part 9

(1876).

The fracture of the stem is coarse and fibrous. The transverse section, whether of stem or root, shows a thickish, corky bark surrounding a light brown wood composed of a number of converging wedges (10 to 20) of very porous structure, separated by narrow medullary rays. There are _no concentric layers_ of wood,[130] nor is the arrangement of the wedges oblique as in many other stems of the order. The drug is inodorous, but has a very bitter taste without sweetness or astringency.

[130] It is therefore entirely different to the wood figured as that of _C. Pareira_ by Eichler in Martius’ _Flor. Bras._ xiii. pars. i. tab. 50. fig. 7.

2. _Common False Pareira Brava_—Under this name we designate the drug which for many years past has been the ordinary Pareira Brava of the shops, and regarded until lately as derived from _Cissampelos Pareira_ L. We have long endeavoured to ascertain, through correspondents in Brazil, from what plant it is derived, but without success. We only know that it belongs to the order _Menispermaceæ_.

The drug consists of a ponderous, woody, tortuous stem and root, occurring in pieces from a few inches to a foot or more in length, and from 1 to 4 inches in thickness, coated with a thin, hard, dark brown bark. The pieces are cylindrical, four-sided, or more or less flattened—sometimes even to the extent of becoming ribbon-like. In transverse section, their structure appears very remarkable. Supposing the piece to be _stem_, a well-defined pith will be found to occupy the centre of the first-formed wood, which is a column about ¼ of an inch in diameter. This is succeeded by 10 to 15 or more concentric or oftener eccentric zones, ⅒ to ²/₁₀ of an inch wide, each separated from its neighbour by a layer of parenchyme, the outermost being coated with a true bark. In pieces of _true root_, the pith is reduced to a mere point.

Sometimes the development of the zones has been so irregular that they have formed themselves entirely on one side of the primitive column, the other being coated with bark. The zones, including the layer, around the pith (if pith is present), are crossed by numerous small medullary rays. These do not run from the centre to the circumference, but traverse only their respective zones, on the outside of which they are arched together.

The drug, when of good quality, has its wood firm, compact, and of a dusky yellowish-brown hue, and a well-marked bitter taste. It exhibits under the knife nothing of the close waxy texture seen in the root of _Chondodendron_, but cuts as a tough, fibrous wood. Its decoction is not tinged blue by iodine. It was in this drug that Wiggers in 1839 discovered _pelosine_.

The drug just described, which is by no means devoid of medicinal power, has of late years been almost entirely supplanted in the market by another sort consisting exclusively of stems which are devoid of bitterness and appear to be wholly inert. They are in the form of sticks or truncheons, mostly cylindrical. Cut traversely, they display the same structure as the sort last described, with a well-defined pith. The wood is light in weight, of a dull tint, and disposed to split. The bark, which consists of two layers, is easily detached.

3. _Stems of Chondodendron tomentosum_ R. et P.—These have been recently imported from Brazil, and sold as _Pareira Brava_.[131] The drug consists of truncheons about 1½ feet in length, of a rather rough and knotty stem, from 1 to 4 inches thick.[132] The larger pieces, which are sometimes hollow with age, display, when cut traversely, a small number (5-9) nearly concentric woody zones. The youngest pieces have the bark dotted over with small dark warts.

The wood is inodorous, but has a bitterish taste like the root, of which it is probably an efficient representative. Some pieces have portions of root springing from them, and detached roots occur here and there among the bits of stem. The structure and development of the latter has been elaborately examined and figured by Moss,[133] and also by Lanessan,[134] in the French translation of our book.

4. _White Pareira Brava_—Stems and roots of _Abuta rufescens_ Aublet.—Mr. J. Correa de Méllo of Campinas has been good enough to send to one of us (H.) a specimen of the root and leaves[135] of this plant, marked _Parreira Brava grande_. The former we have identified with a drug received from Rio de Janeiro as _Abutua Unha de Vaca_, i.e. _Cowhoof Abutua_, and also with a similar drug found in the London market. Aublet[136] states that the root of _Abuta rufescens_ was, in the time of his visit to French Guiana, shipped from that colony to Europe as _Pareira Brava Blanc_ (White Pareira Brava).

[131] 45 packages containing about 20 cwt. were offered for sale by Messrs. Lewis and Peat, drug-brokers, 11 Sept. 1873, but there had been earlier importations.

[132] From these knots, which are at regular intervals, and sometimes very protuberant, it would appear that the panicles of flower arise year after year.

[133] _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1876) 702.

[134] _Histoire des Drogues d’origine végétale_, i. (Paris, 1878) 72.

[135] I have compared these leaves with Aublet’s own specimen in the British Museum.—D. H.

[136] _Hist. des Plantes de la Guiane Françoise_, i. (1775) 618. tab. 250.

This name is well applicable to the drug before us, which consists of short pieces of a root, ½ an inch to 3 inches thick, covered with a rough blackish bark, and also of bits of stem having a pale, striated, corky bark. Cut transversely, the root displays a series of concentric zones of white amylaceous cellular tissue, each beautifully marked with narrow wedge-shaped medullary rays of dark, porous tissue. The wood of the stem is harder than that of the root, the medullary rays are closer together and broader, and there is a distinct pith.

The wood, neither of root nor stem, has any taste or smell. A decoction of the root is turned bright blue by iodine.

5. _Yellow Pareira Brava_—This drug, of which a quantity was in the hands of a London drug-broker in 1873, is, we presume, the _Pareira Brava jaune_ of Aublet—the bitter tasting stem of his “_Abuta amara_ folio levi cordiformi ligno flavescente,”—a plant of Guiana unknown to recent botanists. That which we have seen consists of portions of a hard woody stem, from 1 to 5 or 6 inches in diameter, covered with a whitish bark. Internally it is marked by numerous regular concentric zones, is of a bright yellow colour and of a bitter taste. It contains berberine. The same drug, apparently, was exhibited in the Paris exposition of 1878 as “Liane amère” from French Guiana.

COCCULUS INDICUS.

_Fructus Cocculi_; _Cocculus Indicus_; F. _Coque du Levant_; G. _Kokkelskörner_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Anamirta paniculata_ Colebrooke, 1822 (_Menispermum Cocculus_ L.; _Anamirta Cocculus_ Wight et Arnott, 1834), a strong climbing shrub found in the eastern parts of the Indian peninsula from Concan and Orissa to Malabar and Ceylon, in Eastern Bengal, Khasia and Assam, and in the Malayan Islands.

=History=—It is commonly asserted that _Cocculus Indicus_ was introduced into Europe through the Arabs, but the fact is difficult of proof; for though Avicenna[137] and other early writers mention a drug having the power of poisoning fish, they describe it as a _bark_, and make no allusion to it as a production of India. Even Ibn Baytar[138] in the 13th century professed his inability to discover what substance the older Arabian authors had in view.

Cocculus Indicus is not named by the writers of the School of Salerno. The first mention of it we have met with is by Ruellius,[139] who, alluding to the property possessed by the roots of _Aristolochia_ and _Cyclamen_ of attracting fishes, states that the same power exists in the little berries found in the shops under the name of _Cocci Orientis_, which when scattered on water stupify the fishes, so that they may be captured by the hand.

Valerius Cordus[140] thought the drug which he calls _Cuculi de Levante_ to be the fruit of a _Solanum_ growing in Egypt.

Dalechamps[141] repeated this statement in 1586, at which period and for long afterwards, Cocculus Indicus used to reach Europe from Alexandria and other parts of the Levant. Gerarde,[142] who gives a very good figure of it, says it is well known in England (1597) as _Cocculus Indicus_, otherwise _Cocci_ vel _Cocculæ Orientales_, and that it is used for destroying vermin and poisoning fish. In 1635 it was subject to an import duty of 2_s._ per lb., as _Cocculus Indiæ_.[143]

The use of Cocculus Indicus in medicine was advocated by Battista Codronchi, a celebrated Italian physician of the 16th century, in a tractate entitled _De Baccis Orientalibus_.[144] In the “Pinax” Caspar Bauhin (about 1660) states that _Cocculæ officinarum_ “saepe racematim pediculis hærentes, hederæ corymborum modo, ex Alexandria adferuntur.”

[137] Valgrisi edition, 1564. lib. ii. tract. 2. cap. 488.

[138] Sontheimer’s transl. ii. 460.

[139] _De Natura Stirpium_, Paris, 1536. lib. iii. c. 4.

[140] _Adnotationes_, 1549. cap. 63 (p. 509).

[141] _Hist. Gen. Plant._ 1586. 1722.

[142] _Herball_, Lond. 1636. 1548-49.

[143] _The Rates of Marchandizes_, Lond. 1635.

[144] It forms part of his work _De Christiana ac tuta medendi ratione_, Ferrariæ, 1591.

The word _Cocculus_ is derived from the Italian _coccola_, signifying a small, berry-like fruit.[145] Mattioli remarks that as the berries when first brought from the East to Italy had no special name, they got to be called _Coccole di Levante_.[146]

=Description=—The female flower of _Anamirta_ has normally 5 ovaries placed on a short gynophore. The latter, as it grows, becomes raised into a stalk about ½ an inch long, articulated at the summit with shorter stalks, each supporting a drupe, which is a matured ovary. The purple drupes thus produced are 1 to 3 in number, of gibbous ovoid form, with the persistent stigma on the straight side, and in a line with the shorter stalk or carpodium. They grow in a pendulous panicle, a foot or more in length.

These fruits removed from their stalks and dried have the aspect of little round berries, and constitute the Cocculus Indicus of commerce. As met with in the market they are shortly ovoid or subreniform, ⁴/₁₀ to ⁵/₁₀ of an inch long, with a blackish, wrinkled surface, and an obscure ridge running round the back. The shorter stalk, when present, supports the fruit very obliquely. The pericarp, consisting of a wrinkled skin covering a thin woody endocarp, encloses a single reniform seed, into which the endocarp deeply intrudes. In transverse section the seed has a horseshoe form; it consists chiefly of albumen, enclosing a pair of large, diverging lanceolate cotyledons, with a short terete radicle.[147]

The seed is bitter and oily, the pericarp tasteless. The drug is preferred when of dark colour, free from stalks, and fresh, with the seeds well-preserved.

=Microscopic Structure=—The woody endocarp is built up of a peculiar sclerenchymatous tissue, consisting of branched, somewhat elongated cells. They are densely packed, and run in various directions, showing but small cavities. The parenchyme of the seed is loaded with crystallized fatty matter.

=Chemical Composition=—_Picrotoxin_, a crystallizable substance occurring in the seed to the extent of ⅖ to 1 per cent., was observed by Boullay, as early as 1812, and is the source of the poisonous property of the drug. Picrotoxin does not neutralize acids. It dissolves in water and in alkalis; the solution in the latter reduces cupric or bismutic oxide like the sugars, but to a much smaller extent than glucose. The alcoholic solutions deviate the ray of polarized light to the left. The aqueous solution of picrotoxin is not altered by any metallic salt, or by tannin, iodic acid, iodohydrargyrate or bichromate of potassium—in fact by none of the reagents which affect the alkaloids. It may thus be easily distinguished from the bitter poisonous alkaloids, although in its behaviour with concentrated sulphuric acid and bichromate of potassium it somewhat resembles strychnine, as shown in 1867 by Köhler.

[145] Frutto d’alcuni alberi, e d’alcune piante, o erbe salvatiche, come cipresso, ginepro, alloro, pugnitopo, e lentischio, e simili.—Lat. _bacca_; Gr. ἀκρόδρνα.—_Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca._

[146] Quoted by J. J. von Tschudi, _Die Kokkelskörner und das Pikrotoxin_, St. Gallen, 1847.

[147] The fruit should be macerated in order to examine its structure.

Picrotoxin melts at 200° C.; its composition, C₉H₁₀O₄, as ascertained in 1877 by Paternò and Oglialoro, is the same as that of everninic, hydrocoffeïc, umbellic and veratric (or dimethyl-protocatechuic acid—see Semen Sabadillæ) acids.

Pelletier and Couerbe (1833) obtained from the pericarp of Cocculus Indicus two crystallizable, tasteless, non-poisonous substances, having the same composition, and termed respectively _Menispermine_ and _Paramenispermine_. These bodies, as well as the very doubtful amorphous _Hypopicrotoxic Acid_ of the same chemists, require re-examination.

The fat of the seed, which amounts to about half its weight, is used in India for industrial purposes. Its acid constituent, formerly regarded as a peculiar substance under the name of _Stearophanic_ or _Anamirtic Acid_, was found by Heintz to be identical with stearic acid.

=Commerce=—Cocculus Indicus is imported from Bombay and Madras, but we have no statistics showing to what extent. The stock in the dock warehouses of London on 1st of December, 1873, was 1168 packages, against 2010 packages on the same day of the previous year. The drug is mostly shipped to the Continent, the consumption in Great Britain being very small.

=Uses=—In British medicine Cocculus Indicus is only employed as an ingredient of an ointment for the destruction of _pediculi_. It has been discarded from the _British Pharmacopœia_, but has a place in that of India.

GULANCHA.

_Caulis et radix Tinosporæ._

=Botanical Origin=—_Tinospora cordifolia_ Miers (_Cocculus cordifolius_ DC.), a lofty climbing shrub found throughout tropical India from Kumaon to Assam and Burma, and from Concan to Ceylon and the Carnatic.[148] It is called in Hindustani _Gulancha_; in Bombay the drug is known under the name of _Goolwail_.

=History=—The virtues of this plant which appear to have been long familiar to the Hindu physicians, attracted the attention of Europeans in India at the early part of the present century.[149] According to a paper published at Calcutta in 1827,[150] the parts used are the stem, leaves, and root, which are given in decoction, infusion, or a sort of extract called _pálo_, in a variety of diseases attended with slight febrile symptoms.

O’Shaughnessy declares the plant to be one of the most valuable in India, and that it has proved a very useful tonic. Similar favourable testimony is borne by Waring. Gulancha was admitted to the _Bengal Pharmacopœia_ of 1844, and to the _Pharmacopœia of India_ of 1868.

=Description=—The stems are perennial, twining and succulent, running over the highest trees and throwing out roots many yards in length which descend like slender cords to the earth. They have a thick corky bark marked with little prominent tubercles.

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