1873 by the side of the common form.—D. H.

[1163] Dierbach, _Flora Apiciana_, 1831. 53.

[1164] _Description de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne trad. par Dozy et M. J. de Goeje_, Leyde, 1866, 75. 97. 150.

[1165] Sontheimer’s translation, ii. 368.

[1166] _Leechdoms, etc. of Early England_, i. (1864).

[1167] Pfeiffer, _Zwei deutsche Arzneibücher aus dem xii. und xiii. Jahrhundert_, Wien 1863. 14.

[1168] _Meddygon Myddfai_, 158. 354.

The oriental names of caraway show that as a spice it is not a production of the East:—thus we find it termed _Roman_ (i.e. _European_), _Armenian_, _mountain_, or _foreign Cumin_; _Persian_ or _Andalusian_ _Caraway_; or _foreign Anise_. And though it is now sold in the Indian bazaars, its name does not occur in the earlier lists of Indian spices.

=Cultivation=[1169]—In England, the caraway is cultivated exclusively in Kent and Essex, on clay lands. It was formerly sown mixed with coriander and teazel seed, but now with the former only. The plant, which requires the most diligent and careful cultivation, yields in its second year a crop which is ready for harvesting in the beginning of July. It is cut with a hook at about a foot from the ground, and a few days afterwards may be thrashed. The produce is very variable, but may be stated at 4 to 8 cwt. per acre.

=Description=—The fruits, which in structure correspond to those of other plants of the order, are laterally compressed and ovate. The mericarps which hang loosely suspended from the arms of the carpophore, are in the English drug about ⅙ of an inch in length and ¹/₂₀ in diameter, subcylindrical, slightly arched, and tipped with the conical, shrivelled stylopodium. They are marked with five pale ridges, nearly half as broad as the shining, dark brown furrows, each of which is furnished with a conspicuous vitta; a pair of vittæ separated from each other by a comparatively thin fibro-vascular bundle, occurs on the commissure.

Caraways are somewhat horny and translucent; when bruised, they evolve an agreeable fragrance resembling that of dill, and they have a pleasant spicy taste. In the London market, they are distinguished as _English_, _Dutch_, _German_, and _Mogador_, the first sort fetching the highest price. The fruit varies in size, tint and flavour; the English is shorter and plumper than the others; the Mogador is paler, stalky, and elongated—often ³/₁₀ of an inch in length.

=Microscopic Structure=—Caraways are especially distinguished by their enormous vittæ, which in transverse section display a triangular outline, the largest diameter, _i.e._ the base of the triangle, often attaining as much as 300 mkm. Even those of the commissure are usually not smaller.

=Chemical Composition=—Caraways contain a volatile oil, which the Dutch drug affords to the extent of 5·5 per cent., that grown in Germany to the amount of 7 per cent.[1170]; in Norway 5·8 per cent. have also been obtained from indigenous caraways.[1171] The position and size of the vittæ account for the fact that comminution of the fruits previous to distillation, does not increase the yield of oil.

Völckel (1840) showed that the oil is a mixture of a hydrocarbon C₁₀H₁₆, and an oxygenated oil, C₁₀H₁₄O. Berzelius subsequently termed the former _Carvene_ and the latter _Carvol_.

Carvene, constituting about one-third of the crude oil, boils at 173° C., and forms with dry hydrochloric gas crystals of C₁₀H₁₆ + 2HCl. It has been ascertained by us that carvene, as well as carvol, has a dextrogyrate power, that of carvene being considerably the stronger; there are probably not many liquids exhibiting a stronger dextrogyrate rotation. Carvene is of a weaker odour than carvol, from which it has not yet been absolutely deprived; perfectly pure carvene would no doubt prove no longer to possess the specific odour of the drug. By distilling it over sodium it acquires a rather pleasant odour; its spec. gr. at 15° C. is equal to 0·861.

[1169] Morton, _Cyclop. of Agriculture_, i. (1855) 390.

[1170] Information obligingly supplied by Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig.

[1171] Schübeler, _Pflanzenwelt Norwegens_. Christiania, 1863-1875. 85.

Carvol at 20° C. has a sp. gr. of 0·953; it boils at 224° C.; the same oil appears to occur in dill (see Fructus Anethi), and an oil of the same percental constitution is yielded by the spearmint. The latter however deviates the plane of polarization to the left. If 4 parts of carvol, either from caraways, dill, or spearmint, are mixed with 1 part of alcohol, sp. gr. 0·830, and saturated with sulphuretted hydrogen, crystals of (C₁₀H₁₄C)₂SH₂ are at once formed as soon as a little ammonia is added.[1172]

Oil of caraway of inferior quality is obtained from the refuse of the fruit; we find it less dextrogyrate than the oil from the fruits alone; this is due to the admixture of oil of turpentine before distilling.

If the carvol is distilled there remains in the still a thickish residue, from which a substance of the phenol class may be extracted by caustic lye.

Oil of caraway distilled in England from home-grown caraways is preferred in this country. On the Continent, that extracted from the caraways of Halle and Holland is considered to be of finer flavour than the oil obtained from those of Southern Germany.

The immature fruit of caraway is rich in tannic matter, striking blue with a salt of iron. It occurs abundantly in the tissue around the oil-ducts, where the presence of sugar may be also detected by alkaline tartrate of copper. Sugar occurs likewise in the embryo, but not in the albumen, in which latter protein substances predominate.

=Production and Commerce=—Caraways are exported from Finmark, the most northerly province of Norway; from Finland and Russia. In Germany, the cultivation, recommended by Gleditsch in 1776, is now largely carried on in Moravia, and in Prussia, especially in the neighbourhood of Halle. The districts of Erfurt and Merseburg, also in Prussia, are stated to yield annually about 30,000 cwt. Dutch caraways are produced in the provinces of North Holland, Gelderland and North Brabant, in the latter two from wild plants.[1173] Caraways are frequently shipped from the ports of Morocco; the quantity exported thence in 1872 was 952 cwt. and 288 cwt. in 1875.[1174]

The import of caraways into the United Kingdom in 1870 amounted to 19,160 cwt., almost all being from Holland.

The essential oil is manufactured on a large scale. According to a statement of the Chamber of Commerce of Leipzig,[1175] four establishments of that district produced in 1872 no less a quantity than 30,955 kilo. (68,277 lb.), valued at £24,000.

=Uses=—Caraway in the form of essential oil or distilled water is used in medicine as an aromatic stimulant, or as a flavouring ingredient. But the consumption in Europe is far more important as a spice, in bread, cakes, cheese, pastry, confectionary, sauces, etc., or in the form of oil as an ingredient of alcoholic liquors. The oil is also used for the scenting of soap.

[1172] _Pharm. Journ._ vii. (1876) 75.

[1173] Oudemans, _Aanteekeningen_, etc., Rotterdam, 1854-1856. 351.

[1174] _Consular Reports_, 1873 and 1876.

[1175] _Pharmaceutische Zeitung_, 15th April 1874.

FRUCTUS FŒNICULI.

_Fennel Fruits_, _Fennel Seeds_; F. _Fruits de Fenouil_; G. _Fenchel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Fœniculum vulgare_ Gärtn. (_Anethum Fœniculum_ L.), an erect, branching plant with an herbaceous stem and perennial rootstock, growing to the height of 3 or 4 feet, having leaves 3 or 3 times pinnate with narrow linear segments. In allusion to the latter the plant had also been named _Fœniculum capillaceum_ by Gilibert.

It appears to be truly indigenous to the countries extending from the Caspian regions (or even China?) to the Mediterranean and the Greek Peninsula, but is a doubtful native in many parts of Central and Southern Russia. The plant on the other hand is also found apparently wild, over a large portion of Western Europe as far as the British Isles, especially in the vicinity of the sea.

Fennel is largely cultivated in the central parts of Europe, as Saxony, Franconia and Wurtemberg, also in the South of France about Nîmes, and in Italy. It is extensively grown in India and China. The Indian plant is an annual of somewhat low stature.[1176]

The plant varies in stature, foliage, and in the size and form of its fruits; but all the forms belong apparently to a single species.

=History=—Fennel was used by the ancient Romans, as well for its aromatic fruits, as for its edible succulent shoots. It was also employed in Northern Europe at a remote period, as it is constantly mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon medical receipts, which date as early at least as the 11th century. The diffusion of the plant in Central Europe was stimulated by Charlemagne, who enjoined its cultivation on the imperial farms. Fennel shoots (_turiones fœnuculi_), fennel water, and fennel seed, as well as anise, are all mentioned in an ancient record[1177] of Spanish agriculture dating A.D. 961.

=Description=—The fennel fruits of commerce, commonly called _Fennel Seeds_, are of several kinds and of very different pecuniary value. The following are the principal sorts:—

1. _Sweet Fennel_,—known also as _Roman Fennel_, is cultivated in the neighbourhood of Nîmes in the south of France. The plant is a tall perennial with large umbels of 25 to 30 rays.[1178] As the plants grow old, the fruits of each succeeding season gradually change in shape and diminish in size, till at the end of 4 or 5 years they are hardly to be distinguished from those of the wild fennel growing in the same district. This curious fact, remarked by Tabernæmontanus (1588), was experimentally proved by Guibourt.[1179]

[1176] It is an annual even in England, ripening seeds in its first year, and then dying.

[1177] _Le Calendrier de Cordoue de l’année_, 961, publié par R. Dozy, Leyde, 1873.

[1178] The Nîmes fennel has been usually referred to _Fœniculum dulce_ DC., but that plant has the stem compressed at the base, and only 6 to 8 rays in the umbel; and is the fennel which is eaten as a vegetable or as a salad.

[1179] _Hist. des Drogues_, iii. (1869) 233.

The fruits of Sweet Fennel as found in the shops are oblong, cylindrical, about ⁴/₁₀ of an inch in length by ⅒ in diameter, more or less arched, terminating with the two-pointed base of the style, and smooth on the surface. Each pericarp is marked by 5 prominent ridges, the lateral being thicker than the dorsal. Between the ridges lie vittæ, and there are two vittæ on the commissural surface,—all filled with dark oily matter. The fruits seen in bulk have a pale greenish hue; their odour is aromatic, and they have a pleasant, saccharine, spicy taste.

2. _German Fennel_, _Saxon Fennel_, produced especially near Weissenfels in the Prussian province of Saxony; the fruits are ²/₁₀ to ¼ of an inch long, ovoid-oblong, a little compressed laterally, slightly curved, terminating in a short conical stylopodium; they are glabrous, of a deep brown, each mericarp marked with 5 conspicuous pale ridges, of which the lateral are the largest. Seen in bulk, the fruits have a greenish brown hue; they have an aromatic saccharine taste, with the peculiar smell of fennel.

3. _Wild or Bitter Fennel_ (_Fenouil amer_), collected in the south of France, where the plant grows without cultivation. They are smaller and broader than those of the German Fennel, being from ⅕ to ⅙ of an inch long by about ¹/₁₅ of an inch wide. They have less prominent ridges and at maturity are a little scurfy in the furrows and on the commissure. Their taste is bitterish, spicy, and strongly fennel-like. The essential oil (_Essence de Fenouil amer_) is distilled from the entire herb.

4. _Indian Fennel._—A sample in our possession from Bombay resembles Sweet Fennel, but the fruits are not so long, and are usually straight. The mother plant of this drug is _F. Panmorium_ DC., now regarded as a simple variety of _F. vulgare_ Gärtn.

=Microscopic Structure=—The most marked peculiarity of fennel is exhibited by the vittæ, which are surrounded by a brown tissue. The latter is made up of cells resembling the usual form of cork-cells. In Sweet Fennel the vittæ are smaller than in the German fruit; in the transverse section of the latter, the largest diameter of these ducts is about 200 mkm.

=Chemical Composition=—The most important constituent of fennel fruits is the volatile oil, which is afforded both by the Sweet and the German fennel to the extent of about 3½ per cent.

Oil of fennel, from whatever variety of the drug obtained, consists of _Anethol_ (or Anise-camphor)

{OCH₃ C₆H₄ { , {CH·CH·CH₃

and variable but less considerable proportions of an oil, isomeric with oil of turpentine. Anethol is obtainable from fennel in two forms, the solid and the liquid; crystals of the former are deposited when the oil is subjected to a somewhat low temperature; the liquid anethol may be got by collecting the portion of the crude oil passing over at 225° C. The crystals of anethol fuse between 16 and 20°; the liquid form of anethol remains fluid even at -10° C. By long keeping, the crystals slowly become liquid and lose their power of reassuming a crystalline form.

Three varieties of oil of fennel are found in commerce, namely the oils of _Sweet Fennel_ and _Bitter Fennel_ offered by the drug-houses of the south of France; their money value is as 3 to 1, the oil of sweet fennel, which has a decidedly _sweet_ taste, being by far the most esteemed. The third variety is obtained from Saxon fennel, especially by the manufacturers of Dresden and Leipzig.[1180] We have been supplied with type-specimens of the first two oils by the distillers, Messrs. J. Sagnier, fils, & Cie., Nîmes; a specimen of the third has been distilled in the laboratory of one of ourselves.

Oil of fennel differs from that of anise by displaying a considerable rotatory power. We found the above-mentioned specimens, examined in a column 50 mm. long, to deviate the ray of polarized light to the right thus:—

Oil of Sweet Fennel 29°·8 ” Bitter ” 4°·8 ” German ” 9°·1

The rotatory power is due to the hydrocarbon contained in the oil; we ascertain that anethol from oil of anise is devoid of it.

Fennel fruits contain sugar, yet their sweetness or bitterness depends on the essential oil rather than on the presence of that body. The albumen of the seed contains fixed oil, which amounts to about 12 per cent. of the fruit.

=Uses=—Fennel fruits are used in medicine in the form of distilled water and volatile oil, but to no considerable extent. The chief consumption is in cattle medicines, and of the oil in the manufacture of cordials.

FRUCTUS ANISI.

_Anise_, _Aniseed_; F. _Fruits d’Anis vert_; G. _Anis_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Pimpinella Anisum_ L., an annual plant, is indigenous to Asia Minor, the Greek Islands and Egypt, but nowhere to be met with undoubtedly growing wild. It is now also cultivated in many parts of Europe where the summer is hot enough for ripening its fruits, as well as in India and South America. It is not grown in Britain.

=History=—Anise, which the ancients obtained chiefly from Crete and Egypt, is among the oldest of medicines and spices.[1181] It is mentioned by Theophrastus, by the later writers Dioscorides and Pliny, as well as by Edrisi,[1182] who enumerates anise “sorte de graine douce” among the products of Tunisia. In Europe we find that Charlemagne (A.D. 812) commanded that anise should be cultivated on the imperial farms in Germany. The Anglo-Saxon writings contain frequent allusions to the use of dill and cumin, but we have failed to find in them any reference to anise, nor in the _Meddygon Myddfai_.

The Patent of Pontage granted by Edward I. in 1305 to raise funds for repairing the Bridge of London,[1183] enumerates _Anise_ (_anisium_) among the commodities liable to toll. There are entries for it under the name of _Annis vert_ in the account of the expenses of John, king of France, during his abode in England, 1359-60;[1184] and it is one of the spices of which the Grocers’ Company of London had the weighing and oversight from 1453.[1185] By the _Wardrobe Accounts_ of Edward IV., A.D. 1480,[1186] it appears that the royal linen was perfumed by means of “lytill bagges of fustian stuffed with ireos and _anneys_.”

[1180] The Leipzig Chamber of Commerce reports the quantity made by four establishments in 1872, as 4350 kilo. (9594 lb.).

[1181] On the _Anise_ of the Bible, see note in our article Fructus Anethi.

[1182] Page 150 of the “_Description_,” etc., quoted in the article Fructus Carui, p. 305, note 5.

[1183] (Thomson, R.), _Chronicles of London Bridge_, 1827. 156.

[1184] Doüet d’Arcq, _Comptes de l’Argenterie des Rois de France_, 1851. 206. 220.

[1185] Herbert, _Hist. of the twelve Great Livery Companies of London_, 1834, 310.

[1186] Edited by N. H. Nicolas, Lond. 1830. 131.

Anise seems to have been grown in England as a potherb prior to 1542, for Boorde in his _Dyetary of Helth_, printed in that year,[1187] says of it and fennel,—“these herbes be seldom vsed, but theyr seedes be greatly occupyde.”

In common with all other foreign commodities, anise was enormously taxed during the reign of Charles I., the duties levied upon it amounting to 75_s._ per 112 lb.[1188]

=Description=—Anise fruits, which have the usual characters of the order, are about ²/₁₀ of an inch in length, mostly undivided and attached to a slender pedicel. They are of ovoid form, tapering towards the summit, which is crowned by a pair of short styles rising from a thick stylopode; they are nearly cylindrical, but a little constricted towards the commissure. Each fruit is marked by 10 light-coloured ridges which give it a prismatic form; these as well as the rest of the surface of the fruit, are clothed with short rough hairs. The drug has a greyish brown hue, a spicy saccharine taste, and an agreeable aromatic smell.

=Microscopic Structure=—The most striking peculiarity of anise fruit is the large number of oil-ducts or vittæ it contains; each half of the fruit exhibits in transverse section nearly 30 oil-ducts, of which the 4 to 6 in the commissure are by far the largest. The hairs display a simple structure, inasmuch as they are the elongated cells of the epidermis a little rounded at the end.

=Chemical Composition=—The only important constituent of anise is the essential oil (_Oleum Anisi_), which the fruits afford to the extent of 3 per cent. from the best Moravian sort; Russian anise yields from 2·5 to 2·7 per cent., the German 2·3 per cent.[1189] This oil is a colourless liquid, having an agreeable odour of anise and a sweetish aromatic taste; its sp. gr. varies from 0·977 to 0·983. At 10° to 15° C., it solidifies to a hard crystalline mass, which does not resume its fluidity till the temperature rises to about 17° C.

Oil of anise resembles the oils of fennel, star-anise, and tarragon, in that it consists almost wholly of _Anethol_ or _Anise-camphor_ described in the previous article (p. 309). This fact explains the rotatory power of oil of anise being inferior to that of fennel. Oil of German anise, distilled by one of us, examined under the conditions stated, page 310, deviated only 1°·7, but to the left. _Franck_ (1868) found oil of Saxon anise deviating 1°·1 to the right.

=Production and Commerce=—Anise is produced in Malta, about Alicante in Spain, in Touraine and Guienne in France, in Puglia (Southern Italy), in several parts of Northern and Central Germany, Bohemia and Moravia. The Russian provinces of Orel, Tula and Woronesh, south of Moscow, also produce excellent anise, and in Southern Russia, Charkow is likewise known for the production of this drug. In Greece, anise is largely cultivated under the name of γλυάισον, and it is much grown in Northern India. Considerable quantities are also now imported from Chili. The drug is, on the whole, always of a remarkably uniform appearance.

[1187] Reprinted for the Early English Text Society, 1870. 281.

[1188] _Rates of Marchandizes_, 1635.

[1189] Laboratory notes obligingly furnished by Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig. (1878).

=Uses=—Anise is an aromatic stimulant and carminative, usually administered in the form of essential oil as an adjunct to other medicines. It is also used as a cattle medicine. The essential oil is largely consumed in the manufacture of cordials, chiefly in France, Spain, Italy, and South America.

=Adulteration=—The fruits of anise are sometimes mixed with those of hemlock, but whether by design or by carelessness we know not. Careful inspection with a lens will reveal this dangerous adulteration. We have known _powdered_ anise also to contain hemlock, and have detected it by trituration in a mortar with a few drops of solution of potash, a sample of pure anise for comparison being tried at the same time.

The essential oil of aniseed may readily be confounded with that of Star-anise, which is distilled from the fruits of the widely different _Illicium anisatum_. As stated at p. 22, these oils agree so closely in their chemical and optical properties, that no scientific means are known for distinguishing them.

RADIX SUMBUL.

_Sumbul Root_; F. _Racine de Sumbul_, _Sambola ou Sambula_; G. _Moschuswurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Ferula Sumbul_ Hooker fil. (_Euryangium Sumbul_ Kauffmann[1190]), a tall perennial plant discovered in 1869 by a Russian traveller, Fedschenko, in the mountains of Maghian near Pianjakent, in the northern part of the Khanat of Bukhara, nearly 40° N. lat., and 68° to 69° E. long. From Wittmann’s statements (1876) it would appear that the Sumbul plant abounds far east from that country, in the coast province of the Amoor. A living plant transmitted from the former district to the Botanical Garden of Moscow flowered there in 1871, another in 1875 at Kew, where the plant died after flowering.

[1190] _Nouv. Mém. de la Soc. imp. des Nat. de Moscou_, xii. (1871) 253. tabb. 24. 25.—Also figured in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_,

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