Chapter VI: Part 6

The bark, of which we distilled 20 lb., afforded 0·74 per cent. of oil. This when distilled with caustic potash in excess was found to be composed of 2 parts of the acid portion and 1 part of the neutral hydrocarbon; the latter has an odour suggesting a mixture of peppermint and cajuput.

Meyer and von Reiche evaporated the aqueous decoction of canella, and removed from the bitter extract by alcohol 8 per cent. of mannite, which they ascertained to be the so-called _Canellin_ described in 1822 by Petroz and Robinet.

The bark yielded the German chemists 6 per cent. of ash, chiefly carbonate of calcium. The bitter principle has not yet been isolated. An aqueous infusion is not blackened by a persalt of iron.

=Commerce=—Canella alba is collected in the Bahama Islands and shipped to Europe from Nassau in New Providence, the chief seat of trade in the group. In 1876 the export of the bark amounted to 125 cwt.

=Uses=—The bark is an aromatic stimulant, now but seldom employed. It is used by the West Indian negroes as a condiment.

BIXINEÆ.

SEMEN GYNOCARDIÆ.

_Chaulmugra Seed._

=Botanical Origin=—_Gynocardia odorata_ R. Br. (_Chaulmoogra_ Roxb., _Hydnocarpus_ Lindl.), a large tree[320] with a globular fruit of the size of a shaddock, containing numerous seeds immersed in pulp. It grows in the forests of the Malayan peninsula and Eastern India as far north as Assam, extending thence along the base of the Himalaya westward to Sikkim.

=History=—The inhabitants of the south-eastern countries of Asia have long been acquainted with the seeds of certain trees of the tribe _Pangieæ_ (ord. _Bixineæ_) as a remedy for maladies of the skin. In China a seed called _Ta-fung-tsze_ is imported from Siam[321] where it is known as _Lukrabo_ and used in a variety of cutaneous complaints. The tree affording it, which is figured in the _Pun-tasao_ (_circa_ A.D. 1596) has not been recognised by botanists, but from the structure of the seed it is obviously closely related to _Gynocardia_.[322]

[319] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xiv. (1860) 210.

[320] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Medic. Plants_, part. 26 (1877). Also in Christy, _New Commercial Plants_, No. 2 (1878).

[321] The _Commercial Report from H. M. Consul-General in Siam for the year 1871_, presented to Parliament, Aug. 1872, states that 48 peculs (6400 lb.) of _Lukrabow seeds_ were exported from Bangkok to China in 1871. Sir Joseph Hooker (_Report on the Royal Gardens at Kew_, 1877, p. 33) has been informed by Mr. Pierre, the director of the Botanic Garden at Saigon, Cochin China, that the seeds have proved to derive from a Hydnocarpus (Gynocardia).—See also our article Semen Ignatii and _Science Papers_, p. 235.

[322] Hanbury, _Notes on Chinese Mat. Med._ (1862) 23.—_Science Papers_, 244. Dr. Porter Smith assumes the Chinese drug to be derived from _G. odorata_, but as I have pointed out, the seeds have a much stronger testa than those of that tree.—D. H.

The properties of _G. odorata_ were known to Roxburgh who, Latinizing the Indian name of the tree, called it (1814) _Chaulmoogra odorata_. Of late years the seeds have attracted the notice of Europeans in India, and having been found useful in certain skin diseases, they have been admitted a place in the _Pharmacopœia of India_.

=Description=—The seeds, 1 to 1¼ inches long and about half as much in diameter, are of irregular ovoid form, and more or less angular or flattened by mutual pressure; they weigh on an average about 35 grains each. The testa is thin (about ¹/₅₀ of an inch), brittle, smooth, dull grey; within there is a brown oily kernel, marked with a darker colour at its basal end. The weight of the kernel is, on an average, twice that of the testa. The former encloses in its copious, soft albumen a pair of large, plain, leafy, heart-shaped cotyledons with a stout radicle. The taste of the kernel is simply oily.

=Microscopic Structure=—The testa is chiefly formed of cylindrical thick-walled cells. The albumen exhibits large angular cells containing fatty oil, masses of albuminous matter and tufted crystals of calcium oxalate. Starch is not present.

=Chemical Composition=—The kernels afforded us by means of ether 51·5 per cent. of fatty oil, which is almost colourless or somewhat brownish if the seeds are not fresh. Either extracted or expressed it is of no peculiar taste. The pressed oil concretes at 17° C.; that extracted by ether or bisulphide of carbon requires for solidification a lower temperature. The expressed oil is slightly fluorescent, less so that extracted by means of bisulphide of carbon. If the oil, either pressed or extracted, is diluted with the bisulphide, and then concentrated sulphuric or nitric acid is added, no peculiar coloration is produced.

From the powdered kernels deprived of oil, water removes the usual constituents, glucose, mucilage and albumin.

=Uses=—The seeds are said to have been advantageously used as an alternative tonic in scrofula, skin diseases and rheumatism. They should be freed from the testa, powdered, and given in the dose of 6 grains gradually increased. Reduced to a paste and mixed with Simple Ointment, they constitute the _Unguentum Gynocardiæ_ of the _Indian Pharmacopœia_, which, as well as an expressed oil of the seeds may be employed externally in herpes, tinea, &c.[323]

[323] For particulars see Christy’s pamphlet alluded to above, p. 75.

=Substitute=—It has been suggested that the seeds of _Hydnocarpus Wightiana_ Bl., a tree of Western India, and of _H. venenata_ Gärtn., native of Ceylon, might be tried where those of _Gynocardia_ are not procurable. The seeds of both species of _Hydnocarpus_ (formerly confounded together as _H. inebrians_ Vahl) afford a fatty oil which the natives use in cutaneous diseases.[324]

POLYGALEÆ.

RADIX SENEGÆ.

_Radix Senekæ_; _Senega or Seneka Root_; F. _Racine de Polygala de Virginie_; G. _Senegawurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Polygala Senega_ L., a perennial plant with slender ascending stems 6 to 12 inches high, and spikes of dull white flowers resembling in form those of the Common Milkwort of Britain. It is found in British America as far north as the river Saskatchewan, and in the United States from New England to Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and the upper parts of North Carolina, as well as in Georgia and Texas, not in the Rocky Mountains.

The plant, which frequents rocky open woods and plains, has become somewhat scarce in the Atlantic states, and as a drug is now chiefly collected in the west, the plant growing profusely in Iowa and Minnesota, west of New York.

=History=—The employment of this root among the Seneca Indians as a remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake attracted the notice of Tennent, a Scotch physician in Virginia; and from the good effects he witnessed he concluded that it might be administered with advantage in pleurisy and peripneumonia. The result of numerous trials made in the years 1734 and 1735 proved the utility of the drug in these complaints, and Tennent communicated his observations to the celebrated Dr. Mead of London in the form of an epistle, afterwards published together with an engraving of the plant, then called the _Seneca Rattlesnake Root_.[325] Tennent’s practice was to administer the root in powder or as a strong decoction, or more often infused in wine. The new drug was favourably received in Europe, and its virtues discussed in numerous theses and dissertations, one written in 1749 being by Linnæus.[326]

=Description=—Senega root is developed at its upper end into a knotty crown, in old roots as much as an inch in diameter, from which spring the numerous wiry aerial stems, beset at the base with scaly rudimentary leaves often of a purplish hue. Below the crown is a simple tap-root ²/₁₀ to ³/₁₀ of an inch thick, of contorted or somewhat spiral form, which usually soon divides into 2 or 3 spreading branches and smaller filiform rootlets.

[324] Waring, _Pharm. of India_, 1868. 27.

[325] Tennent (John), _Epistle to Dr. Richard Mead concerning the epidemical diseases of Virginia_, &c., Edinb. 1738.

[326] _Amœnitates Academicæ_, ii. 126.

The bark is light yellowish-grey, translucent, horny, shrivelled, knotted and partially annulated. Very frequently a keel-shaped ridge occurs, running like a shrunken sinew through the principal root; it has no connexion with the wood, but originates in a one-sided development of the liber-tissue. The bark encloses a pure, white woody column about as thick as itself. After the root has been macerated in water the bark is easily peeled off, and the peculiar structure of the wood can then be studied. The latter immediately below the crown is a cylindrical cord, cleft however by numerous, fine, longitudinal fissures. Lower down these fissures increase in an irregular manner, causing a very abnormal development of the wood. Transverse sections of a root therefore differ greatly, the circular wood portion being either penetrated by clefts or wide notches, or one-half or even more is altogether wanting, the space where wood should exist being in each case filled up by uniform parenchymatous tissue.

Senega root has a short brittle fracture, a peculiar rancid odour, and a very acrid and sourish taste. When handled it disperses in irritating dust.

=Microscopic Structure=—The woody part is built up of dotted vessels surrounded by short porous ligneous cells; the medullary rays consist of one or two rows of the usual small cells. There is no pith in the centre of the root. The clefts and notches are filled up with an uniform tissue passing into the primary cortical tissue without a distinct liber; the large cells of this tissue are spirally striated. In the keel-shaped rider the proper liber rays may be distinguished from the medullary rays. The former are made up of a soft tissue, hence the cortical part of the root breaks short together with the wood.

Neither starch granules nor crystals of oxalate of calcium are present in this root; the chief contents of its tissue are albuminoid granules and drops of fatty oil.

=Chemical Composition=—The substance to which the drug owes its irritating taste was distinguished by the name of _Senegin_ by Gehlen as early as 1804, and is probably the same as the _Polygalic Acid_ of Quevenne (1836) and of Procter (1859). Christophsohn (1874) extracted it by means of boiling water, evaporated the solution and exhausted the residue with boiling alcohol (0·853 sp. gr.). The liquid after a day or two, deposits the crude senegin, which is to be washed with alcohol (0·813 sp. gr.), and again dissolved in water, from which it is precipitated by a large excess of hydrate of baryum. The barytic compound, dissolved in water, is decomposed by carbonic acid, by which carbonate of baryum is separated, senegin remaining in solution. It is lastly to be precipitated by alcohol. It is amorphous, insoluble in ether and in cold water; it forms with boiling water a frothing solution. Like saponin, to which it is very closely allied, it excites violent sneezing.

Dilute inorganic acids added to a warm solution of senegin throw down a flocculent jelly of _Sapogenin_, the liquid retaining in solution uncrystallizable sugar. Alkalis give rise to the same decomposition; but it is difficult to split up the senegin completely, and hence the formulas given for this process are doubtful. Even the formula of senegin itself is not definitely settled. According to Christophsohn, the root yields about 2 per cent. of this substance; according to earlier authorities, who doubtless had it less pure, a much larger proportion. From Schneider’s investigations (1875) it would appear that the rootlets are richest in senegin.

Senega root contains a little volatile oil, traces of resin, also gum, salts of malic acid, yellow colouring matter, and sugar (7 per cent. according to Rebling, 1855). The _Virginic Acid_ said by Quevenne to be contained in it, and the bitter substance _Isolusin_ mentioned by Peschier, are doubtful bodies.

=Uses=—Senega is prescribed as a stimulating expectorant and diuretic, useful in pneumonia, asthma and rheumatism. It is much esteemed in America.

=Adulteration=—The drug is not liable to be wilfully falsified, but through careless collecting there is occasionally a slight admixture of other roots. One of these is American Ginseng (_Panax quinquefolium_ L.) a spindle-shaped root which may be found here and there both in senega and serpentaria. The rhizome of _Cypripedium pubescens_ Willd. has also been noticed; it cannot be confounded with that of _Polygala Senega_. The same may be said with regard to the rhizome of _Cynanchum Vincetoxicum_ R. Brown (_Asclepias_ L., _Vincetoxicum officinale_ Mönch).

RADIX KRAMERIÆ.

_Radix Ratanhiæ_, _Rhatanhiæ v. Rathaniæ_; _Rhatany or Rhatania Root, Peruvian or Payta Rhatany_; F. _Racine de Ratanhia_; G. _Ratanhiawurzel_.[327]

=Botanical Origin=—_Krameriæ triandra_ Ruiz et Pav., a small woody shrub with an upright stem scarcely a foot high and thick decumbent branches 2 to 3 feet long.[328] It delights in the barren sandy declivities of the Bolivian and Peruvian Cordilleras at 3000 to 8000 feet above the sea-level, often occurring in great abundance and adorning the ground with its red star-like flowers and silver-grey foliage.

The root is gathered chiefly to the north, north-east, and east of Lima, as at Caxatambo, Huanuco, Tarma, Jauja, Huarochiri and Canta; occasionally on the high lands about lake Titicaca. It appears likewise to be collected in the northern part of Peru, since the drug is now frequently shipped from Payta.

=History=—Hipolito Ruiz,[329] the Spanish botanist, observed in 1784 that the women of Huanuco and Lima were in the habit of using for the preservation of their teeth a root which he recognized as that of _Krameria triandra_, a plant discovered by himself in 1779. On his return to Europe he obtained admission for this root into Spain in 1796, whence it was gradually introduced into other countries of Europe.

The first supplies which reached England formed part of the cargo of a Spanish prize, and were sold in the London drug sales at the commencement of the present century. Some fell into the hands of Dr. Reece who recommended it to the profession.[330]

About 20 years ago there appeared in the European market some other kinds of rhatany previously unknown: of these the more important are noticed at pp. 81, 82.

[327] Ruiz and Pavon state that the root is called at Huanuco _ratanhia_. The derivation of the word which is of the Quichua language is obscure.

[328] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Medicinal Plants_, part 30 (1876).

[329] _Mem. de la R. Acad. med. de Madrid_, i. (1797) 349—366.

[330] _Medicinal and Chirurgical Review_, Lond., xiii. (1806) ccxlvi.; also Reece, _Dict. of Domest. Med._, 1808.

=Description=—The root which attains a considerable size in proportion to the aerial part of the shrub, consists of a short thick crown, sometimes much knotted and as large as a man’s fist. This ramifies beneath the soil even more than above, throwing out an abundance of branching, woody roots (frequently horizontal) some feet long and ¼ to ½ an inch thick. These long roots used formerly to be found in commerce; but of late years rhatany has consisted in large proportion of the more woody central part of the root with short stumpy branches, which from their broken and bruised appearance have evidently been extracted with difficulty from a hard soil.

The bark which is scaly and rugged, and ⅒ to ¹/₂₀ of an inch in thickness, is of a dark reddish-brown. It consists of a loose cracked cork-layer, mostly smooth in the smaller roots, covering a bright brown-red inner bark, which adheres though not very firmly to a brownish yellow wood. The bark is rather tough, breaking with a fibrous fracture. The wood is dense, without pith, but marked with thin vessels arranged in concentric rings, and with still thinner, dark medullary rays. The taste of the bark is purely astringent; the wood is almost tasteless; neither possesses any distinctive odour.

_Kr. cistoidea_ Hook, a plant scarcely to be distinguished from _Kr. triandra_, affords in Chili a rhatany very much like that of Peru. Its root was contributed to the Paris Exhibition of 1867.

=Microscopic Structure=—The chief portion of the bark is formed of liber, which in transverse section exhibits numerous bundles of yellow fibres separated by parenchymatous tissue and traversed by narrow brown medullary rays. The small layer of the primary bark is made up of large cells, the surface of the root of large suberous cells imbued with red matter. The latter also occurs in the inner cortical tissue, and ought to be removed by means of ammonia in order to get a clear idea of the structure. Many of the parenchymatous cells are loaded with starch granules; oxalate of calcium occurs in the neighbourhood of the liber bundles. The woody portion exhibits no structure of particular interest.

=Chemical Composition=—Wittstein (1854) found in the bark of rhatany (the only part of the drug having active properties) about 20 per cent. of a form of tannin called _Ratanhia-tannic Acid_, closely related to catechu-tannic acid. It is an amorphous powder, the solution of which is not affected by emetic tartar, but yields with ferric chloride a dark greenish precipitate. By distillation Eissfeldt (1854) obtained pyrocatechin as a product of the decomposition of ratanhia-tannic acid. The latter is also decomposed by dilute acids which convert it into crystallizable sugar and _Ratanhia-red_, a substance nearly insoluble in water, also occurring in abundance ready formed in the bark.

Grabowski (1867) showed that by fusing ratanhia-red with caustic potash, protocatechuic acid and phloroglucin[331] are obtained. Ratanhia-red has the composition C₂₆H₂₂O₁₁, the same, according to Grabowski, as an analogous product of the decomposition of the peculiar tannic acid occurring (as shown by Rochleder in 1866) in the horse-chestnut. The same red substance may also be obtained, as stated by Rembold (1868), from the tannic acid of the root of tormentil (_Potentilla Tormentilla_ L.).

[331] See art. Kino.

As to rhatany root, Wittstein also found it to contain wax, gum and uncrystallizable sugar (even in the wood! according to Cotton[332]). Cotton further pointed out the presence in very minute quantity of an odorous, volatile, solid body, obtainable by means of ether or bisulphide of carbon; it occurs in a somewhat more considerable amount in the other sorts of rhatany. The root contains no gallic acid.

A dry extract of rhatany resembling kino used formerly to be imported from South America, but how and where manufactured we know not. It is however of some interest as containing a crystalline body which Wittstein who discovered it (1854) regards as _Tyrosin_, C₉H₁₁O₃, previously supposed to be exclusively of animal origin.[333] Städeler and Ruge (1862) assigned to it a slightly different composition, C₁₀H₁₃NO₃, and gave it the name of _Ratanhin_. It dissolves in hot water which is acidulated by a little nitric acid; the solution on boiling turns red, blue, and lastly green, and becomes at the same time fluorescent. Kreitmair (1875) extracted 0·7 per cent, of ratanhin from an old specimen of commercial extract of rhatany; but he did not succeed in obtaining it from other specimens. He also showed that ratanhin is _not_ a constituent of the roots of Krameria. The same substance has been abundantly found by Gintl (1868) in the natural exudation called _Resina d’Angelim pedra_[334] which is met with in the alburnum of _Ferreirea spectabilis_ Allem., a large Brazilian tree of the order _Leguminosæ_ (tribe _Sophoreæ_). Peckolt, who first extracted it, named it _Angelin_; it forms colourless, neutral crystals yielding compounds both with alkalis and acids, which have been investigated by Gintl in 1869 and 1870.

=Uses=—Rhatany is a valuable astringent, but is not much employed in Great Britain.

=Other sorts of Rhatany=—Of the 20 to 25 other species of _Krameria_, all of them belonging to America, several have astringent roots which have been collected and used in the place of the rhatany of Peru. The most important of these drugs is that known as—

_=Para Rhatany=_,—so called from having been shipped from Pará in Brazil. Berg who described it in 1865 termed it _Brazilian Rhatany_, Cotton in 1868, _Ratanhia des Antilles_. It is a drug nearly resembling the following, but of a darker and less purple hue; it is also in longer sticks which are remarkably flexible, and covered with a thick bark having numerous transverse cracks.[335] It is apparently derived from the _Krameria argentea_ of Martius,[336] the root of which is collected in the dry districts of the provinces of Bahia and Minas Geraes, that plant growing throughout north-eastern Brazil. It is also called _Rhatany from Ceará_.

[332] _Etudes sur le Genre Krameria_ (thèse), Paris, 1868. 83.

[333] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xiii. (1859) 358.

[334] See Vogl’s Paper on it in Pringsheim, _Jahrbücher für wissenschaftliche Botanik_, ix. (1874) 277-285.

[335] For further particulars, see Flückiger, _Pharm. Journ._, July 30, 1870. 84.

[336] _Syst. Mat. Med. Bras._, 1843. 51; Langgaard, _Diccionario de Medicina_, Rio de Janeiro, iii. (1865) 384.—Krameria argentea is figured in _Flora Brasiliensis_, Fascicul. 63 (1874, pg. 71) tab. 28.

_=Savanilla or New Granada Rhatany.=_ The plant yielding it is _Krameria tomentosa_ St. Hil. (_Kr. Ixina_ var. β _granatensis_ Triana, _Kr. grandifolia_ Berg), a shrub 4 to 6 feet high covering large arid tracts in the valley of Jiron between Pamplona and the Magdalena in New Granada, in which locality the collection of the root was observed by Weir in 1864.[337] According to Triana it also grows at Socorro, south of Jiron. The same plant is found near Santa Marta and Rio Hacha in north-eastern New Granada, in British Guiana, and in the Brazilian provinces of Pernambuco and Goyaz.

The stem or root-crown of Savanilla rhatany is never so knotty and irregular as that of the Peruvian drug, nor are the roots so long or so thick. Separate pieces of root of sinuous form, 4 to 6 inches long and ²/₁₀ to ³/₁₀ of an inch thick are most frequent. The drug is moreover well distinguished by its dull purplish brown colour, its thick smooth bark marked with longitudinal furrows, and here and there with deep transverse cracks, and by the bark not easily splitting off as it does in common rhatany.

The anatomical difference depends chiefly upon the more abundant development of the bark which in thickness is ⅓ to ¼ the diameter of the wood. In Peruvian rhatany the cortical layer attains only ⅙ to ⅛ of the diameter of the woody column. The greater firmness of the suberous coat in Savanilla rhatany is due to its cells being densely filled with colouring matter.

Savanilla rhatany differs from the Peruvian root in its tannic matter. This becomes evident by shaking the powdered root (or bark) with water and iron reduced by hydrogen. The liquid filtered from the Savanilla sort and diluted with distilled water exhibits an intense violet colour, that from Peruvian rhatany a dingy brown; the latter turns light red by alkalis. Thin sections of the Peruvian root assume a greyish hue when moistened with a ferrous salt; Savanilla root by a similar treatment displays the above violet colour. The Savanilla root is richer in soluble matter and from the greater development of its bark may deserve to be preferred for medicinal use.

In the English market, Savanilla root is of less frequent occurrence than that of Pará.

A kind of rhatany attributed to _Krameria secundiflora_ DC., a herbaceous plant of Mexico, Texas and Arkansas, was furnished to Berg in 1854, but has not been in commerce. Its anatomical structure has been described by Berg.[338]

[337] Hanbury, _Origin of Savanilla Rhatany_, in _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1865) 460.—Also _Science Papers_, 333.—In that paper I referred the drug to a variety of _Kr. Ixina_ which M. Cotton has shown to differ in no respect from St. Hilaire’s _Kr. tomentosa_, a conclusion in which, after careful re-examination of specimens, I fully agree.—D. H.

Fig. of _Kr. Ixina_ in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Pl._ part 10.

[338] _Bot. Zeitung_, 14th Nov. 1856. 797

GUTTIFERÆ.

=CAMBOGIA.=

_Gummi Gambogia_, _Gummi Gutti_; _Gamboge_; F. _Gomme Gutte_; _G. Gutti_, _Gummigutt_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Garcinia Morella_ Desrousseaux, var. β. _pedicellata_, a diœcious tree,[339] with handsome laurel-like foliage and small yellow flowers, found in Camboja, Siam (province of Chantibun and the islands on the east coast of the gulf of Siam), and in the southern parts of Cochin China. It was introduced about thirty years ago into Singapore where several specimens are still thriving (1873) on the estate of Dr. Jamie. The finest is now a tree of 20 feet high, with a trunk a foot in diameter, and a thick, spreading head of foliage.

_G. Morella_ Desr.—The typical form of this tree having _sessile_ male flowers grows in moist forests of Southern India and Ceylon, and is capable of affording good gamboge.

_G. pictoria_ Roxb., a large tree of Southern India, produces a sort of gamboge found by Christian (1846) essentially the same as that of Siam. It has been examined more recently by Broughton (1871) who states it to be quite equal to that of _G. Morella_. We have also been unable to find any difference between the product of _G. pictoria_ as sent from Ceylon and common gamboge. _Garcinia pictoria_ moreover is thought by Sir Jos. Hooker to agree with _G. Morella_.

=History=—The Chinese had intercourse with Camboja as early as the time of the Sung dynasty (A.D. 970-1127); and a Chinese traveller who visited the latter country in 1295-97, describes gamboge and the method of obtaining it by incisions in the stem of the tree.[340] The celebrated Chinese herbal _Pun-tsao_, written towards the close of the 16th century, mentions gamboge (_Tang-hwang_) and gives a rude figure of the tree. The drug is regarded by the Chinese as poisonous, and is scarcely employed except as a pigment.

The first notice of the occurrence of gamboge in Europe is in the writings of Clusius[341] who describes a specimen brought from China by the Dutch Admiral, Jacob van Neck, and given to him in 1603, under the name of _Ghittaiemou_.[342] It appears that shortly after this time it began to be employed in medicine in Europe, for in 1611, Michael Reuden, a physician of Bamberg, made use of it as he stated in 1613.[343] He termed the drug a “novum gummi purgans,” or also, Gummi de Peru, the latter strange name no doubt being a corruption of the above mentioned Ghittaiemou. The appellation “gummi de Peru” is met with in pharmaceutical tariffs during the 17th and 18th centuries.

[339] It has been named _Garcinia Hanburyi_ by Sir Joseph Hooker (_Journ. of the Linnean Soc._ xiv., 1873, 435), but I presume my lamented friend Daniel Hanbury would not have considered the plant under notice as a distinct species. Consult also Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 30.—F. A. F.

[340] _Description de Camboge_ in Abel-Remusat’s _Nouv. Mélanges asiatiques_, i. (1829) 134.—The Chinese traveller calls the exudation _Kiang-hwang_ which is the name for _turmeric_, but his description is unmistakeable.

[341] _Exotica_ (1605) 82.

[342] Dr. R. Rost is of opinion that this word is derived from the Malay _gătáh_, gum, and the Javanese _jamú_ signifying medicinal, such mixing of the two languages being of common occurrence.

[343] _De nova gummi purgante_, Lipsiæ, 1614. We have only seen the second edition published at Leiden in 1625, its preface dating from 1613.

Gamboge is one of the articles of the tariff of the pharmaceutical shops of the City of Frankfort in 1612: “Gutta gemou, a strong purgative dried juice, coming from the Kingdom of _Patana_ in the East Indies.” Patana or Patani is the most populous province of the east coast of the peninsula of Malacca. The Dutch established there a factory in 1602, and were followed in 1612 by the English. The settlement was abandoned in 1700; gamboge was probably brought there from the opposite shore of the gulf of Siam.[344]

In 1615, a considerable quantity of gamboge was offered for sale in London by the East Indian Company. The entry respecting it in the Court Minute Books of the company under date October 13, 1615, is to this effect:—Three chests, one rundlet, and a basket, containing 13, 14, or 15 hundredweights, more or less, of _Cambogium_ “_a drugge unknown here_,”—the use of which, was much commended as a “_a gentle purge_,” were offered for sale at 5s. per lb., but met with no purchaser.

Jacob Bontius,[345] a Dutch physician, resident, towards 1629, in Batavia, stated that “gutta Cambodja,” as he termed the drug, came from the country of the same name; he supposed it to be derived from an Euphorbiaceous plant.

Parkinson,[346] who was an apothecary of London and wrote in 1640, speaks of this “_Cambugio_,” called by some _Catharticum aureum_, as a drug of recent importation which arrived in the form of “_wreathes or roules_” yellow within and without.

In the _London Pharmacopœia_ of 1650, gamboge is called _Gutta Gamba_[347] or _Ghitta jemou_.

The mother plant of the drug was not fully examined and figured until 1864; yet in 1677 already, Hermann, a German physician residing in Ceylon, had pointed out that it was a Garcinia.[348]

=Secretion=—We have examined a portion of a branch two inches in diameter of the gamboge-tree,[349] and have found the yellow gum-resin to be contained chiefly in the middle layer of the bark in numerous ducts like those occurring in the roots of _Inula Helenium_ and other roots of the same natural order. A little is also secreted in the dotted vessels of the outermost layer of the wood, and in the pith. The wood, which is white, acquires a bright yellow tint when exposed to the vapour of ammonia or to alkaline solutions.

=Production=—At the commencement of the rainy season the gamboge-collectors start for the forest in search of the trees which in some localities are plentiful. Having found one of the full size they make a spiral incision in the bark round half the circumference of the trunk, and place a joint of bamboo to receive the sap which slowly exudes for several months. When it first issues from the tree, it is a yellowish fluid, which after passing through a viscid state hardens into the gamboge of commerce.

[344] Flückiger, _Documente zur Geschichte der Pharmacie_, 1876. 41.

[345] _De Medicina Indorum_, lib. iv. Lugduni Batav. (1642) 119. 150.

[346] _Theatrum Botanicum_ (1640) 1575.

[347] This name is the Hindustani _Gótáganbá_, signifying according to Moodeen Sheriff (_Suppl. to Pharm. of India_, 83) _juice or extract of rhubarb_. It is still applied to gamboge.

[348] Hanbury in _Trans. of Linn. Soc._ xxiv. (1864) 487. tab. 50; also _Science Papers_, 1876. 326.

[349] Obligingly sent to us by Dr. Jamie of Singapore.

The trees grow both in the valleys and on the mountains and will yield on an average in one season enough to fill three joints of bamboo 20 inches in length by 1½ inches in diameter. The tree appears to suffer no injury provided the tapping is not more frequent than every other year.[350]

According to Dr. Jamie of Singapore, the gamboge-tree grows most luxuriantly in the dense jungles. The best time for collecting is from February to March or April. The trees, the larger the better, are wounded by a parang or chopping-knife, in various parts of the trunk and large branches, when prepared bamboos are inserted between the root and the bark of the trees. The bamboo cylinders being tied or inserted, are examined daily till filled, which generally takes from 15 to 30 days. Then the bamboos are taken to a fire, over which they are gradually rotated till the water in the gum-resin is evaporated and it gets sufficiently hard to allow of the bamboo being torn off.[351]

=Description=—The drug arrives in the form of sticks or cylinders 1 to 2½ inches in diameter, and 4 to 8 inches in length, striated lengthwise with impressions from the inside of the bamboo. Often the sticks are agglutinated, or folded, or the drug is in compressed or in shapeless masses. It is when good of a rich brownish orange tint, dense and homogeneous, breaking easily with a conchoidal fracture, scarcely translucent even in thin splinters. Touched with water it instantly forms a yellow emulsion. Triturated in a mortar it affords a brilliant yellow powder, slightly odorous. Gamboge has a disagreeable acrid taste.

Much of the gamboge shipped to Europe is of inferior quality, being of a brownish hue or exhibiting when broken a rough, granular, bubbly surface. Sometimes it arrives imperfectly dried and still soft.

=Chemical Composition=—Gamboge consists of a mixture of resin with 15 to 20 per cent. of gum. The resin dissolves easily in alcohol, forming a clear liquid of fine yellowish-red hue, and not decidedly acid reaction. It forms darker-coloured solutions with ammonia or the fixed alkalis, and a copious precipitate with basic acetate of lead. Perchloride of iron colours a solution of the resin deep blackish brown.

By fusing purified gamboge resin with potash, Hlasiwetz and Barth (1866) obtained acetic acid and other acids of the same series, together with _phloroglucin_, C₆H₃(OH)₃, _pyrotartaric_ acid, C₅H₈O₄, and _isuvitinic_ acid, C₆H₃CH₃(COOH)₂.

The gum which we obtained to the extent of 15·8 per cent. by completely exhausting gamboge with alcohol and ether, was found readily soluble in water. The solution does not redden litmus, and is not precipitated by neutral acetate of lead, nor by perchloride of iron, nor by silicate or biborate of sodium. It is therefore not identical with gum arabic.

[350] Spenser St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, Lond. 1862. ii. 272.

[351] _Pharm. Journ._ iv. (1874) 803.

=Commerce=—The drug finds its way to Europe from Camboja by Singapore, Bangkok, or Saigon. In 1877 the first place exported 240 peculs, Bangkok in 1875 no less than 346 peculs, value 48,835 dollars; from Saigon there have of late been shipped from 30 to 40 peculs annually (one pecul = 133·3 lbs. = 60·479 kilogrammes).[352]

=Uses=—Gamboge is a drastic purgative, seldom administered except in combination with other substances.

=Adulteration=—The Cambojans adulterate gamboge with rice flour, sand, or the pulverized bark of the tree,[353] which substances may be easily detected in the residue left after exhausting the drug successively by spirit of wine and cold water.

=Other Sources of Gamboge=—Although the gamboge of European commerce appears to be exclusively derived from the form of the plant named at the head of this article, _Garcinia travancorica_ Beddome, is capable of yielding a similar drug which may be collected to some small extent for local use, but not for exportation. It is a beautiful tree of the southern forests of Travancore and the Tinnevelly Ghats (3,000 to 4,500 feet). According to its discoverer Lieut. Beddome,[354] it yields an abundance of bright yellow gamboge.

OLEUM GARCINIÆ.

_Concrete Oil of Mangosteen_, _Kokum Butter_.

=Botanical Origin.=—_Garcinia indica_ Choisy (_G. purpurea_ Roxb. _Brindonia indica_ Dup. Th.), an elegant tree with drooping branches and dark green leaves.[355] It bears a smooth round fruit the size of a small apple, containing an acid purple pulp in which are lodged as many as 8 seeds. The tree is a native of the coast region of Western India known as the Concan, lying between Daman and Goa.

=History=—The fruit is mentioned by Garcia d’Orta(1563) as known to the Portuguese of Goa by the name of _Brindones_. He states that it has a pleasant taste though very sour, and that it is used in dyeing; and further that the peel serves to make a sort of vinegar. Several succeeding authors (as Bauchin and Ray) have contented themselves with repeating this account.

As to the fruit yielding a fatty oil, we find no reference to such fact till about the year 1830, when it was stated in an Indian newspaper[356] that an oil of the seeds is well known at Goa and often used to adulterate ghee (liquid butter). It was afterwards pointed out as the result of some experiments that the oil was of an agreeable bland taste and well adapted for use in pharmacy. A short article on Kokum Butter was published by Pereira[357] in 1851. With the view of bringing the substance into use for pharmaceutical preparations in India, it has been introduced into the _Pharmacopœia of India_ of 1868.

[352] _Report from H. M. Consul-General in Siam for 1875_. 9.

[353] Spenser St. John, _op. cit._

[354] _Flora Sylvatica_, Madras, part xv. (1872) tab. 173.

[355] Fig. Bentley and Trimen, _Medic. Plants_, part 31 (1878).

[356] Quoted by Graham, _Catal. of Bombay Plants_, 1839. 25.

[357] _Pharm. Journ._ xi. (1852) 65.

=Preparation=—The seeds are reniform, somewhat crescent-shaped or oblong, laterally compressed and wrinkled, ⁶/₁₀ to ⁸/₁₀ of an inch long by about ⁴/₁₀ broad. Each seed weighs on an average about eight grains. The thick cotyledons, which are inseparable,[358] have a mild oily taste. Examination under the microscope shows them to be built up of large reticulated cells containing a considerable proportion of crystalline fat readily soluble in benzol. In addition globular masses of albuminous matter occur which with iodine assume a brownish yellow hue. With perchloride of iron the walls strike a greenish-black.

The process followed by the natives of India (by whom alone the oil is prepared) has been thus described:—The seeds having been dried by exposure for some days to the sun are bruised, and boiled in water. The oil collects on the surface, and concretes when cool into a cake which requires to be purified by melting and straining.

=Description=—Kokum Butter is found in the Indian bazaars in the form of egg-shaped or oblong lumps about 4 inches long by 2 inches in diameter, and weighing about a quarter of a pound. It is a whitish substance, at ordinary temperatures, firm, dry, and friable, yet greasy to the touch. Scrapings (which are even pulverulent) when examined in glycerin under the microscope show it to be thoroughly crystalline. They have a mild oily taste, yet redden litmus if moistened with alcohol.

By filtration in a steam-bath, kokum butter is obtained perfectly transparent and of a light straw-colour, concentrating again at 27·5° C. into a white crystalline mass: some crystals appear even at 30°. Melted in a narrow tube, cooled and then warmed in a water bath, the fat begins to melt at 42·5 C., and fuses entirely at 45°. The residue left after filtration of the crude fat is inconsiderable, and consists chiefly of brown tannic matters soluble in spirit of wine.

When kokum butter is long kept it acquires an unpleasant rancid smell and brownish hue, and an efflorescence of shining tufted crystals appears on the surface of the mass.

=Chemical Composition=—Purified kokum butter boiled with caustic soda yields a fine hard soap which, when decomposed with sulphuric acid, affords a crystalline cake of fatty acids weighing as much as the original fat. The acids were again combined with soda and the soap having been decomposed, they were dissolved in alcohol of about 94 per cent. By slow cooling and evaporation crystals were first formed which, when perfectly dried, melted at 69·5° C.: they are consequently _Stearic Acid_. A less considerable amount of crystals which separated subsequently had a fusing point of 55°, and may be referred to _Myristic Acid_.

A portion of the crude fat was heated with oxide of lead and water, and the plumbic compound dried and exhausted with ether, which after evaporation left a very small amount of liquid oil, which we refer to _Oleic Acid_.

Finally the sulphuric acid used at the outset of the experiments was saturated and examined in the usual manner for volatile fatty acids (butyric, valerianic, &c.) but with negative results.

[358] The embryo, according to Bentley and Trimen (_l. c._) consists chiefly of the _thickened_ radicle, and is almost devoid of cotyledons.

The fat of the seeds of _G. indica_ was extracted by ether and examined chemically in 1857 by J. Bouis and d’Oliveira Pimentel.[359] It was obtained to the extent of 30 per cent., was found to fuse at 40° C. and to consist chiefly of stearin (tristearin). The seeds yielded 1·72 per cent. of nitrogen. Their residue after exhaustion by ether afforded to alkaline solutions or alcohol a fine red colour.

=Uses=—The results of the experiments above-noted show that kokum butter is well suited for some pharmaceutical preparations. It might also be advantageously employed in candle-making, as it yields stearic acid more easily and in a purer state than tallow and most other fats. But that it is possible to obtain it in quantities sufficiently large for important industrial uses, appears to us very problematical.

DIPTEROCARPEÆ.

=BALSAMUM DIPTEROCARPI.=

_Balsamun Gurjunæ; Gurjun Balsam, Wood Oil._

=Botanical Origin=—This drug is yielded by several trees of the genus _Dipterocarpus_, namely—

_D. turbinatus_ Gärtn. f. (_D. lævis_ Ham., _D. indicus_ Bedd), a native of Eastern Bengal, Chittagong and Pegu to Singapore, and French Cochin China.

_D. incanus_ Roxb., a tree of Chittagong and Pegu.

_D. alatus_ Roxb., growing in Chittagong, Burma, Tenasserim, the Andaman Islands, Siam, and French Cochin China.

_D. zeylanicus_ Thw. and _D. hispidus_ Thw., indigenous to Ceylon.

_D. crispalatus_ ... abounding, together with _D. turbinatus_ and _D. alatus_, in French Cochin China.

_D. trinervis_ Bl., a native of Java and the Philippines, and _D. gracilis_ Bl., _D. littoralis_ Bl., _D. retusus_ Bl. (_D. Spanoghei_ Bl.), trees of Java supply a similar useful product which as yet appears to be of less commercial importance.[360]

The Gurjun trees are said by Hooker[361] to be among the most magnificent of the forests of Chittagong. They are conspicuous for their gigantic size, and for the straightness and graceful form of their tall unbranched trunk, and small symmetrical crown of broad glossy leaves. Many individuals are upwards of 200 feet high and 15 feet in girth.

=History=—Gurjun balsam was enumerated as one of the productions of Ava by Francklin[362] in 1811, and in 1813 it was briefly noticed by Ainslie.[363] Its botanical origin was first made known by Roxburgh, who also described the method by which it is extracted.

[359] _Comptes Rendus_, xliv. (1857) 1355.

[360] That of _D. trinervis_ is especially used in Java. Filet, _Plantkundig Woordenboek voor Nederlandsch Indië_, Leiden, 1876, No. 6157.

[361] _Himalayan Journal_, ed. 2, ii. (1855) 332.

[362] _Tracts on the Dominions of Ava_, Lond. 1811. 26.

[363] In the _Catalogue des Produits des_ _Colonies françaises, Exposition Universelle de 1878_, p. 175, it is stated that the balsam of _D. alatus_ in French Cochin China is preferred, being a “_huile b’anche_.”

The medicinal properties of Gurjun balsam were pointed out by O’Shaughnessy[364] as entirely analogous to those of copaiba; and his observations were confirmed by many practitioners in India. This has obtained for the drug a place in the _Pharmacopœia of India_ (1868).

=Extraction=—A recent account of the production of this drug is found in the _Reports of the Jury of the Madras Exhibition of 1855_. It is there stated that _Wood Oil_, as the balsam is commonly called, is obtained for the most part from the coast of Burma and the Straits, and is procured by tapping the trees about the end of the dry season. Several deep incisions are made with an axe into the trunk of the tree and a good-sized cavity scooped out. In this, fire is placed, and kept burning until the wood is somewhat scorched, when the balsam begins to exude, and is then led away into a vessel of bamboo. It is afterwards allowed to settle, when a clear liquid separates from a thick portion called the “_guad_.” The oil is extracted year after year, and sometimes there are two or three holes in the same tree. It is produced in extraordinary abundance; from 30 to 40 gallons according to Roxburgh may sometimes be obtained from a single tree in the course of a season, during which it is necessary to remove from time to time the old charred surface of the wood and burn afresh.

If a growing tree is felled and cut into piece, the oleo-resin exudes and concretes on the wood, very much, it is said, _resembling camphor_ (?) and having an aromatic smell.

=Description=—As Gurjun balsam is the produce of different trees as well as of different countries, it is not surprising to find that it varies considerably in its properties.

The following observations refer to a balsam of which 400 lb. were recently imported from Moulmein for a London drug firm. It is a thick and viscid fluid, exhibiting a remarkable fluorescence, so that when seen by reflected light it appears opaque and of dingy greenish grey; yet when placed between the observer and strong daylight it is seen to be perfectly transparent and of a dark reddish-brown.[365] It has a weak aromatic copaiba-like odour and a bitterish aromatic taste without the persistent acridity of copaiba. Its sp. gr. at 16·9° C. is 0·964.

[364] _Mat. Med. of Hindoostan_, Madras, 1813. 186.

[365] _Bengal Dispensatory_, 1842. 22.

With the following liquids Gurjun affords perfectly clear solutions which are more or less fluorescent, namely pure benzol (from benzoate of calcium), cumol, chloroform, sulphide of carbon, essential oils. On the other hand, it is not entirely soluble in methylic, ethylic, or amylic alcohol; in ether, acetic ether, glacial acetic acid, acetone, phenol (carbolic acid), or in caustic potash dissolved in absolute alcohol. Many samples of commercial benzin also are not capable of dissolving the oleo-resin perfectly, but we have not ascertained on what constituent of such benzin this depends. We have further noticed that that portion of petroleum which is known as _Petroleum Ether_, containing the most volatile hydrocarbons, does not wholly dissolve the oleo-resin. One hundred parts of the balsam warmed and shaken with 1000 parts of absolute alcohol yielded on cooling a precipitate of resin amounting when dried to 18·5 parts. All concentrated solutions of the balsam are precipitated by amylic alcohol.

If the balsam is kept for a long time in a stoppered vessel at 100° C. it simply becomes a little turbid; but about 130° C. it is transformed into a jelly, and on cooling does not resume its former fluidity. Balsam of copaiba heated in a closed glass tube to 220° C. does not at all lose its fluidity, whereas Gurjun balsam becomes an almost solid mass.

=Chemical Composition=—Of the balsam 6·99 grammes dissolved in benzol and kept in a water bath until the residue ceased to lose weight, yielded 3·80 grammes of a dry, transparent, semi-fluid resin, corresponding to 54·44 per cent., and 45·56 of volatile matters expelled by evaporation. But another sample afforded us much less residue. By submitting larger quantities of the above balsam to the usual process of distillation with water in a large copper still, 37 per cent. of volatile oil were easily obtained. The water passing over at the same time did not redden litmus paper. A dark, viscid, liquid resin remained in the still.

The essential oil is of a pale straw-colour and less odorous than most other volatile oils. Treated with chloride of calcium and again distilled, it begins to boil at 210° C. and passes over at 255°-260° C., acquiring a somewhat empyreumatic smell and light yellowish tint. The purified oil has a sp. gr. of 0·915;[366] it is but sparingly soluble in absolute alcohol or glacial acetic acid, but mixes readily with amylic alcohol.

According to Werner (1862) this oil has the composition C₂₀H₃₂ like that of copaiba. He says it deviates the ray of polarized light to the left, but that prepared by one of us deviated strongly to the _right_, the residual resin dissolved in benzol being wholly inactive. The oil does not form a crystalline compound with dry hydrochloric acid, which colours it of a beautiful blue.[367] De Vry[368] states that the essential oil after this treatment deviates the ray to the right.

The resin contains, like that of copaiba, a small proportion of a crystallizable acid which may be removed by warming it with ammonia in weak alcohol. That part of the resin which is insoluble even in absolute alcohol,[369] we found to be uncrystallizable. The _Gurgunic Acid_, as the crystallized resinous acid is called by Werner,[370] but which it is more correct to write _Gurjunic_, may consequently be prepared by extracting the resin with alcohol (·838) and mixing the solution with ammonia. From the ammoniacal solution gurjunic acid is precipitated on addition of a mineral acid, and if it is again dissolved in ether and alcohol it may be procured in the form of small crystalline crusts. From the specimen under examination we were not successful in obtaining indubitable crystals.

[366] 0·944 according to Werner; 0·931 O’Shaughnessy; 0·928 De Vry (1857).

[367] This magnificent colouring matter is not dissolved by ether.

[368] _Pharm. Journ._ xvi. (1857) 374.

[369] The sample of gurjun balsam examined by Werner as well as the resin it contained were entirely soluble in boiling potash lye.

[370] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xvii. 545.

Gurjunic acid, C₄₄H₆₈O₈ according to Werner, melts at 220° C., and concretes again at 180° C.; it begins to boil at 260° C., yet at the same time decomposition takes place. By assigning to this acid the formula C₄₄H₆₄O₅ + 3H₂O, which agrees well with Werner’s analytical results, we may regard it as a hydrate of abietinic acid, the chemical behaviour of which is perfectly analogous. Gurjunic acid is soluble in alcohol 0·838, but not in weak alcohol; it is dissolved also by ether, benzol, or sulphide of carbon (Werner).

In copaiba from Maracaibo, Strauss (1865) discovered _Metacopaivic Acid_ which is probably identical with gurjunic; the former, however, fuses at 206° C.

The amorphous resin forming the chief bulk of the residue of the distillation of the balsam, has not yet been submitted to exact analysis. We find that after complete desiccation it is not soluble in absolute alcohol. A crystallized constituent of Gurjun, which we obtained from a balsam of unknown origin, has been shown[371] to answer to the formula C₂₈H₄₆O₂. Its crystals, belonging to the asymmetric system, melt at 126°-130°C.; they are entirely devoid of acid character. A comparative examination of the product of each of the above named species of Dipterocarpus would be highly desirable.

=Commerce=—Gurjun balsam is exported from Singapore, Moulmein, Akyab and the Malayan Peninsula, and is a common article of trade in Siam. It is likewise produced in Canara in Southern India. It is occasionally shipped to Europe. More than 2000 lb. were offered for sale in London under the name of _East India Balsam Capivi_, 4th October 1855; and in October 1858, a no less quantity than 45 casks appeared in the catalogue of a London drug-broker. It is now not unfrequent in the London drug sales.

=Uses=—In medicine it has hitherto been employed only as a substitute for copaiba, and chiefly in the hospitals of India.

In the East its great use is as a natural varnish, either alone or combined with pigments; and also as a substitute for tar as an application to the seams of boats, and for preserving timber from the attacks of the white ant. To the first application it is often made better appropriated[372] by boiling it, so that the essential oil is evaporated.

_Wood Oil of China_—The oleo-resin of Dipterocarpus must not be confounded with the so-called _Wood Oil_ of China, which is of a totally different nature. The latter is a fatty oil expressed from the seeds of _Aleurites cordata_ Müll. Arg. (_Dryandra cordata_ Thunb. _Elaeococca Vernicia_ Sprgl. Prodromus xv. part 2, p. 724), the well-known _Tung_ tree of the Chinese. It is a large tree of the order _Euphorbiaceæ_, found in China and Japan. The oil is an article of enormous consumption among the Chinese, who use it in the caulking and painting of junks and boats, for preserving woodwork, varnishing furniture, and also in medicine. In the commercial reports of H.M. Consuls in China (No. 5, 1875, p. 3, 26) we find that this oil is largely exported from Hankow: 199·654 peculs in 1874, and forms an article of import at Ningpo: 15·123 peculs in 1874 (pecul = 133·33 lb. avoirdupois). It is, however, not shipped to foreign countries. The oil of the Tung tree is also extremely remarkable on account of its chemical properties as shown by Cloëz (1875-1877).

[371] Flückiger, _Pharm. Journ._ (1878) 725, with fig.

[372] _Catalogue of the French Colonies_, _Paris Exhibition_, 1878, 101, quoted above.

MALVACEÆ.

RADIX ALTHÆÆ

_Marshmallow Root_; F. _Racine de Guimauve_; G. _Eibischwurzel_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Althæa officinalis_ L., the marshmallow, grows in moist places throughout Europe, Asia Minor, and the temperate parts of Western and Northern Asia, but is by no means universally distributed. It prefers saline localities such as in Spain the salt marshes of Saragossa, the low-lying southern coasts of France near Montpellier, Southern Russia, and the neighbourhood of salt-springs in Central Europe. In southern Siberia Althæa has been met with by Semenoff (1857) ascending as high as 3,000 feet in the Alatau mountains, south of the Balkash Lake.

In Britain it occurs in the low grounds bordering the Thames below London, and here and there in many other spots in the south of England and of Ireland.

The cultivated marshmallow thrives as far north as Throndhjem in Norway, and has been naturalized in North America (salt marshes of New England and New York) and Australia. It is largely cultivated in Bavaria and Württemberg.

=History=—Marshmallow had many uses in ancient medicine, and is described by Dioscorides as Άλθαία, a name derived from the Greek verb ἀλθειν, _to heal_.

The diffusion of the plant in Europe during the middle ages was promoted by Charlemagne who enjoined[373] its culture (A.D. 812) under the name of “_Mismalvas_, id est alteas quod dicitur ibischa.”