part 25

(1877).

_C. gigantea_, corolla opening flat, flower-buds bluntly conical or oblong, appendages of corona rounded.

=History=—The ancient name of the plant, which occurs already in the Vedic literature, was _Arka_ (wedge), alluding to the form of the leaves which were used in sacrificial rites. From one of the Sanskrit names of this plant, namely _Mandāra_, Mudar is a corruption;[1571] the latter is frequently mentioned in the writings of Susruta.

The plant was likewise well known to the Arabian physicians.[1572]

_C. procera_ was observed in Egypt by Prosper Alpinus (1580-84), and upon his return to Italy was figured, and some account given of its medicinal properties.[1573] It is also the “Apocynum syriacum” figured by Clusius.[1574]

_C. gigantea_ was figured by Rheede[1575] in 1679, and in our own day by Wight.[1576]

The medicinal virtues of mudar, though so long esteemed by the natives of India, were not investigated experimentally by Europeans until the present century, when Playfair recommended the drug in elephantiasis, and its good effects were afterwards noticed by Vos (1826), Cumin (1827), and Duncan (1829). The last named physician also performed a chemical examination of the root-bark, the activity of which he referred to an extractive matter which he termed _Mudarine_.[1577]

=Description=—The root-bark of _C. procera_, as we have received it,[1578] consists of short, arched, bent, or nearly flat fragments, ⅛ to ⅕ of an inch thick. They have outwardly a thickish, yellowish-grey, spongy cork, more or less fissured lengthwise, frequently separating from the middle cortical layer; the latter consists of a white mealy tissue, traversed by narrow brown liber-rays. The bark is brittle and easily powdered; it has a mucilaginous, bitter, acrid taste, but no distinctive odour. The light yellow, fibrous wood is still attached to many of the pieces.

The roots of _C. gigantea_ are clothed with a bark which seems to be undistinguishable from that of _C. procera_ just described. The wood of the root consists of a porous, pale yellow tissue, exhibiting large vascular bundles, and very numerous small medullary rays, consisting of 1 to 3 rows of the usual cells.[1579]

[1571] Information for which we are indebted to Dr. Rice.

[1572] Ibn Baytar, translated by Sontheimer, ii. (1842) 193.

[1573] _De Plantis Ægypti_, Venet. 1592. cap. xxv.

[1574] _Rarior. plantar. hist._ ii. (1601) lxxxvii.

[1575] _Hortus Malabaricus_, ii. tab. 31.

[1576] _Illustrations of Indian Botany_, Madras, ii. (1850) tab. 155.—_C. procera_ is figured by the same author in his _Icones Plantarum Indiæ Orientalis_, iv. tab. 1278.

[1577] _Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ._ xxxii. (1829) 60.

[1578] We are indebted for an authentic specimen to Dr. E. Burton Brown of Lahore.

[1579] Roots of _C. gigantea_ kindly supplied to us by Dr. Bidie of Madras consist of light, woody truncheons, ½ to 2¼ inches in diameter.

=Microscopic Structure=—In the root-bark of _C. procera_, the suberous coat is made up of large, thin-walled, polyhedral, or almost cubic cells; the middle cortical layer, of a uniform parenchyme, loaded with large starch granules, or here and there containing some thick-walled cells (sclerenchyme) and tufts of oxalate of calcium. The large medullary rays are built up of the usual cells, having porous walls and containing starch and oxalate. In a longitudinal section, the tissue, chiefly of the middle cortical layer, is found to be traversed by numerous laticiferous vessels, containing the dry milk juice[1580] as a brownish granular substance not soluble in potash.

The microscopic characters of the root-bark of _C. gigantea_ agree with those here detailed of _C. procera_. The stems of _Calotropis_ are distinguished by strong liber-fibres, which are not met with in the roots.

=Chemical Composition=—By following the process of Duncan above alluded to, 200 grammes of the powdered bark of _C. gigantea_ yielded us nothing like his _Mudarine_, but 2·4 grammes of an acrid _resin_, soluble in ether as well as in alcohol. The latter solution reddens litmus; the former on evaporation yields the resin as an almost colourless mass. If the aqueous liquid is separated from the crude resin, and much absolute alcohol added, an abundant precipitate of mucilage is obtained. The liquid now contains a bitter principle, which after due concentration may be separated by means of tannic acid.

We obtained similar results by exhausting the bark of _C. procera_ with dilute alcohol. The tannic compound of the bitter principle was mixed with carbonate of lead, dried and boiled with spirit of wine. This after evaporation furnished an amorphous, very bitter mass, not soluble in water, but readily so in absolute alcohol. The solution is _not_ precipitated by an alcoholic solution of acetate of lead. By purifying the bitter principle with chloroform or ether, it is at last obtained colourless. This bitter matter is probably the active principle of _Calotropis_; we ascertained by means of the usual tests that no alkaloid occurs in the drug. The large juicy stem, especially that of _C. gigantea_, ought to be submitted to an accurate chemical and therapeutical examination.[1581]

=Uses=—Mudar is an alterative, tonic and diaphoretic,—in large doses emetic. By the natives of India, who employ it in venereal and skin complaints, almost all parts of the plant are used. According to Moodeen Sheriff,[1582] the bark of the root and the dried milky juice are the most efficient; the latter is however somewhat irregular and unsafe in its action. The same writer remarks that he has found that the older the plant, the more active is the bark in its effects. He recommends that the corky outer coat, which is tasteless and inert, should be scraped off before the bark is powdered for use: of a powder so prepared, 40 to 50 grains suffice as an emetic.

The stems of _C. gigantea_ afford a very valuable fibre which can be spun into the finest thread for sewing or weaving.[1583]

[1580] It is evidently with a view to the retention of this juice, that the _Pharmacopœia of India_ orders the bark to be stripped from the roots when the latter are half-dried. Moodeen Sheriff remarks of _C. gigantea_, that although it is frequently used in medicine, no part of it is sold in the bazaars,—no doubt from the circumstance that the plant is everywhere found wild and can be collected as required.

[1581] List’s _Asclepione_ (Gmelin’s _Chemistry_, xvii. 368) might then be sought for.

[1582] _Supplement to the Pharmacopœia of India_, Madras, 1869. 364; for further information on the therapeutic uses of mudar, see also _Pharm. of India_, 458.

[1583] Drury, _Useful Plants of India_, 2nd ed. 1873. 101.

FOLIA TYLOPHORÆ.

_Country or Indian Ipecacuanha_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Tylophora asthmatica_ Wight et Arnott (_Asclepias asthmatica_ Roxb.), a twining perennial plant, common in sandy soils throughout the Indian Peninsula and naturalized in Mauritius. It may be distinguished from some of its congeners by its reddish or dull pink flowers, with the scale of the staminal corona abruptly contracted into a long sharp tooth.[1584]

=History=—The employment of this plant in medicine is well known to the Hindus, who call it _Antamul_ and use it with considerable success in dysentery, but we have not succeeded in tracing it in the ancient Indian literature. During the last century it attracted the attention of Roxburgh[1585] who made many observations on the administration of the root, while physician to the General Hospital of Madras from 1776 to 1778. It was also used very successfully in the place of ipecacuanha by Anderson, Physician-General to the Madras army.[1586] In more recent times, the plant has been prescribed by O’Shaughnessy, who pronounced the root an excellent substitute for ipecacuanha if given in rather larger doses.[1587] Kirkpatrick[1588] administered the drug in at least a thousand cases, and found it of the greatest value; he prescribed the _dried leaf_, not only because superior to the root in certainty of action, but also as being obtainable without destruction of the plant. The drug has been largely given by many other practitioners in India. _Tylophora_ is also employed in Mauritius, where it is known as _Ipéca sauvage_ or _Ipéca du pays_. It has a place in the _Bengal Pharmacopœia_ of 1844, and in the _Pharmacopœia of India_ of 1868.

=Description=[1589]—The leaves are opposite, entire, from 2 to 5 inches long, ¾ to 2½ inches broad, somewhat variable in outline, ovate or subrotund, usually cordate at the base, abruptly acuminate or almost mucronate, rather leathery, glabrous above, more or less downy beneath with soft simple hairs. The pedicel, which is channelled, is ½ to ¾ of an inch in length. In the dry state the leaves are rather thick and harsh, of a pale yellowish green; they have a not unpleasant herbaceous smell, with but very little taste.[1590]

=Chemical Composition=—A concentrated infusion of the leaves has a slightly acrid taste. It is abundantly precipitated by tannic acid, by neutral acetate of lead or caustic potash, and is turned greenish-black by perchloride of iron. Broughton of Ootacamund (India) has informed us (1872) that from a large quantity of the leaves he obtained a small amount of crystals,—insufficient for analysis. Dissolved and injected into a small dog, they occasioned purging and vomiting.

[1584] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_,