I.—PHÆNOGAMOUS OR FLOWERING PLANTS. (continued 9)

Resin of Altingia excelsa Noronha (Liquidambar Altingiana Bl.) Rasamala of the Javanese and Malays—The Rasamala is a magnificent tree of the Indian Archipelago, Burma and Assam. In Java it yields by incisions in the trunk an odorous resin, yet only very slowly and in very small quantity; this resin is not, or at least not regularly, collected. In Burma, on the other hand, the tree affords a fragrant balsam, of which according to Waring[1059] there are two varieties, the one pellucid and of a light yellowish colour, obtained by simple incision; the other thick, dark, opaque, and of terebinthinous odour, procured by boring the stem and applying fire around the trunk.

MYRTACEÆ.

OLEUM CAJUPUTI.

Oil of Cajuput, Kayu-puti Oil; F. Essence de Cajuput; G. Cajeputöl.

Botanical Origin—Melaleuca Leucadendron L., a tree often attaining a considerable size, with a thick spongy bark peeling off in layers, and slender, often pendulous branches. It is widely spread, and abundant in the Indian Archipelago and Malayan peninsula, and is also found in Northern Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales.

The tree, according to Bentham,[1060] varies exceedingly in the size, shape, and texture of the leaves, in the young shoots being silky, and the spikes silky-villous or woolly, or the whole quite glabrous, in the short and dense, or long and interrupted spikes, in the size of the flower, and in the greenish yellow, whitish, pink, or purple stamens, so that it is difficult to believe all can be forms of a single species. Yet upon examination, none of these variations are sufficiently constant or so combined, as to allow of the definition of distinct races.

The variety growing in Bouro, where the oil of cajuput has been distilled ever since the time of Rumphius, and known as M. minor Smith, is described by Lesson, who visited the island in 1823, as a tree resembling an aged olive, with flowers in little globose white heads, and a trunk the stout bark of which is composed of numerous satiny layers.

History—Rumphius, who passed nearly fifty years in the Dutch possessions in the East Indies and died at Amboyna in 1702, is the first to give an account of the oil under notice, and of the tree from which it is obtained.[1061] From what he says, it appears that the aromatic properties of the tree are well known to the Malays and Javanese, who were in the habit of steeping its leaves in oil which they then impregnated with the smoke of benzoin and other aromatics, so obtaining an odorous liquid for anointing their heads. They likewise used cushions stuffed with the leaves, and also laid the latter in chests to keep away insects.

The fragrance of the foliage having thus attracted the attention of the Dutch, probably suggested submitting the leaves to distillation. Rumphius narrates how the oil was obtained in very small quantities, and was regarded as a powerful sudorific.

In Europe it appears to have been first noticed by J. M. Lochner,[1062] of Nürnberg, physician to the German Emperor. About the same time (1717), a ship’s surgeon, returning from the east, sold a provision of the oil to the distinguished apothecary Johann Heinrich Link at Leipzig, who published a notice on it and sold it.[1063] It began then to be quoted in the tariffs of other German apothecaries,[1064] although it was still reputed a very rare article in 1726.[1065] Somewhat larger quantities appear to have been soon imported by Amsterdam druggists.[1066] In Germany the oil took the name of Oleum Wittnebianum, from the recommendations bestowed on it by M. von Wittneben, of Wolfenbüttel, who was much engaged in natural sciences and long resident in Batavia.[1067] In France and England, it was however scarcely known till the commencement of the present century, though it had a place in the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia of 1788. In the London Price Current, we do not find it quoted earlier than 1813, when the price given is 3s. to 3s. 6d. per ounce, with a duty of 2s. 4½d. per ounce.

Manufacture—In the island of Bouro, in the Molucca Sea, the leaves of the Kayu-puti or Aij-puti, i.e. White-wood trees, are submitted to distillation with water, the operation being conducted in the most primitive manner, as already witnessed, about the year 1792, by Labillardière in his celebrated voyage with Lapérouse. Bickmore,[1068] an American traveller who passed three months in the island in 1865, states that it produces about 8,000 bottles of the oil annually, and that this is almost its only export. The Trade Returns of the Straight Settlements published at Singapore, show that the largest quantity is shipped from Celebes, the great island lying west of Bouro.

Description—Oil of Cajuput is a transparent mobile fluid, of a light bluish-green hue, a fragrant camphoraceous odour, and bitterish aromatic taste. It has a sp. gr. of 0·926, and remains liquid even at (8°·6 F.)-13° C. It deviates the ray of polarized light to the left. On diluting it with bisulphide of carbon it becomes turbid.

Chemical Composition—The researches of Schmidl (1860) and of Gladstone (1872) have shown that cajuput oil consists chiefly of Hydrate of Cajuputene or Cajuputol, C₁₀H₁₆, H₂O, which may be obtained from the crude oil by fractional distillation at 174° C. If it is repeatedly distilled from anhydrous phosphoric acid, Cajuputene, C₁₀H₁₆, passes over at 160-165° C.; it has an agreeable odour of hyacinths. After the cajuputene, Isocajuputene distils at 177°, and Paracajuputene at 310-316°, both agreeing in composition with cajuputene.

Like most essential oils having the formula C₁₀H₁₆, crude cajuput oil is capable of forming the crystallized compound C₁₀H₁₆, 3OH₂. This we have abundantly obtained by mixing 4 parts of the oil with 1 of alcohol 0·830 sp. gr., and one part of nitric acid 1·20 sp. gr.; the mixture should be allowed to stand in shallow dishes. By adding 1 vol. of absolute alcohol to 3 vol. of cajuput oil, and saturating it with anhydrous hydrochloric gas, crystals of the compound C₁₀H₁₆(HCl)₂ may be obtained. By vapour of bromine the oil acquires a beautiful green colour.

If 1 part of iodine be gradually dissolved in cajuput oil, the temperature being maintained at 50° C., fine green crystals of (C₁₀H₁₆HI)₂OH₂ are formed. They may be recrystallized from very little glacial acetic acid, but will not keep for more than a few weeks.

The green tint of the oil is due to copper, a minute proportion of which metal is usually present in all that is imported. It may be made evident by agitating the oil with water acidulated by a little hydrochloric acid. The compounds of copper with inorganic acids being comparatively of a fainter colour than the cupric salts of organic acids, the aqueous solution of chloride of copper now formed displays no longer the fine green tint. To the solution, after it has been put into a platinum capsule, a little zinc should be added, when the copper will be immediately deposited on the platinum. The liquid may be then poured off and the copper dissolved and tested. When the oil is rectified, it is obtained colourless, but it readily becomes green if in contact for a short time with metallic copper. The presence of the metal in the oil may also be shown at once by a scrap of paper which has been impregnated with fresh tincture of guaiacum wood and dried. If it is then moistened with water containing 1 per cent. of sulphocyanate of potassium, the paper turns intensely blue by the contact with the oil provided the latter contains copper.

Guibourt[1069] has however proved by experiment that the volatile oil obtained by the distillation of the leaves of several species of Melaleuca, Metrosideros and Eucalyptus, has naturally a fine green hue. It is not improbable that this hue is transient, and that the contamination with copper is intentional in order to obtain a permanent green.

Commerce—The oil is imported from Singapore and Batavia, packed in glass beer or wine bottles. From official statements[1070] it appears that the imports into Singapore during 1871 were as under:—

From Java 445 gallons

” Manilla 200 ”

” Celebes 3,895 ”

” other places 350 ”

Total 4,890 ”

Of this large quantity, the greater portion was re-shipped to Bombay, Calcutta, and Cochin China.

Uses—Cajuput oil is occasionally administered internally as a stimulant, antispasmodic and diaphoretic: externally as a rubefacient it is in frequent use.

Substitutes—The oil of Eucalyptus oleosa F. Muell. has, we find, the odour of cajuput; and according to Gladstone it agrees, as well as the oils of Melaleuca ericifolia Sm. and M. linariifolia Sm., almost entirely with cajuput oil, except in optical properties. The same is probably the case with the oil of Eucalyptus globulus Labill, which Cloez (1870) states to be dextrogyre. These oils are shipped to some extent from Australia to Europe, probably as adulterants of other essential oils.

CARYOPHYLLI.

Cloves; F. Girofles, Clous de Girofles; G. Gewürznelken.

Botanical Origin—Eugenia caryophyllata Thunberg (Caryophyllus aromaticus L.), a beautiful evergreen tree, 30 to 40 feet high, resembling a gigantic myrtle, bearing numerous flowers grouped in small terminal tricotomous cymes. The flower has an inferior ovary about ½ an inch long, cylindrical, of a crimson colour, dividing at the top into 4 sepals; and 4 round concave petals larger than the calyx, imbricated in the bud like a globe, but at length spreading and soon dropping off.

The clove-tree is said to be strictly indigenous only in the five small islands constituting the proper Moluccas, namely Tarnati, Tidor, Mortir, Makiyan and Bachian.[1071] These form a chain on the west side of the large island of Jilolo, where, strange to say, the tree appears not to exist in a wild state (Crawfurd). According to Rumphius, it was introduced into Amboyna before the arrival of the Portuguese, and is still cultivated there and in the neighbouring islands of Haruku, Saparua and Nusalaut, also in Sumatra and Penang. It is likewise now found in Malacca, the Mascarene Islands, the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba on the eastern coast of Africa, and the West Indies.

The tree which is grown for the spice appears to be a cultivated variety, of lower stature and more aromatic than the wild form.

History[1072]—The Greek name Καρυόϕυλλον is supposed to refer to the ball-like petals of the bud, which, as above described, might be compared to a small nut (κάρυον). But the name is very variably written, as γαροῦμϕουλ, καρϕούϕουλ, γαρόϕαλα,[1073] whence it becomes probable that it is not really Greek, but an Asiatic word hellenized.

Cloves have been long known to the Chinese. Mr. Mayers, late Chinese Secretary to the British Legation at Pekin, has communicated to us the interesting fact that they are mentioned by several Chinese writers as in use under the Han dynasty, b.c. 266 to a.d. 220, during which period it was customary for the officers of the court to hold the spice in the mouth before addressing the sovereign, in order that their breath might have an agreeable odour.[1074]

The Sanskrit name is “Lavanga,” whence the vernacular Hindustani “Laung.”

The first European author to mention Caryophyllon is Pliny, who describes it, after pepper, as a grain resembling that spice but longer and more brittle, produced in India, and imported for the sake of its odour. It is doubtful whether this description really refers to cloves.

By the 4th century, cloves must have become well known in Europe, if credence can be placed in a remarkable record preserved by Vignoli,[1075] which states that the emperor Constantine presented to St. Silvester, bishop of Rome, a.d. 314-335, numerous vessels of gold and silver, incense and spices, among which last were 150 pounds of Cloves—a vast quantity for the period.

Kosmas Indicopleustes,[1076] in his Topographia Christiana written about a.d. 547, states in the account of Taprobane (Ceylon) that silk, aloes [-wood], cloves (Καρυόϕυλλον) and sandal-wood, besides other productions, are imported thither from China, and other emporia, and transmitted to distant regions. Alexander Trallianus,[1077] who was a friend of Kosmos and a pupil of his father, prescribed in several receipts 5 or 8 cloves, καρυοϕυλλου κόκκους, from which fact it may be inferred that at his time (at Rome?) cloves were a very rare article. A century later, Paulus Ægineta[1078] distinctly described cloves as Caryophyllon—ex India, veluti flores cujusdam arboris.. odorati, acres ... and much used for a condiment and in medicine.

In the beginning of the 8th century, the same spice is noticed by Benedictus Crispus,[1079] archbishop of Milan, who calls it Cariophylus ater; and in a.d. 716, it is enumerated with other commodities in the diploma granted by Chilperic II. to the monastery of Corbie in Normandy.[1080]

We find cloves among the wares on which duty was levied at Acon (the modern Acre) in Palestine at the end of the 12th century, at which period that city was a great emporium of Mediterranean trade.[1081] They are likewise enumerated in the tariff of Marseilles of a.d. 1228,[1082] in that of Barcelona of 1252[1083] and of Paris, 1296.[1084]

These facts show that the spice was a regular object of commerce at this period. But it was very costly: the Household Book of the Countess of Leicester, a.d. 1265,[1085] gives its price as 10s. to 12s. per lb., exactly the same as that of saffron. Several other examples of the high cost of the spice might be adduced.

Of the place of growth of cloves, the first distinct notice seems to be that of the Arabian geographer Ibn Khurdádbah,[1086] a.d. 869-885, who names the spice, with cocoa-nuts, sugar, and sandal-wood as produced in Java. Doubtless he was misinformed, for the clove-tree had not come so far west at that period. Marco Polo[1087] made the same mistake four centuries later: finding the spice in Java, he supposed it the growth of the island.

Nicolo Conti,[1088] a Venetian merchant who lived from a.d. 1424 to 1448 in the Indian Archipelago, learned that cloves are brought to Java from the island of Banda, fifteen days’ sail further east. With the arrival of the Portuguese at the commencement of the 16th century, more accurate accounts of the Spice Islands began to reach Europe; and Pigafetta,[1089] the companion of Magellan, gave a very good description of the clove-tree as he observed it in 1521.

The Portuguese had the principal share in the clove trade for nearly a century. In 1605 they were expelled by the Dutch, who took exclusive possession of the Moluccas and adopted extraordinary measures for keeping the traffic in their own hands. Yet notwithstanding this, large supplies of cloves reached England direct. In 1609 a ship of the East India Company called the Consent arrived with 112,000 lb., the duty on which amounted to £1400 and the impost to as much more. The spice ungarbled was sold at 5s. 6d. and 5s. 9d. per lb.—of course, in bond.[1090]

To effect their purpose, the Dutch endeavoured to extirpate the clove-tree from its native islands, and even instituted periodical expeditions for the purpose of destroying any young trees that might have accidentally sprung up. This policy, the object of which was to confine the growth of the spice to a group of small islands of which Amboyna is the largest, has but very recently been abandoned: though the cultivation of the spice was free in all other localities, the clove parks of the Amboyna islands remained the property of the Dutch Government. The original Moluccas or Clove Islands now produce no cloves at all.

The enterprise of Poivre, the French governor of Mauritius and Bourbon, so far eluded the vigilance of the Dutch, that both clove and nutmeg-trees were introduced into those islands in the year 1770.[1091] The clove-tree was carried thence to Cayenne in 1793, and to Zanzibar about the end of the century.

Crawfurd,[1092] in an excellent article of which we have made free use, aptly remarks that it is difficult to understand how the clove first came to the notice of foreign nations, considering the well ascertained fact that it has never been used as a condiment or in any other way by the inhabitants of the islands of which it is a native. We may observe however that there were some singular superstitions among the islanders with regard to the so-called Royal Clove (p. 287), a tree of which on the island of Makiyan was long supposed to be unique.

Collection—The flower-buds of the clove-tree when young are nearly white, but afterwards become green and lastly bright red, when they must at once be gathered. This in Zanzibar is done by hand; each clove is picked singly, a moveable stage the height of the tree being used to enable the labourers to reach the upper branches. The buds are then simply dried in the sun, by which they acquire the familiar dark brown tint of the commercial article. The gathering takes place twice a year; in the Moluccas where the harvest occurs in June and December, the cloves are partly gathered by hand, and partly beaten off the tree by bamboos on to cloths spread beneath. The annual yield of a good tree is about 4½ pounds, but sometimes reaches double that quantity.

Description—Cloves are about ⁶/₁₀ of an inch in length, and consist of a long cylindrical calyx dividing above into 4 pointed spreading sepals which surround 4 petals, closely imbricated as a globular bud about ²/₁₀ of an inch in diameter.

The petals which are of lighter colour than the rest of the drug and somewhat translucent from numerous oil-cells, spring from the base of a 4-sided epigynous disc, the angles of which are directed towards the lobes of the calyx. The stamens which are very numerous, are inserted at the base of the petals and are arched over the style. The latter which is short and subulate, rises from a depression in the centre of the disc. Immediately below it and united with the upper portion of the calyx is the ovary, which is 2-celled and contains many ovules. The lower end of the calyx (hypanthium) has a compressed form; it is solid but has its internal tissue far more porous than the walls. The whole calyx is of a deep rich brown, has a dull wrinkled surface, a dense fleshy texture, and abounds in essential oil which exudes on simple pressure with the nail. Cloves have an agreeable spicy odour, and a strong biting aromatic taste.

The varieties of cloves occurring in commerce do not exhibit any structural differences. Inferior kinds are distinguished by being less plump, less bright in tint, and less rich in essential oil. In London price-currents, cloves are enumerated in the order of value thus: Penang, Bencoolen, Amboyna, Zanzibar.

Microscopic Structure—A transverse section of the lower part of a clove shows a dark rhomboid zone, the tissue on either side of which is of a lighter hue. The outer layer beneath the epidermis exhibits a large number of oil-cells, frequently as much as 300 mkm. in diameter. About 200 oil-cells may be counted in one transverse section, so that the large amount of essential oil in the drug is well shown by its microscopic characters. The above-mentioned zone is chiefly made up of about 30 fibro-vascular bundles, another stronger bundle traversing the centre of the clove. The fibro-vascular bundles, as well as the tissue bordering the oil-cells, assume a greenish black hue by alcoholic perchloride of iron. Oil-cells are also largely distributed in the leaves, petals and even the stamens of Eugenia.

Chemical Composition—Few plants possess any organ so rich in essential oil as the drug under consideration. The oil known in pharmacy as Oleum Caryophylli, which is the important constituent of cloves, is obtainable to the extent of 16 to 20 per cent. But to extract the whole, the distillation must be long continued, the water being returned to the same material.

The oil is a colourless or yellowish liquid with a powerful odour and taste of cloves, sp. gr. 1·046 to 1·058. It is a mixture of a hydrocarbon, and an oxygenated oil called Eugenol, in variable proportions. The former which is termed light oil of cloves and comes over in the first period of the distillation, has the composition C₁₅H₂₄, a sp. gr. of 0·918 and boils at 251° C. It deviates the plane of polarization slightly to the left, and is not coloured on addition of ferric chloride; it is of a rather terebinthinaceous odour.

Eugenol, sometimes called Eugenic Acid, has a sp. gr. of 1·087 at 0° C., and possesses the full taste and smell of cloves. Its boiling point is 247°·5 C. With alkalis, especially ammonia and baryta, it yields crystallizable salts. Eugenol may therefore be prepared by submitting the crude oil of cloves to distillation with caustic soda; the “light oil” distils then, the eugenol, being now combined with sodium, remains in the still. It will be obtained on addition of an acid and again distilling. Eugenol is devoid of rotatory power, whence the crude oil of cloves, of which eugenol is by far the prevailing constituent, is optically almost inactive. The constitution of eugenol is given by the formula

OCH₃

C₆H₃ OH.

CH·CH·CH₃

It belongs to the phenol class, and has also been met with in the fruits of Pimenta officinalis (see next article), in the Bay leaves, in Canella bark (see page 75), in the leaves and flower buds of Cinnamomum zeilanicum and in Brazilian clove-bark (Dicypellium caryophyllatum Nees).

Eugenol can be converted into Vanillin (see Fructus Vanillæ).

The water distilled from cloves is stated to contain, in addition to the essential oil, another body, Eugenin, which sometimes separates after a while in the form of tasteless, crystalline laminæ, having the same composition as eugenol.[1093] We have never met with it.

According to Scheuch (1863), oil of cloves also (sometimes) contains a little Salicylic acid,

C₆H₄ OH

COOH,

which may be removed by shaking the oil with a solution of carbonate of ammonium.

Caryophyllin, C₂₀H₃₂O, is a neutral, tasteless, inodorous substance, crystallizing in needle-shaped prisms. We have obtained it in small quantity, by treating with boiling ether cloves, which we had previously deprived of most of their essential oil by small quantities of alcohol. E. Mylius (1873) obtained from it by nitric acid, crystals of Caryophyllinic Acid, C₂₀H₃₂O₆.

Carmufellic Acid obtained in colourless crystals, C₁₂H₂₀O₁₆, in 1851 by Muspratt and Danson after digesting an aqueous extract of cloves with nitric acid, is a product of this treatment and not a natural constituent of cloves.

Cloves contain a considerable proportion of gum; also a tannic acid not yet particularly examined.

Production and Commerce—Of late years the principal locality for the production of cloves has been the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba on the east coast of Africa, which until very recently were capable of producing a maximum crop of 10½ millions of pounds in a single season. On the 15th April 1872, Zanzibar was visited by a hurricane of extraordinary violence, by which about five-sixths of the clove-trees in the island were destroyed; and although the plantations are being renewed, many years must elapse before the crop can resume its former importance. Pemba, which is distant from Zanzibar 25 miles, and produced about half as much of the spice as that island, did not appreciably suffer from the storm.

The crop on these islands fluctuates, a good year alternating with a bad one. This is partly shown in the imports of Bombay, the great mart of Zanzibar produce, which have been as follows:—

1869-70 1870-71 1871-72 1872-73

45,642 cwt. 21,968 cwt. 43,891 cwt. 25,185 cwt.

The quantity of cloves shipped from Bombay to the United Kingdom is comparatively small, being in 1871-72, 3279 cwt.; in 1872-73, 3271 cwt.

The imports of cloves to the United Kingdom are from one million to four million pounds annually.

Cloves are also largely shipped direct from Zanzibar to the United States and Hamburg. A small amount is taken in native vessels to the Red Sea ports; these are packed in raw hides. Those for the European and American markets are shipped in mat bags made of split cocoa-nut leaf.

The clove trade of the Moluccas has been for many years in the hands of the Dutch Government, which, by its restrictive policy, assumed practically the position of growers, disposing of their produce through the Netherlands Trading Company at auctions held in Holland twice a year. This system having been abolished in 1872, has proved disastrous to the trade it was designed to protect, and to such a degree that the produce of cloves in the Moluccas is but a tenth of what it was in the early days of their intercourse with Europe. The crop of the four islands, Amboyna, Haruku, Saparua, and Nusalaut, the only Moluccas in which the tree is cultivated, was reckoned in 1854 as 510,912 lb.

The export of cloves from Java in 1871 was 1397 peculs[1094] (186,226 lb.). The French island of Réunion which from 1825 to 1849 used to produce annually as much as 800,000 kilogrammes (1,764,571 lb.), now yields almost none, owing chiefly to the frequent hurricanes.

Uses—As a remedy, cloves are unimportant, though in the form of infusion or distilled water they are useful in combination with other medicines. The essential oil which sometimes relieves toothache is a frequent ingredient of pill-masses. The chief consumption of cloves is as a culinary spice.

Substitutes—1. Clove Stalks—Festucœlvel Stipites Caryophylli, in French Griffes de Girofle, in German Nelkenstiele, were an article of import into Europe during the middle ages, when they were chiefly known by their low Latin name of fusti, or the Italian bastaroni. Thus under the statutes of Pisa,[1095] a.d. 1305, duty was levied not only on cloves (garofali), but also on Folia et fusti garofalorum. Pegolotti[1096] a little later names both as being articles of trade at Constantinople. Clove Leaves are enumerated[1097] as an import into Palestine in the 12th century; they are also mentioned in a list of the drugs sold at Frankfort[1098] about the year 1450; we are not aware that they are used in modern times.

As to Clove Stalks, they are still a considerable object of trade, especially from Zanzibar, where they are called by the natives Vikunia. They taste tolerably aromatic, and yield 4 to 6·4 per cent. of volatile levogyre oil; they are used for adulterating the Ground Cloves sold by grocers. Such an admixture may be detected by the microscope, especially if the powder after treatment with potash be examined in glycerin. If clove stalks have been ground, thick-walled or stone-cells will be found in the powder; such cells do not occur in cloves. Powdered allspice is also an adulterant of powdered cloves; it also contains stone-cells, but in addition numerous starch granules which are entirely wanting in cloves.

2. Mother Cloves, Anthophylli—are the fruits of the clove-tree, and are ovate-oblong berries about an inch in length and much less rich in essential oil than cloves. Though occasionally seen in the London drug sales in some quantity, they are not an article of regular import.[1099] As they contain very large starch granules, their presence as an adulteration of ground cloves would be revealed by the microscope.

3. Royal Cloves—Under this name or Caryophyllum regium, a curious monstrosity of the clove was formerly held in the highest reputation, on account of its rarity and the strange stories told respecting it.[1100] Specimens in our possession show it to be a very small clove, distinguished by an abnormal number of sepals and large bracts at the base of the calyx-tube, the corolla and internal organs being imperfectly developed.

FRUCTUS PIMENTÆ.

Semen Amomi; Pimento, Allspice, Jamaica Pepper; F. Poivre de la Jamaïque, Piment des Anglais, Toute-épice; G. Nelkenpfeffer, Nelkenköpfe, Neugewürz.

Botanical Origin—Pimenta officinalis Lindley[1101] (Myrtus Pimenta L., Eugenia Pimenta DC.), a beautiful evergreen tree, growing to about 30 feet in height, with a trunk 2 feet in circumference, common throughout the West India Islands. In Jamaica, it prefers limestone hills near the sea, and is especially plentiful on the north side of the island.

History—The high value placed on the spices of India sufficiently explains the interest with which aromatic and pungent plants were regarded by the early explorers of the New World; while the eager desire to obtain these lucrative commodities is shown by the names Pepper, Cinnamon, Balsam, Melegueta, Amomum, bestowed on productions totally distinct from those originally so designated.

Among the spices thus brought to the notice of Europe were the little dry berries of certain trees of the myrtle tribe, which had some resemblance in shape and flavour to peppercorns, and hence were named Pimienta,[1102] corrupted to Pimenta or Pimento. It was doubtless a drug of this kind, if not our veritable allspice, that was given to Clusius in 1601 by Garret, a druggist of London, and described and figured by the former in his Liber Exoticorum.[1103] A few years later it began to be imported into England, being, as Parkinson[1104] says, “obtruded for Amomum” (Round Cardamom), so that “some more audacious than wise ... put it in their compositions instead of the right.” Francesco Redi mentioned the fruits as Pimienta de Chapa; Chiapas, now the south-eastern department of Mexico, bordering Guatemala. Redi states that the spice was also called Pimienta de Tavasco from the adjoining department of Tabasco. According to Sloane[1105] (1691) it was commonly sold by druggists for Carpobalsamum. Ray (1693) distinguished the spice as a production of Jamaica under the name of Sweet-scented Jamaica Pepper or Allspice, and states it to be abundantly imported into England, and in frequent use as a condiment, though not employed in medicine. The spice had a place in the London Pharmacopœia as early as 1721.

The consumption of Pimento has been enormous. In the year 1804-5, the quantity shipped from the British West Indies was 2,257,000 lb., producing on import duty a net revenue of £38,063.[1106]

Production and Commerce—The spice found in commerce is furnished wholly by the island of Jamaica. A plantation, there called a Pimento walk, is a piece of natural woodland stocked with the trees, which require but little attention. The flowers appear in June, July, and August, and are quickly succeeded by the berries, which are gathered when of full size but still unripe. This is performed by breaking off the small twigs bearing the bunches. These are then spread out, and exposed to the sun and air for some days, after which the stalks are removed, and the berries are fit for being packed.

By an official document[1107] it appears that, in the year 1871, the amount of land in Jamaica cropped with pimento was 7,178 acres. In that year the island exported of the spice 6,857,838 lb., value £28,574. Of this quantity Great Britain took 4,287,551 lb., and the United States 2,266,950 lb. In 1875 the export was 57,500 cwts., valued at £40,250, of which 10,894 cwts. only went to the United States.

Description—Allspice is a small, dry globular berry, rather variable in size, measuring ³/₁₀ to less than ²/₁₀ of an inch in diameter. It is crowned by a short style, seated in a depression, and surrounded by 4 short thick sepals; generally however the latter have been rubbed off, a scar-like raised ring marking their former position. The berry has a woody shell or pericarp, easily cut, of a dark ferruginous brown, and rugose by reason of minute tubercles filled with essential oil. It is two-celled, each cell containing a single, reniform, exalbuminous seed, having a large spirally curved embryo. The seed is aromatic, but less so than the pericarp.

Allspice has an agreeable, pungent, spicy flavour, much resembling that of cloves.

Microscopic Structure—The outer layer of the pericarp, immediately beneath the epidermis, contains numerous large cells filled with essential oil. The parenchyme further exhibits thick-walled cells loaded with resin, and smaller cells enclosing crystals of oxalate of calcium. The whole tissue is traversed by small fibro-vascular bundles. The seeds are also provided with a small number of oil-cells, and contain starch granules.

Chemical Composition—The composition of pimento resembles in many points that of cloves. The berries yield to the extent of 3 to 4½ per cent. a volatile oil, sp. gr. 1·037 (Gladstone), having the characteristic taste and odour of the spice, and known in the shops as Oleum Pimentæ. We have found it to deviate the ray of polarized light 2° to the left, when examined in a column of 50 mm.

Oeser (1864), whose experiments have been confirmed by Gladstone (1872), has shown that oil of pimento has substantially the same composition as oil of cloves; salicylic acid has not been found. Pimento is rich in tannin, striking with a persalt of iron an inky black. Its decoction is coloured deep blue by iodine, showing the presence of starch. Dragendorff (1871) pointed out the existence in allspice of an extremely small quantity of an alkaloid, having somewhat the odour of coniine.

Uses—Employed as an aromatic clove; a distilled water (Aqua Pimentæ) is frequently prescribed. The chief use of pimento is as a culinary spice.

Substitute—The Mexican spice called Pimienta de Tabasco (Piment Tabago Guibourt) is somewhat larger and less aromatic than Jamaica allspice. Analogous products are afforded by Pimenta acris Wight[1108] (Myrcia acris DC, Amomis acris Berg), the Bay-berry tree, and P. Pimento Griseb. The oil of bay-berry consists of eugenol and a hydrocarbon, possibly identical with the “light oil of cloves” (p. 284), but present in a larger amount. Bay rum, much used in the United States by the perfumers, is an alcoholic tincture flavoured with oil of bay-berry.

GRANATEÆ.

CORTEX GRANATI FRUCTUS.

Cortex Granati; Pomegranate Peel; F. Ecorce de Grenades; G. Granatschalen.

Botanical Origin—Punica Granatum L., a shrub or low tree, with small deciduous foliage and handsome scarlet flowers. It is indigenous to North-western India, and the counties south and south-west of the Caspian to the Persian Gulf and Palestine, and grows wild in the hills of Western Sindh in elevations of 4000 feet, in Balutchistan to 6000 feet, also in the east flank of Soliman range. The trunk is short, rarely over 20 feet high. The tree has long been cultivated, and is now found throughout the warm parts of Europe, and in the subtropical regions of both hemispheres.

History—The pomegranate has been highly prized by mankind from the remotest antiquity, as is shown by the references to it in the Scriptures,[1109] and by the numerous representations of the fruit in the sculptures of Persepolis and Assyria,[1110] and on the ancient monuments of Egypt.[1111] It was probably introduced into the south of Italy by Greek colonists, and is named as a common fruit-tree by Porcius Cato[1112] in the 3rd century b.c. The peel of the fruit was recognized as medicinal by the ancients, and among the Romans was in common use for tanning leather,[1113] as it still is in Tunis.

Description—The fruit of the pomegranate tree is a spherical, somewhat flattened and obscurely six-sided berry, the size of a common orange and often much larger, crowned by the thick, tubular, 5-to 9-toothed calyx. It has a smooth, hard, coriaceous skin, which when the fruit is ripe, is of a brownish yellow tint, often finely shaded with red. Membranous dissepiments, about 6 in number meeting in the axis of the fruit, divide the upper and larger portion into equal cells. Below these a confused conical diaphragm separates the lower and smaller half, which in its turn is divided into 4 or 5 irregular cells. Each cell is filled with a large number of grains, crowded on thick spongy placentæ, which in the upper cells are parietal but in the lower appear to be central. The grains, which are about ½ an inch in length, are oblong or obconical and many-sided, and consist of a thin transparent vesicle containing an acid, saccharine, red, juicy pulp, surrounding an elongated angular seed.

The only part of the fruit used medicinally is the peel, Cortex Granati of the druggists, which in the fresh state is leathery. When dry as imported, it is in irregular, more or less concave fragments, some of which have the toothed, tubular calyx still enclosing the stamens and style. It is ⅒ to ¹/₂₀ of an inch thick, easily breaking with a short corky fracture; externally it is rather rough, of a yellowish-brown or reddish colour. Internally it is more or less brown or yellow, and honey-combed with depressions left by the seeds. It has hardly any odour, but has a strongly astringent taste.

Microscopic Structure—The middle layer of the peel consists of large thin-walled and elongated, sometimes even branched cells, among which occur thick-walled cells and fibro-vascular bundles. Both the outer and the inner surface are made up of smaller, nearly cubic and densely packed cells. Small starch granules occur sparingly throughout the tissue, as well as crystals of oxalate of calcium.

Chemical Composition—The chief constituent is tannin, which in an aqueous infusion of the dried peel produces with perchloride of iron an abundant dark blue precipitate. The peel also contains sugar and a little gum. Dried at 100° C. and incinerated, it yielded us 5·9 per cent. of ash.

Uses—Pomegranate peel is an excellent astringent, now almost obsolete in British medicine. Waring[1114] chronic dysentery of the natives of India, as well as in diarrhœa.

CORTEX GRANATI RADICIS.

Pomegranate-root Bark; F. Ecorce de racine de Grenadier; G. Granatwurzelrinde.

Botanical Origin—Punica Granatum L., see page 289.

History—In addition to the particulars regarding the pomegranate tree given in the preceding article, the following which concern the drug under notice may be stated.

A decoction of the root of the pomegranate was recommended by Celsus,[1115] Dioscorides,[1116] and Pliny[1117] for the expulsion of tapeworm; but the remedy had fallen into complete oblivion, until its use among the Hindus attracted the notice of Buchanan[1118] at Calcutta about the year 1805. This physician pointed out the efficacy of the root-bark, which was further shown by Fleming and others. Pomegranate-root is known to have been long used for a similar purpose by the Chinese.[1119]

Though the medicine is admitted to be efficient, and is employed with advantage in India where it is easily procured both genuine and fresh, it is hardly ever administered in England, the extract of male-fern being generally preferred; but it has a place in several continental pharmacopœias.

Description—The bark occurs in rather thin quills or fragments, 3 to 4 inches long. Their outer surface is yellowish-grey, sometimes marked with fine longitudinal striations or reticulated wrinkles, but more often furrowed by bands of cork, running together in the thickest pieces into broad flat conchoidal scales. The inner surface, which is smooth or marked with fine striæ and is of a greyish yellow, has often strips of the tough whitish wood attached to it. The bark breaks short and granular; it has a purely astringent taste, but scarcely any odour.

Microscopic Structure—On a transverse section, the liber is seen to be the prevailing part of the cortical tissue. The former consists of alternating layers of two kinds of cells—one of them loaded with tufted crystals of oxalate of calcium, the other filled with starch granules and tannic matter. The bark is traversed by narrow medullary rays, and very large sclerenchymatous cells are scattered through the liber. Touched with a dilute solution of a persalt of iron, the bark assumes a dark blackish blue tint.

Chemical Composition—The bark contains, according to Wackenroder (1824), more than 22 per cent. of tannic acid, which Rembold (1867) has ascertained to consist for the most part of a peculiar variety called Punico-tannic Acid, C₂₀H₁₆O₁₃; when boiled with dilute sulphuric acid, it is resolved into Ellagic Acid, C₁₄H₈O₉, and sugar. Punico-tannic acid is accompanied by common tannic acid, yielding, by means of sulphuric acid, gallic acid, which appears sometimes to pre-exist in the bark. If a decoction of pomegranate bark is precipitated by acetate of lead, and the lead is separated from the filtered liquid, the latter on evaporation yields a considerable amount of mannite. This is probably the Punicin or Granatin of former observers.

The tænicide power is due, according to Tanret (1878) to Pelletierine, C₈H₁₅NO, a liquid dextrogyre alkaloid, boiling at 180° to 185° C. It can be obtained colourless by evaporating its ethereal solution in a vacuum, but in the open air becomes yellow. Pelletierine, so called in honour of Pelletier, is readily soluble in water, alcohol or chloroform, and has a somewhat aromatic odour. Several of its salts are crystallizable, yet extremely hygroscopic. The yield of the root-bark was about ½ per cent. of the alkaloid, or about 2 per cent. of crystallized sulphate from trees grown near Troyes, in the Champagne.

Uses—A decoction, followed by a purgative, is stated by Waring[1120] and others to be most efficient for the expulsion of the tapeworm. The fresh bark is said to be preferable to the dried.

Adulterations—The commercial drug frequently consists partly or entirely of the bark of the stem or branches, characterized by its less abundant cork-formation, which exhibits longitudinal bands or ridges of light brownish cork, but not conchoidal exfoliations. The middle cortical layer is somewhat more developed, and contains in the outer cells deposits of chlorophyll. The cambial zone is not distinctly observable. Such bark is reputed to be less active than that of the root, but we are not aware that the fact has ever been proved.

The bark of Buxus sempervirens and of Berberis vulgaris are somewhat similar to the drug under notice, but their decoctions are not affected by salts of iron.

CUCURBITACEÆ.

FRUCTUS ECBALLII.

Fructus Elaterii; Elaterium Fruit, Squirting Cucumber, Wild Cucumber; F. Concombre purgatif ou sauvage; G. Springgurke.

Botanical Origin—Ecballium[1121] Elaterium A. Richard (Momordica Elaterium L.), a coarse, hispid, fleshy, decumbent plant without tendrils, having a thick white perennial root. It is common throughout the Mediterranean region, extending eastward as far as Southern Russia and Persia, and westward to Portugal. It succeeds well in Central Europe, and is cultivated to a small extent for medicinal use at Mitcham and Hitchin in England.

History—Theophrastus mentions the plant under notice by the name of Σίκυος ἄγριος. It is also particularly noticed by Dioscorides, who explicitly describes the singular process for making elaterium (ἐλατήριον), which was almost exactly like that followed at the present day.

The Wild or Squirting Cucumber was well known and cultivated in gardens in England as early as the middle of the 16th century.[1122]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Walz (1859) found in the juice of the fruits and herb of Ecballium, as well as in that of Cucumis Prophetarum L., a second crystallizable bitter principle, Prophetin, and the amorphous substances Ecballin or Elateric Acid, Hydro-elaterin, and Elateride, all of which require further examination.[1128] Prophetin is a glucoside,—not so the other principles. The four together constitute, according to Walz, 8·7 per cent. of elaterium, which moreover contains about the same percentage of pectic matter.

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

FRUCTUS COLOCYNTHIDIS.

Colocynth, Coloquintida, Bitter Apple; F. Coloquinte; G. Coloquinthe.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Substitutes—Cucumis trigonus Roxb. (C. Pseudo-colocynthis Royle), a plant of the plains of Northern India, with spherical or elongated, sometimes obscurely trigonous, bitter fruits, prostate rooting stems, and deeply divided leaves, resembles the colocynth gourd and has been mistaken for it. Another species named by Royle C. Hardwickii, and known to the natives of India as Hill Colocynth, has oval oblong bitter fruits, but leaves entirely unlike those of the Citrullus Colocynthis.

UMBELLIFERÆ.

HERBA HYDROCOTYLES.

Indian Hydrocotyle, Indian Pennywort; F. Bevilacqua.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FRUCTUS CONII.

Hemlock fruits; F. Fruits de Ciguë; G. Schierlingsfrucht.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FOLIA CONII.

Hemlock Leaves; F. Feuilles de Ciguë; G. Schierlingsblätter.

Botanical Origin—Conium maculatum L., see p. 299.

History—See p. 299.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chærophyllum Anthriscus L. (Anthriscus vulgaris Pers.) and two or three other species of Chærophyllum have the lower leaves not unlike those of hemlock, but they are pubescent or ciliated. The fruits too are linear-oblong, and thus very dissimilar from those of Conium.

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

FRUCTUS AJOWAN.

Semen Ajavæ vel Ajouain; Ajowan, True Bishop’s weed.

Botanical Origin—Carum Ajowan Bentham et Hooker (Ammi copticum L. Ptychotis coptica et Pt. Ajowan DC.)—an erect annual herb, cultivated in Egypt and Persia, and especially in India where it is well known as Ajvan or Omam.

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

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

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

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

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

OH

Thymol, C₆H₃ CH₃, as contained in Thymus vulgaris.

C₃H₇

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Substitutes—Under the name Semen Ammi, the very small fruits of Ammi majus L. and of Sison Amomum L. have been often confounded with those of Ajowan; but the absence of hairs on the two former, not to mention some other differences, is sufficient to negative any supposition of identity.

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

FRUCTUS CARUI.

Semen Carui vel Carvi; Caraway Fruits, Caraway Seeds, Caraways; F. Fruits ou Semences de Carvi; G. Kümmel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The oriental names of caraway show that as a spice it is not a production of the East:—thus we find it termed Roman (i.e. European), Armenian, mountain, or foreign Cumin; Persian or Andalusian Caraway; or foreign Anise. And though it is now sold in the Indian bazaars, its name does not occur in the earlier lists of Indian spices.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FRUCTUS FŒNICULI.

Fennel Fruits, Fennel Seeds; F. Fruits de Fenouil; G. Fenchel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

C₆H₄ OCH₃

CH·CH·CH₃,

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

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

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

Oil of Sweet Fennel 29°·8

” Bitter ” 4°·8

” German ” 9°·1

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

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

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

FRUCTUS ANISI.

Anise, Aniseed; F. Fruits d’Anis vert; G. Anis.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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