Chapter XLIII: Part 43

=Botanical Origin=—_Veratrum viride_ Aiton, a plant in every respect closely resembling _V. album_, of which it is one of the numerous forms. In fact, the green-coloured variety of the latter (_V. Lobelianum_ Bernh.), a plant not uncommon in the mountain meadows of the Alps, comes so near to the American _V. viride_ that we are unable to point out any important character by which the two can be separated.[2598] The American _Veratrum_ is common in swamps and low grounds from Canada to Georgia.

[2596] For good specimens of which I am indebted to Dr. Weppen.—F. A. F.

[2597] The name _Green Hellebore_ is sometimes applied to this drug, but it properly belongs to _Helleborus viridis_ L., which is medicinal in some parts of Europe.

[2598] Sims in contrasting _Veratrum viride_ with _V. album_ observes that the flowers of the former are “more inclined to a yellow green,” the petals broader and more erect, with the margins, especially about the claw, thickened and covered with a white mealiness. _Bot. Mag._ xxvii. (1808) tab. 1096.—Regel has described four varieties of _Veratrum album_ L., as occurring in the region of the Lower Ussuri and Amurland, one of which, var. γ., he has identified with the American _V. viride_.—_Tentamen Floræ Ussuriensis_, St. Petersb. 1761. 153.

=History=—The aborigines of North America were acquainted with the active properties of this plant before their intercourse with Europeans, using it according to Josselyn,[2599] who visited the country in 1638-1671, as a vomit in a sort of ordeal. He calls it _White Hellebore_, and states that it is employed by the colonists as a purgative, antiscorbutic and insecticide.

Kalm (1749) states[2600] that the early settlers used a decoction of the roots to render their seed-maize poisonous to birds, which were made “delirious” by eating the grain, but not killed; and this custom was still practised in New England in 1835 (Osgood).

The effects of the drug have been repeatedly tried in the United States during the present century; and about 1862, in consequence of the strong recommendations of Drs. Osgood, Norwood, Cutter, and others, it began to be prescribed in this country.

=Description=—In form, internal structure, odour and taste, the rhizome and roots accord with those of _Veratrum album_; yet owing to the method of drying and preparing for the market, the American veratrum is immediately distinguishable from the White Hellebore of European commerce. We have met with it in three forms:—

1. The rhizome with roots attached, usually cut lengthwise into quarters, sometimes transversely also, densely beset with the pale brown roots, which towards their extremities are clothed with slender fibrous rootlets.

2. Rhizome and roots compressed into solid rectangular cakes, an inch in thickness.

3. The rhizome _per se_, sliced transversely and dried. It forms whitish, buff, or brownish discs, ½ to 1 inch or more in diameter, much shrunken and curled by drying. This is the form in which the drug is required by the United States Pharmacopœia.

=Chemical Composition=—No chemical difference between _Veratrum viride_ and _V. album_ has yet been ascertained. The presence of veratrine, suspected by previous chemists, was asserted by Worthington[2601] in 1839, J. G. Richardson of Philadelphia in 1857, and S. R. Percy in 1864. Scattergood[2602] obtained from the American drug 0·4 per cent. of this alkaloid, which however, in consequence of some observations of Dragendorff (p. 694), we must hold to be not identical with that of cebadilla. As stated in a previous page jervine and veratroïdine are present as in the White Hellebore of Europe. Robbins[2603] further isolated _Veratridine_, a crystallized alkaloid possessed of a similar physiological action to that of veratrine, though in a less degree. Veratridine is readily soluble in ether; its solution in concentrated sulphuric acid is at first yellow, changing quickly to a pink-red, and, after several hours’ standing, assumes a clear indigo-blue colour, much the same as that displayed by veratrine _if mixed with sugar_ (Weppen’s test, 1874). The resin of the drug may be prepared by exhausting it with alcohol and precipitating with boiling acidulated water, repeating the process in order to entirely eliminate the alkaloids. It is a dark brown mass, yielding about a fourth of its weight to ether. Scattergood obtained it to the extent of 4½ per cent. By exhausting the drug successively with ether, absolute alcohol and spirit of wine, we extracted from it not less than 31 per cent. of a soft resinoid mass. Worthington pointed out the presence of gallic acid and of sugar.

[2599] _New England’s Rarities discovered_, Lond. 1672. 43; also _Account of two Voyages to New England_, Lond., 1674, 60. 76.

[2600] _Travels in North America_, vol. ii. (1771) 91.

[2601] _Am. Journ. of Pharm._ iv. (1839) 89.

[2602] _Proc. of Am. Pharm. Assoc._ 1862. 226.

[2603] _Ibid._, 1877. 439. 523.

=Uses=—_Veratrum viride_ has of late been much recommended as a cardiac, arteral and nervous sedative. It is stated to lower the pulse, the respiration and beat of the body, not to be narcotic, and rarely to occasion purging;[2604] but to what principle these effects are due has not yet been ascertained. By some observers, as Bigelow,[2605] Fée,[2606] Schroff,[2607] and Oulmont,[2608] it is alleged to have the same medicinal powers as the European _Veratrum album_.

SEMEN SABADILLÆ.

_Fructus Sabadillæ_; _Cebadilla_, _Cevadilla_; F. _Cévadille_; G. _Sabadillsamen_, _Läusesamen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Asagræa officinalis_ Lindley (_Veratrum officinale_ Schlecht, _Sabadilla officinarum_ Brandt, _Schœnocaulon officinale_ A. Gray).—A bulbous plant, growing in Mexico, in grassy places on the eastern declivities of the volcanic range of the Cofre de Perote, and Orizaba, near Teosolo, Huatusco and Zacuapan, down to the sea-shore, also in Guatemala. Cebadilla is (or was) cultivated near Vera Cruz, Alvarado and Tlacatalpan in the Gulf of Mexico.

Another form of _Asagræa_, first noticed by Berg,[2609] but of late more particularly by Ernst of Caracas, who thinks it may constitute a distinct species, is found in plenty on grassy slopes, 3,500 to 4,000 feet above the sea-level, in the neighbourhood of Caracas, and southward in the hilly regions bordering the valley of the Tuy.[2610] It differs chiefly in having broader and more carinate leaves.[2611] Of late years it has furnished large quantities of seed, which, freed from their capsules, have been shipped from La Guaira to Hamburg.

[2604] Cutter, _Lancet_, Jan. 4, Aug. 16, 1862; _Pharm. Journ._ iv. (1863) 134.

[2605] _American Medical Botany_, ii. (1819) 121-136.

[2606] _Cours d’Hist. Nat. Pharm._ i. (1828) 319.

[2607] _Medizinische Jahrbücher_, xix. (Vienna, 1863) 129-148.

[2608] Buchner’s _Repertorium für Pharmacie_, xviii. (1868) 50; also Wiggers and Husemann’s _Jahresbericht_, xviii. 1868. 505.

[2609] Berg u. Schmidt, _Offiz. Gewächse_, i. (1858) tab. ix. e. “_Sabadilla officinarum_.”

[2610] Ernst, communication to the Linnean Society of London, 15 Dec., 1870.

[2611] _Veratrum Sabadilla_ Retzius is stated by Lindley (_Flora Medica_, p. 586) to be a native of Mexico and the West Indian Islands, and to furnish a portion of the cebadilla seeds of commerce. The plant is unknown to us: we have searched for it in vain in the herbaria of Kew and the British Museum. It is not mentioned as West Indian by Grisebach (_Flor. of Brit. W. I. Islands_, 1864; _Cat. Plant. Cubensium_, 1866). The figure by Descourtilz (_Flor. méd. des Antilles_, iii. 1827. t. 1859) who had the plant growing at St. Domingo, shows it to resemble _Veratrum album_ L., and therefore to be very different from _Asagræa_.

=History=—Cebadilla was first described in 1517 by Monardes, who states that it is used by the Indians of New Spain as a caustic and corrosive application to wounds; but it does not seem to have been brought into European commerce, for neither Parkinson who described it in 1640 as the _Indian Causticke Barley_, nor Ray (1693) did more than copy from Monardes. It was regarded in Germany a rare drug even in 1726, but in the latter half of the last century it began to be recommended in France and Germany for the destruction of pediculi. A famous composition for this purpose was the _Poudre des Capucins_, consisting of a mixture of stavesacre, tobacco, and cebadilla, which was applied either dry or made into an ointment with lard.[2612] Cebadilla was also administered combined into a pill with gamboge and valerian,[2613] for the destruction of intestinal worms, but its virulent action made it hazardous.

Upon the introduction of veratrine into medicine about 1824 cebadilla attracted some notice, and was occasionally prescribed in the form of tincture and extract; but it subsequently fell into disuse, and is now only employed for the manufacture of veratrine.

=Description=—Each fruit consists of three oblong pointed follicles, about ½ an inch in length, surrounded below by the remains of the 6-partite calyx, and attached to a short pedicel. The follicles are united at the base, spread somewhat towards the apex, and open by their ventral suture. They are of a light brown colour and papery substance. Each usually contains two-pointed narrow black seeds, ³/₁₀ of an inch in length, which are shining, rugose, and angular or concave by mutual pressure. The compact testa encloses an oily albumen, at the base of which, opposite to the beaked apex, lies the small embryo. The seed is inodorous and has a bitter acrid taste; when powdered, it produces violent sneezing.

=Microscopic Structure=—A transverse section shows the horny concentrically radiated albumen, closely attached to the testa. The latter consists of an outer layer of cuboid cells, and three rows of smaller, thin-walled, tangentially-extended cells, all of which have brown walls. The tissue of the albumen is made up of large porous cells, containing drops of oil, granules of albuminoid matter, and mucilage. Traces of tannic acid occur only in the outer layers of the seed.

=Chemical Composition=—Meissner, an apothecary of Halle, Prussia, in 1819 discovered in cebadilla a basic substance, which he termed _Sabadilline_; in publishing, in 1821, the description of it the word “_alkaloid_” was introduced by Meissner at that occasion. The name _Veratrine_[2614] was applied likewise in 1819 by Pelletier and Caventou to a similar preparation. For many years this substance was known only as an amorphous powder, in which state it frequently contained a considerable proportion of resin; but in 1855 it was obtained by G. Merck in large rhombic prisms. Cebadilla yields only about 3 per mille of veratrine. The alkaloid is easily soluble in spirit of wine, ether or chloroform; these solutions, as well as the watery solutions of its salts, are devoid of rotatory power. Veratrine, like the drug from which it is derived, occasions, if inhaled, prolonged sternutation.

[2612] Murray, _Apparatus Medicaminum_, v. (1790) 171; Mérat and De Lens, _Dict. Mat. Méd._ vi. (1834) 862.

[2613] Peyrilhe, _Cours. d’Hist. Nat. Méd._ ii. (1804) 490.

[2614] So called from Schlechtendal’s name for the plant, _Veratrum officinale_.

Again, in 1834, Conerbe described an alkaloid from cebadilla under the name of _Sabadilline_, and _Weigelin_ (1871) another called _Sabatrine_.

From the investigations of Wright and Luff (1878) it appears that the above-mentioned statements must be resumed thus:—There are in cebadilla three alkaloids, namely _Veratrine_, C₃₇H₅₃NO₁₁, _Cevadine_, C₃₂H₄₉NO₉, and _Cevadilline_, C₃₄H₅₃NO₈, the second only being crystallizable.

Veratrin may be decomposed by means of caustic lye into a new alkaloid, verine, and dimethyl-protocatechuic acid,

{(OCH₃)₂
C₆H₃ {
{COOH

By the same treatment, cevadine yields an acid which appears to be identical with tiglinic acid (page 566), and an alkaloid called cevine.

Cebadilla yielded to Pelletier and Caventou a volatile fatty acid, _Sabadillic_ or _Cevadic Acid_, the needle-shaped crystals of which fuse at 20° C. Lastly, E. Merck (1839) found a second peculiar acid termed _Veratric Acid_, affording quadrangular prisms, which can be sublimed without decomposition. It is yielded by cebadilla to the extent of but ⅙ per mille. It has been shown in 1876 by Körner to be identical with dimethyl-protocatechuic acid just mentioned (see also our article _Tubera Aconiti_, p. 9).

=Commerce=—The quantity of cebadilla (_seeds_ only) shipped in 1876 from La Guaira, the port of Caracas, was 35,033 kilos., of which 25,966 went to Germany. No other sort is now imported.

=Uses=—Cebadilla is at present, we believe, only used as the source of veratrine. In Mexico, the bulb of the plant is employed as an anthelminthic, under the name of _Cebolleja_, but it is said to be very dangerous in its action.

CORMUS COLCHICI.

_Tuber vel Bulbus vel Radix Colchici_; _Meadow Saffron Root_; F. _Bulbe de Colchique_; G. _Zeitlosenknollen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Colchicum autumnale_ L.—This plant grows in meadows and pastures over the greater part of Northern Africa, Middle and Southern Europe, and is plentiful in many localities in England and Ireland. In the Swiss Alps, it ascends to an elevation of 5500 feet above the sea-level.

=History=—Dioscorides drew attention to the poisonous properties of Κολχικὸν, which he stated to be a plant growing in Messenia and Colchis.[2615]

[2615] His description is exact, except that he declares the corm to have a _sweet_ taste, which seems not true for _Colchicum autumnale_, but may be so for some other species.

This character for deleterious qualities seems to have prevented the use of colchicum both in classical and mediæval times. Thus Tragus (1552) warns his readers against its use in gout, for which it is recommended in the writings of the Arabians. Jacques Grévin, a physician of Paris, author of _Deux Livres des Venins_, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth of England, and printed at Antwerp in 1568, observes—“ce poison est ennemy de la nature de l’homme en tout et par tout.” Dodoens calls it _perniciosum Colchicum_; and Lyte in his translation of this author (1578) says—“Medow or Wilde Saffron is corrupt and venomous, therefore not used in medicine.” Gerarde declares the roots of “_Mede Saffron_” to be “very hurtfull to the stomacke.”

Wedel published in 1718, at Jena, an essay _De Colchico veneno et alexipharmaco_, in which, to show the great disfavour in which this plant had been held, he remarks,—“hactenus ... velut infame habitum et damnatum fuit colchicum, indignum habitum inter herbas medicas vel officinales....” He further states that, in the 17th century, the corms were worn by the peasants in some parts of Germany as a charm against the plague.

In the face of these severe denunciations, it is strange to find that in the London Pharmacopœia of 1618 (the second edition), “_Radix Colchici_,” as well as _Hermodactylus_, is enumerated among the simple drugs; and again in the editions of 1627, 1632 and 1639. It is omitted in that of 1650, and does not reappear in subsequent editions until 1788, when owing to the investigations of Störck (1763), Kratochwill (1764), De Berge (1765), Ehrmann (1772), and others, the possibility of employing it usefully in medicine had been made evident.

=Development of the Corm=[2616]—At the period of flowering, the corm is surrounded with a brown, closed double membrane or tunic, which is prolonged upwards into a sheath around the flowering stem; at the base of the corm is a tuft of simple roots. On removing the membranes, we find a large, ovoid, fleshy body (Corm No. 1), marked at its apex by a depressed scar, the point of attachment of the flower-stem of the previous year; it is on one side flattened, and traversed by a shallow longitudinal furrow, from the upper part of which arises a much smaller and rudimentary corm (No. 2), bearing a flower-stem. After the production of the flower in the autumn, Corm No. 2 increases in size, throwing up as spring advances its fruit-stem and leaves, and acquires, after these latter have come to maturity, its full development. Corm No. 1 on the other hand, having performed its functions, shrivels and diminishes in size, in proportion as No. 2 advances to maturity, and ultimately decays, leaving a rounded cicatrix, showing its point of attachment to its successor.

=Collection=—In England the corms are usually dug up and brought to market in July, at the period between the decay of the foliage and the production of the flower, or even after the latter has appeared. For some preparations, they are used in the fresh state. If to be dried, it is customary to slice them across thinly and evenly with a knife, and to dry the slices quickly in a stove with a gentle heat; the membranes are afterwards removed by sifting or winnowing.

Schroff has stated, as the result of his experiments,[2617] that the corms possess the greatest medicinal activity when collected in the autumn during or after inflorescence; that they ought to be dried entire, by exposure to the sun and air; and that if thus preserved, they lose none of their strength, even if kept for several years.

[2616] The term _corm_ is applied by English writers to the short, fleshy, bulb-shaped base of an annual stem, either lateral as in _Colchicum_, or terminal as in _Crocus_. By many continental botanists, the corm of _Colchicum_ is regarded either as a form of tuber, or of bulb.

[2617] _Oesterreichische Zeitschrift für praktische Heilkunde_, 1856, Nos. 22-24; also Wiggers, _Jahresbericht der Pharm._ 1856. 15.

=Description=—The fresh corm is conical or inversely pear-shaped, about 2 inches long by an inch or more wide, rounded on one side, flattish on the other, covered by a bright brown, membranous skin, within which is a second of paler colour. When cut transversely, it appears white, firm, fleshy and homogeneous, abounding in a bitter, starchy juice, of disagreeable odour. The dried slices are inodorous, and have a bitterish taste. They should be of a good white, clean, crisp and brittle,—not mouldy or stained.

=Microscopic Structure=—The outer membrane is formed of tangentially-extended cells, with thick brownish walls; the main body of the corm, of large thin-walled, more or less regularly globular cells, loaded with starch, and interrupted by vascular bundles containing spiral vessels. The original form of the starch granules is globular or egg-shaped, but from mutual pressure and agglutination, many are angular or truncated. A large proportion are more or less compound, consisting of several granules united into one. In all, the hilum is very distinct, appearing in some as a mere point, but in most as a line or star.

=Chemical Composition=—The corms contain _Colchicin_ (see next article), starch, sugar, gum, resin, tannin, and fat. When sliced and dried, they lose about 70 per cent. of water.[2618] By drying, the (probably) volatile body upon which the odour of the fresh corm depends, is lost.

=Uses=—Colchicum is much prescribed in cases of gout, rheumatism, dropsy, and cutaneous maladies.

Other medicinal species of Colchicum.

Under the name _Hermodactylus_,[2619] the corms of other species of _Colchicum_ of Eastern origin anciently enjoyed great reputation in medicine. These corms are in structure precisely like those of ordinary colchicum; they are entire, but deprived of membranous envelopes, of a flattened, heart-shaped form, not wrinkled on the surface, and often very small in size. The starch grains they contain are similar to those of _C. autumnale_, but in some specimens twice as large.

There is a great uncertainty as to the species of _Colchicum_ which furnish hermodactyls. Prof. J. E. Planchon, who has written an elaborate article on the subject,[2620] is in favour of _C. variegatum_ L., a native of the Levant. But one can hardly suppose this plant to be the source of the hermodactyls (_Sūrinjān_) of the Indian bazaars, which are stated to be brought from Kashmir.

[2618] This is the average obtained during ten years in drying 16 cwt., in the laboratory of Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, London.

[2619] The _Bitter Hermodactyl_ of Royle is not in our opinion the produce of a _Colchicum_ at all; see also Cooke in _Pharm. Journ._ April 1, 1871.

[2620] _Ann. des Sciences Nat._, Bot., iv. (1855) 132; abstract in _Pharm. Journ._ xv. (1856) 465.

SEMEN COLCHICI.

_Colchicum Seed_; F. _Semence de Colchique_; G. _Zeitlosensamen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Colchicum autumnale_ L., see page 699. The inflated capsule, which grows up in the spring after the disappearance of the flower in the autumn, is three-celled, dehiscent towards the apex by its ventral sutures, and contains, attached to the inner angle of the carpels, numerous globular seeds, which arrive at maturity in the latter part of the summer.

=History=—Colchicum seeds were introduced into medical practice by Dr. W. H. Williams, of Ipswich, about 1820, on the ground of their being more certain in action than the corm.[2621] They were admitted to the London Pharmacopœia in 1824.

=Description=—The seeds are of globose form, about ⅒ of an inch in diameter, somewhat pointed by a strophiole, which when dry is not very evident. They are rather rough and dull; when recent of a pale brown, but become darker by drying, and at the same time exude a sort of saccharine matter. They are inodorous even when fresh, but have a bitter acrid taste; they are very hard and difficult to powder.

=Microscopic Structure=—The reticulated, brown coat of the seed consists of a few rows of large, thin-walled tangentially-extended cells, considerably smaller towards the interior, the outermost containing starch grains in small number. The thin testa is closely adherent to the horny greyish albumen. The cells of the latter are remarkable for their thick walls, showing wide pores; they contain granular plasma and oil-drops. The very small leafless embryo may be observed on transverse section close beneath the testa on the side opposite the strophiole.

=Chemical Composition=—The active principle of colchicum seed is termed _Colchicin_, but the chemists who have made it the subject of investigation are not agreed as to its properties. Thus Oberlin (1856) showed it to contain nitrogen, but without possessing basic properties. By treatment with acids, the amorphous colchicin yields a crystallizable body, _Colchiceïn_. Hübler (1864) prepared colchicin in the same way by which the so-called “bitter principles,” like dulcamarin (p. 451) are obtainable. He assigned to colchiceïn acid qualities and, strangely enough, the same formula he gave for colchicin itself, namely C₁₇H₁₉NO₅. Maisch[2622] as well as Diehl[2623] again obtained discrepant results. _Colchicin_ of definite composition has not yet been isolated.

[2621] _London Medical Repository_, Aug. 1, 1820.

[2622] _Pharm. Journ._ ix. (1867) 249.

[2623] _Proc. Americ. Pharm. Assoc._ 1867. 363.

It would appear that in an aqueous or alcoholic extract of the seed an extremely small amount of an alkaloid is present, but that a basic substance is immediately formed on addition of mineral acids, or also oxalic acid. This suggestion is to some extent supported by the following facts:—

By adding the usual test solution for alkaloids, _i.e._ iodohydrogyrate of potassium (50 grammes of iodide of potassium, 13·5 of perchloride of mercury in one litre), to an aqueous solution of an alcoholic extract of the seeds, a very slight turbidity, or an insignificant precipitate is observed. Yet on addition of sulphuric, or nitric, or hydrochloric acid, an abundant precipitate of a beautiful yellow is at once produced. This experiment succeeds with a few seeds, either entire or powdered; it may be conveniently applied for the detection of colchicum in any preparation. We have ascertained that the yellow precipitate can be obtained also with the other parts of the plant. If the yellow compound is decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen, the filtrate, after due concentration, now precipitates immediately on addition of the iodohydrogyrate, yet still more abundantly in presence of a mineral acid.

The seeds contain traces of gallic acid, much sugar and fatty oil. Of the last we obtained 6·6 per cent. by exhausting the dried seed with ether. The oil concreted at -8° C. Rosenwasser (1877) obtained 8·4 per cent. of the oil.

=Uses=—The same as those of the corm.

SMILACEÆ.

RADIX SARSAPARILLÆ.

_Radix Sarzæ vel Sarsæ_; _Sarsaparilla_; F. _Racine de Salsepareille_; G. _Sarsaparillwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—Sarsaparilla is afforded by several plants of the genus _Smilax_, indigenous to the northern half of South America, and the whole of Central America as far as the southern and western coast-lands of Mexico.

These plants are woody climbers, often ascending lofty trees by the strong tendrils which spring from the petiole of the leaf. Their stems are usually angular, armed with stout prickles, and thrown up from a large woody rhizome. The medicinal species inhabit swampy tropical forests, which are extremely deleterious to the health of Europeans, and can only be explored amid great difficulties. This circumstance taken in connexion with the facts that the plants are diœcious, that their scandent habit often renders their flowers and fruits (produced at different seasons) inaccessible, and that their leaves vary exceedingly in form,[2624] explains why we are but very imperfectly acquainted with the botanical sources of sarsaparilla.

[2624] The common _Smilax aspera_ L., of Southern Europe, is a plant which presents such diversity of foliage, that if like its congeners of Tropical America, it were known only by a few leafy scraps preserved in herbaria, it would assuredly have been referred to several species.

It is not too much to assert that the sarsaparilla plant of no district in Tropical America is scientifically well known. The species moreover, to which the drug is assigned, have for the most part been founded upon characters that are totally insufficient, so that after an attentive study of herbarium specimens, we are obliged to regard as still doubtful several of the plants that have been named by previous writers.

Having made these preliminary remarks, we will enumerate the plants to which the sarsaparilla of commerce has been ascribed.

1. _Smilax officinalis_ H.B.K.—This plant was obtained in the year 1805, by Humboldt, at Bajorque, a village since swept away by the stream, about in 7° N. lat., on the Magdalena in New Granada. The specimens, comprising only a few imperfect leaves, which we have examined in the National Herbarium of Paris, are the materials upon which Kunth founded the species. Humboldt[2625] states, that quantities of the root are shipped by way of Mompox and Cartagena to Jamaica and Cadiz.

In 1853 this plant was again gathered at Bajorque by the late De Warszewicz, who sent to one of us (H.) leaves and stems, accompanied by the root, which latter agrees with the _Jamaica Sarsaparilla_ of commerce. But at Bajorque the root is no longer collected for exportation.

The same botanical collector, at the request of one of us, obtained in the year 1851, on the volcano and Cordillera of Chiriqui in Costa Rica, fruits, leaves, stems, and roots, of the plant there collected by the Indians as _Sarsa peluda_ or _Sarson_. These specimens agree, so far as comparison is possible, with those of the Bajorque plant, while the root is undistinguishable from the Jamaica sarsaparilla of the shops. Other specimens of the same plant, gathered by the same collector in 1853, were forwarded to England with a living root, which latter however could not be made to grow.

Finally, in 1869, Mr. R. B. White obligingly communicated to us leaves and roots of a sarsaparilla collected at Patia in New Granada, which apparently belongs to the same species.

In the island of Jamaica, there has been cultivated for many years, and of late with a view to medicinal use, a sarsaparilla plant which appears to be _Smilax officinalis_. The specimens transmitted to us[2626] include neither flowers nor fruits; but the leaves and square stem accord exactly with those of the plant collected at Bajorque. The root is of a light cinnamon-brown, and far more amylaceous than the so-called _Jamaica Sarsaparilla_ of commerce (see p. 710).

2. _Smilax medica_ Schl. et Cham.—This species,[2627] which was discovered in Mexico by Schiede in 1820, is without doubt the source of the sarsaparilla shipped from Vera Cruz. According to our observations, it has a flexuose (or zigzag) stem, and much smaller foliage than _S. officinalis_; the leaves, though very variable, often assume an auriculate form, with broad, obtuse, basal lobes.

It grows on the eastern slopes of the Mexican Andes, and is the only species of that region of which the roots are collected. These, according to Schiede, are dug up all the year round, dried in the sun and made into bundles.

[2625] Kunth, _Synopsis Plant._ i. (1822) 278.—_Smilax officinalis_ is a large, strong climber, attaining a height of 40 to 50 feet, with a perfectly square stem armed with prickles at the angles. The leaves are often a foot in length, of variable form, being triangular, ovate-oblong, or oblong-lanceolate, either gradually narrowing towards the apex or rounded and apiculate, and at the base either attenuated into the petiole, or truncate, or cordate. They are usually 5-nerved, the 3 inner nerves being prominent and enclosing an elliptic area. The flowers are in stalked umbels. A fine specimen of the plant is most luxuriantly growing since many years in the Royal Gardens, Kew, but has not flowered.

[2626] We owe them to the kindness of H. J. Kemble, Esq., who procured them, with specimens of the root, from the Government garden at Castleton.

[2627] Figured in Nees von Esenbeck’s _Plantæ Medicinales_, suppl. tab. 7.

Doubt and confusion hang over the other species of _Smilax_ which have been quoted as the sources of sarsaparilla. _S. syphilitica_ H.B.K., with flowers in a raceme of umbels, discovered on the Cassiquiare in New Granada, and well figured by Berg and Schmidt from an authentic specimen, appears from Pöppig’s statements to yield some of the sarsaparilla shipped at Pará. But Kunth states that Pöppig’s plant, gathered near Ega, is not that of Humboldt and Bonpland. Spruce, who collected _S. syphilitica_ (herb. No. 3779) in descending the Rio Negro in 1854, has informed us that the Indians in various places in the Amazon valley always strenuously asserted it to be a species worthless for “_Salsa_.”

_S. papyracea_, described by Poiret[2628] in 1804, and figured by Martius,[2629] is but very imperfectly known. It has foliage resembling that of _S. officinalis_, but, judging from Spruce’s specimens (No. 1871) collected on the Rio Negro, a _multangular_ stem. It is probably the source of the _Pará Sarsaparilla_.

_S. cordato-ovata_ Rich. is a doubtful plant, perhaps identical with _S. Schomburgkiana_ Knth., a Panama species. Pöppig alleges that its root is mixed with that of the plant which he calls _S. syphilitica_.

_S. Purhampuy_ Ruiz, a Peruvian species, said to afford a valuable sort of sarsaparilla, is practically unknown, and is not admitted by Kunth.[2630]

No new information on the several above mentioned species of Smilax is found in the review of this genus by A. and C. De Candolle,[2631] where 105 American species are enumerated.

=History=—Monardes[2632] has recorded that sarsaparilla was first introduced to Seville about the year 1536 or 1545, from New Spain; and a better variety soon afterwards from Honduras. He further narrates that a drug of excellent quality was subsequently imported from the province of Quito, that it was collected in the neighbourhood of Guayaquil, and was of a dark hue, and larger and thicker than that of Honduras.

Pedro de Cieza de Leon, in his Chronicle of Peru,[2633] which contains the observations made by him in South America between 1532 and 1550, gives a particular account of the sarsaparilla which grows in the province of Guayaquil and the adjacent island of Puna, and recommends the sudorific treatment of syphilis, exactly as pursued at the present time.

These statements are confirmed by the testimony of other writers. Thus, João Rodriguez de Castello Branco, commonly known as Amatus Lusitanus, a Portuguese physician of Jewish origin, who practised chiefly in Italy, has left a work recording his medical experiences and narrating cases of successful treatment.[2634] One of the latter concerns a patient suffering from acute rheumatism, for whom he finally prescribed _Sarsaparilla_. This drug, he explains, has of late years been brought from the newly found country of Peru, that it is in long whip-like roots, growing from the stock of a sort of bramble resembling a vine, that the Spaniards call it _Zarza parrilla_, and that it is an excellent medicine.

[2628] Lamarck, _Encyclopédie méthodique_, Bot., vi. 1804. 468.

[2629] _Flor. Bras._ i. (1842-71) tab. 1.

[2630] It must not be supposed that _all_ species of _Smilax_ are capable of furnishing the drug. There are many, even South American, which like the _S. aspera_ of Europe, have _thin, wiry_ roots, which would never pass for medicinal sarsaparilla.

[2631] _Monographiæ phanerogamarum_, i. (1878) 6-199.

[2632] Pages 18 and 88 of the work quoted in the Appendix.

[2633] _Parte primera de la Chronica del Peru_, Sevilla, 1553, folio lxix.—a translation for the Hakluyt Society in 1864, by Markham, who observes that Cieza de Leon never himself visited Guayaquil.

[2634] _Curationum medicinalium centuriæ quatuor_, Basileæ, 1556. 365.

About the same period, sarsaparilla was described by Auger Ferrier,[2635] a physician of Toulouse, who states that in the treatment of syphilis, which he calls _Lues Hispanica_, it is believed to be better than either _China root_ or _Lignum sanctum_. Girolamo Cardano of Milan, in a little work called _De radice Cina et Sarza Parilia judicium_,[2636] expresses similar opinions. After so strong recommendations, the drug soon found its way to the pharmaceutical stores; we find it quoted for instance in 1563, in the tariff of the “Apotheke” of the little town of Annaberg in Saxony.[2637] We have also noticed “Sarsaparilla” in the _Ricettario Fiorentino_ of the year 1573.[2638] Gerarde,[2639] who wrote about the close of the century, states that the sarsaparilla of Peru is imported into England in abundance.

=Collection of the Root=—Mr. Richard Spruce, the enterprising botanical explorer of the Amazon valley, has communicated to us the following particulars on this subject, which we give in his own graphic words:—

“When I was at Santarem on the Amazon in 1849-50, where considerable quantities of sarsaparilla are brought in from the upper regions of the river Tapajóz, and again when on the Upper Rio Negro and Uaupés in 1851-53, I often interrogated the traders about their criteria of the good kinds of sarsaparilla. Some of them had bought their stock of Indians of the forest, and had themselves no certain test of its genuineness or of its excellence, beyond the size of the roots, the thickest fetching the best price at Pará. Those who had gathered sarsaparilla for themselves were guided by the following characters:—1. Many stems from a root. 2. Prickles closely set. 3. Leaves thin.—The first character was (to them) alone essential, for in the species of _Smilax_ that have solitary stems, or not more than two or three, the roots are so few as not to be worth grubbing up; whereas the multicaul species have numerous long roots,—three at least to each stem,—extending horizontally on all sides.

“In 1851, when I was at the falls of the Rio Negro, which are crossed by the equator, nine men started from the village of St. Gabriel to gather _Salsa_, as they called it, at the head of the river Cauaburís. During their absence I made the acquaintance of an old Indian, who told me that four years ago he had brought stools of _Salsa_ from the Cauaburís and had planted them in a _tabocál_,—a clump of bamboos, indicating the site of an ancient Indian village,—on the other side of the falls, whither he invited me to go and witness the gathering of his first crop of roots. On the 23rd March, I visited the _tabocál_, and found some half-dozen plants of a _Smilax_ with very prickly stems, but no flowers or fruit. At my request the Indian operated on the finest plant first. It had five stems from the crown, and numerous roots about 9 feet long, radiating horizontally on all sides. The thin covering of earth was first scraped away from the roots by hand, aided by a pointed stick; and had the _salsa_ been the only plant occupying the ground, the task would have been easy. But the roots of the _salsa_ were often difficult to trace among those of bamboo and other plants, which had to be cut through with a knife whenever they came in the way. The roots being at length all laid bare—(in this case it was the work of half a day, but with large plants it sometimes takes up a whole day or even more)—they were cut off near the crown, a few slender ones being allowed to remain, to aid the plant in renewing its growth. The stems also were shortened down to near the ground, and a little earth and dead leaves heaped over the crown, which would soon shoot out new stems.

[2635] _De Pudendagra lue Hispanica, libri duo_, first published at Toulouse in 1553, and many times reprinted. We have consulted the Antwerp edition of 1564, with which Cardano’s work is printed. The latter is said to have first appeared in 1559.

[2636] Basileæ, 1559, fol.

[2637] Flückiger, _Documente_ (quoted at p. 404, note 7) 24.

[2638] See Appendix.

[2639] _Herball_, enlarged by Johnson, 1636. 859.

“The yield of this plant, of four years’ growth, was 16 lb.—half a Portuguese _arroba_—of roots; but a well grown plant will afford at the first cutting from one to two arrobas. In a couple of years, a plant may be cut again, but the yield will be much smaller and the roots more slender and less starchy.”

=General Description=—The medicinal species of _Smilax_ have a thick, short, knotty rhizome, called by the druggists _chump_, from which grow in a horizontal direction long fleshy roots, from about the thickness of a quill to that of the little finger. These roots are mostly simple, forked only towards their extremities, beset with thread-like branching rootlets of nearly uniform size, which however are not emitted to any great extent from the more slender part of the root near the stock. When fresh the root is plump,[2640] but as found in commerce in the dried state it is more or less furrowed longitudinally, at least in the vicinity of the rhizome. When examined with a good lens both roots and rootlets may be seen in some specimens to be clothed with short velvety or shaggy hairs.

The presence or absence in greater or less abundance of starch in the bark of the root is regarded as an important criterion in estimating the good quality of sarsaparilla. In England the non-amylaceous or non-mealy roots are preferred, they alone being suitable for the manufacture of the dark fluid extract that is valued by the public. On the Continent, and especially in Italy, sarsaparilla, which when cut exhibits a thick bark, pure white within, is the esteemed kind.

The more or less plentiful occurrence of starch in the roots of _Smilax_ is a character which has no botanical significance, and appears, indeed, to vary in the same species. If one examines Jamaica sarsaparilla by shaving off a little of the bark, one finds a large majority of roots to be non-amylaceous in their entire length; but others can be picked out which, though non-amylaceous for some distance from the rhizome, acquire a starchy bark, which is _white_ internally in their middle and lower portions;—and there are still others which are slightly starchy even as they start from the parent rhizome, becoming still more as they advance. In Guatemala sarsaparilla, which is considered a very mealy sort, it is easy to perceive that the bark is hardly amylaceous in the vicinity of the rhizome, but that it acquires an enormous deposit of fecula as it proceeds in its growth.

[2640] We have been kindly permitted to examine the fresh root of the large plant of _Smilax officinalis_ in the Royal Gardens, Kew; and have found that it agrees in appearance and in structure with Jamaica sarsaparilla.

Sarsaparilla varies greatly in the abundance of rootlets, technically called _beard_, with which the roots are clothed. This character depends partly on natural circumstances, and partly on the practice of the collectors who remove or retain the rootlets at will. Dr. Rhys of Belize has stated that the proportion of rootlets depends much on the nature of the soil, their development being most favoured by moist situations.

Dry sarsaparilla has not much smell, yet when large quantities are boiled, or when a decoction is evaporated, a peculiar and very perceptible odour is emitted. The taste of the root is earthy, and not well marked, and even a decoction has no very distinctive flavour.

=Microscopic Structure=[2641]—On a _transverse section_ of the root, its fibro-vascular bundles are seen to be restricted to the central part, being all enclosed by a brown ring. Within this ring the bundles are densely packed so as to form a ligneous zone. The very centre of the section consists of white medullary tissue, through which sometimes a certain number of fibro-vascular bundles are scattered. A similar medullary parenchyme is met with between the brown ring or nucleus-sheath or the epidermis. On a _longitudinal section_ the latter exhibits several rows of elongated cells, having their outer brown walls thickened by secondary deposits. The brown nucleus-sheath, on the other hand, consists of only one row of prismatic cells, their inner and lateral walls alone having secondary deposits. The vascular bundles contain large scalariform vessels and lignified prosenchymatous cells.

The parenchymatous cells, if not devoid of solid contents, are loaded with large compound starch granules; some cells also exhibit bundles of acicular crystals of calcium oxalate. In non-mealy sarsaparilla the vessels and ligneous cells sometimes contain a yellow resin.

The various sorts of sarsaparilla differ, not only in being mealy or non-mealy, but also as regards the thickness of the ligneous zone, which in some of them is many times thinner than the diameter of the central medullary tissue. In other kinds this diameter is very much smaller. Yet the nucleus-sheath affords still better means for distinguishing the sorts of this drug, if we examine its single cells in a transverse section. The outline of such a cell may be of a square or somewhat rounded shape, or it may be more or less extended. In this case it may be extended in the direction of a radius, or in the direction of a tangent. The secondary deposits may vary in thickness.

=Sorts of Sarsaparilla=—In the present state of our knowledge no botanical classification of the different kinds of sarsaparilla being possible, we shall resort to the arrangement adopted by Pereira and place them in two groups,—the _mealy_, or those of which starch is a prevalent constituent, and the _non-mealy_, or those in which starch exists to a comparatively small extent.

[2641] For more particulars consult Vandercolme, _Histoire bot. et thérapeut. des Salsepareilles_, Paris, 1870, 127 pp., 3 plates; and Otten, in Dragendorff’s _Jahresbericht_, 1876. 74.

(A.) _Mealy Sarsaparillas._

1. _Honduras Sarsaparilla_—This drug is exported from Belize. It is made up in hanks or rolls about 30 inches long and 2½ to 4 inches or more in diameter, closely wound round with a long root so as to form a neat bundle. The hanks are united into bales by large pieces of hide, placed at top and bottom, and held together with thongs of the same, further strengthened with iron hoops.

The roots are deeply furrowed, or sometimes plump and smooth, more or less provided with _beard_ or rootlets. In a very large proportion of their length they exhibit when cut a thick bark loaded with starch; yet in those parts which are near the rhizome the bark is brown, resinous, and non-amylaceous. They are of a pale brown, sometimes verging into orange. But the drug is subject to great variation, so that it is impossible to lay down absolutely distinctive characters.

The annual imports into the United Kingdom of sarsaparilla from British Honduras during the five years ending with 1870 averaged about 52,000 lb.

2. _Guatemala Sarsaparilla_—This sort of sarsaparilla, which first appeared in commerce about 1852, resembles the Honduras kind in many of its characters, and is packed in a similar manner. But it has a more decided _orange hue_; the roots as they start from the rhizome are lean, shrunken, and but little starchy, but they become gradually stouter (³/₁₀ inch diam.), and acquire a thick bark, which is internally very white and mealy. There is a tendency in the bark of this sarsaparilla to crack and split off, so that bare spaces showing the central woody column are not unfrequent.

According to Bentley,[2642] who examined specimens of the plant, this drug is derived from _Smilax papyracea_; we are not prepared to agree in this opinion.

3. _Brazilian, Para or Lisbon Sarsaparilla_—Though formerly held in high esteem Brazilian sarsaparilla is not now appreciated in England, and is rarely seen in the London market.[2643] It is packed in a very distinctive manner, the roots being tightly compressed into a cylindrical bundle, 3 feet or more in length and about 6 inches in diameter, firmly held together by the flexible stem of a bignoniaceous plant, closely wound round them, the ends being neatly shaved off.

[2642] _Pharm. Journ._ xii. (1853) 470, with figure.

[2643] We noticed 66 rolls of it from Pará, offered for sale 15 Dec. 1853.—D. H.

(B.) _Non-mealy Sarsaparillas._

4. _Jamaica Sarsaparilla_—To the English druggist this is the most important variety; it is that which appears to have the greatest claim to possess some medicinal activity, and it is the only sort admitted to the _British Pharmacopœia_. Although constantly called _Jamaica sarsaparilla_, it is well known that it only bears the name of Jamaica through having been formerly shipped from Central America by way of that island.[2644] At the commencement of the last century, Jamaica was an emporium for sarsaparilla, great quantities of which, according to Sloane,[2645] were brought thither from Honduras, New Spain and Peru. Its actual place of growth, according to De Warszewicz (1851), is the mountain range known as the Cordillera of Chiriqui, in that part of the isthmus of Panama adjoining the republic of Costa Rica: here the plant grows at an elevation of 4000 to 8000 feet above the level of the sea. The root is brought by the natives to Boca del Toro on the Atlantic coast for shipment.

The drug consists of roots, 6 feet or more in length, bent repeatedly so as to form bundles of 18 inches long, and 4 in diameter, which are secured by being twined round (but less trimly and closely than the Honduras sort) with a long root of the same drug. The rhizome is entirely absent, but the fibre or beard is preserved, and is reckoned a valuable portion of the drug. The roots are deeply furrowed, shrunken, and generally more slender than in the Honduras kind; the bark when shaved off with a penknife is seen to be brown, hard and non-mealy throughout. Yet it is by no means uncommon to find roots which have a smooth bark rich in starch. In colour, Jamaica sarsaparilla varies from a pale earthy brown to a deeper more ferruginous hue, the latter tint being the most esteemed.

The sarsaparilla referred to at p. 704 as grown in the island of Jamaica, is a well prepared drug, yet so pale in colour and so amylaceous, that it finds but little favour in the English market. There were exported of it from Jamaica in 1870, 1747 lb.,[2646] in 1871, 1290 lb.

5. _Mexican Sarsaparilla_—The roots of this variety are not made into bundles, but are packed in straight lengths of about 3 feet into bales, the chump and portion of an angular (but not _square_) thorny stem being frequently retained. The roots are of a pale, dull brown, lean, shrivelled, and with but few fibres. When thick and large, they have a somewhat starchy bark, but when thin and near the rhizome, they are non-amylaceous.

6. _Guayaquil Sarsaparilla_—An esteemed kind of sarsaparilla has long been exported from Guayaquil (p. 705). Mr. Spruce has informed us that it is obtained in most of the valleys that debouch into the plain on the western side of the Equatorial Andes, but chiefly in the valley of Alausi, where, in 1859, he saw plants of it at the junction of the small river Puma-cocha with the Yaguachi. The plant appears to be very productive, an instance being on record of as much as 75 lb. of fresh roots having been obtained from a single stock.[2647]

[2644] The connexion between Jamaica and Central America dates back from the time of Charles II., during whose reign (1661-85), the king of the Mosquito Territory, a district never conquered by the Spaniards, applied to the governor of Jamaica for protection, which was accorded. The protectorate lasted until 1860, when Mosquitia was ceded to the government of Nicaragua.

[2645] _Nat. Hist. of Jamaica_, i. (1707), introduction, p. lxxxvi.

[2646] _Blue Books—Island of Jamaica_ for 1870 and 1871.

[2647] _Journ. of Linn. Soc._, Bot., iv. (1860) 185.

Guayaquil sarsaparilla differs considerably from the sorts previously noticed. It is rudely packed in large bales, and is not generally made into separate hanks. The rhizome (chump) and a portion of the stem are often present, the latter being _round_ and not prickly. The root is dark, large and coarse-looking, with a good deal of fibre. The bark is furrowed, rather thick, and not mealy in the slenderer portions of the root which is near the rootstock; but as the root becomes stout, so its bark becomes smoother, thicker and amylaceous, exhibiting when cut a fawn-coloured or pale yellow interior.

The quantity exported from Guayaquil in 1871 was 1017 quintals, value £3814.[2648]

=Chemical Composition=—Galileo Pallotta, at Naples, in 1824, first attempted to obtain from sarsaparilla a peculiar principle, which he believed to be an alkaloid, and termed _Pariglina_, or as now written _Parillin_. He exhausted the crude drug with boiling water and mixed the decoction with milk of lime, whereby a greyish precipitate was produced. This was dried, and treated with hot alcohol which extracted the parillin. Pallotta says the substance slightly reddens litmus, but does not explicitly state whether he got it in crystals or not. Berzelius in 1826 replaced the name pariglina by _Smilacin_. The same substance was obtained, more or less pure, by Thubeuf in 1831 and called _Salseparin_; Batka in 1833 termed it _Parillinic acid_. We have isolated parillin[2649] by exhausting Mexican sarsaparilla with boiling alcohol, 0·835 sp. gr., and evaporating the tincture to ⅙ of the weight of the root. By diluting 2 parts of the residue with 3 parts of cold water, a yellowish deposit of crude parillin is formed and may be separated after a few days by decantation. The deposit is then mixed with about half a volume of strong alcohol, now filtered and washed with dilute alcohol, about 0·965 sp. gr. It may further be purified by repeated recrystallization from dilute alcohol and the use of a little charcoal. The yield is about 0·19 per cent. of perfectly white crystallized parillin; a little more may be removed from the washings, but with much difficulty. These liquids and the mother-liquors may be concentrated and boiled with a little sulphuric acid in order to afford parigenin.

[2648] Vice-Consul Smith on the commerce of Ecuador—_Consular Reports_, presented to Parliament, July, 1872.

[2649] _Yearbook of Pharm._ 1878. 136.

Parillin forms brilliant scales, or can be obtained in thin prisms from boiling alcohol 0·965 sp. gr. Parillin is almost insoluble in cold water, but dissolves in 20 parts of boiling water. On cooling, the latter solution affords no crystals; an abundance of them are however produced on addition of alcohol. Parillin is also soluble in 25 parts of alcohol, 0·814 sp. gr., at 25° C., and much more abundantly in boiling alcohol, from which it partly separates in crystals on cooling. In both absolute alcohol or water, parillin is less soluble than in dilute alcohol. Hence aqueous solutions are precipitated by absolute alcohol, and parillin, on the other hand, separates from alcoholic solutions on addition of cold water. With chloroform, parillin yields a viscid solution which affords no crystals.

The alcoholic solutions of parillin have a somewhat acrid taste, and are devoid of rotatory power.

By dilute mineral acids, parillin is resolved into _Parigenin_ and sugar; the liquid gradually acquires a dingy brown or greenish hue and fluorescence, which is most obvious if parillin dissolved in chloroform is decomposed by hydrochloric gas. Parigenin is easily isolated; it is insoluble even in boiling water, but crystallizes in white scales from alcohol.

The composition of parillin and parigenin is not settled; the former belongs to the class of saponin. Yet parillin differs from saponin as contained in Saponaria or Quillaja[2650] by not being sternutatory; its solutions froth when shaken.

The presence in sarsaparilla of starch, resin, and calcium oxalate, as revealed by the microscope, has been already pointed out. Pereira[2651] examined the _essential oil_, which is heavier than water and has the odour and taste of the drug; 140 lb. of Jamaica sarsaparilla afforded of it only a few drops.

The nature of the dark extractive matter which water removes from the root in abundance, and the proportion of which is considered by druggists a criterion of goodness, has not been studied.

=Commerce=—The importation of sarsaparilla into the United Kingdom in 1870 (later than which year we have no returns) amounted to 345,907 lb., valued at £26,564.

=Uses=—Sarsaparilla is regarded by many as a valuable alterative and tonic, but by others as possessing little if any remedial powers. It is still much employed, though by no means so extensively as a few years ago. The preparations most in use are those obtained by a prolonged boiling of the root in water.

TUBER CHINÆ.

_Radix Chinæ_; _China Root_; F. _Squine_; G. _Chinawurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Smilax China_ L., a woody, thorny, climbing shrub, is commonly said to afford this drug. The plant is a native of Japan, the Loochoo islands, Formosa, China, Cochin China, also of Eastern India, as Kasia, Assam, Sikkim, Nepal. The chief authority for attributing the China root to this plant is Kämpfer, who saw the latter in Japan and figured it.[2652]