I.—Phænogamous or Flowering Plants (part 8)

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

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

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

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

Uses—The same as those of the corm.

Smilaceæ.

Radix Sarsaparillæ.

Radix Sarzæ vel Sarsæ; Sarsaparilla; F. Racine de Salsepareille; G. Sarsaparillwurzel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

S. papyracea, described by Poiret in 1804, and figured by Martius, is but very imperfectly known. It has foliage resembling that of S. officinalis, but, judging from Spruce’s specimens (No. 1871) collected on the Rio Negro, a multangular stem. It is probably the source of the Pará Sarsaparilla.

S. cordato-ovata Rich. is a doubtful plant, perhaps identical with S. Schomburgkiana Knth., a Panama species. Pöppig alleges that its root is mixed with that of the plant which he calls S. syphilitica.

S. Purhampuy Ruiz, a Peruvian species, said to afford a valuable sort of sarsaparilla, is practically unknown, and is not admitted by Kunth.

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

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

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

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

About the same period, sarsaparilla was described by Auger Ferrier, a physician of Toulouse, who states that in the treatment of syphilis, which he calls Lues Hispanica, it is believed to be better than either China root or Lignum sanctum. Girolamo Cardano of Milan, in a little work called De radice Cina et Sarza Parilia judicium, expresses similar opinions. After so strong recommendations, the drug soon found its way to the pharmaceutical stores; we find it quoted for instance in 1563, in the tariff of the “Apotheke” of the little town of Annaberg in Saxony. We have also noticed “Sarsaparilla” in the Ricettario Fiorentino of the year 1573. Gerarde, who wrote about the close of the century, states that the sarsaparilla of Peru is imported into England in abundance.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(A.) Mealy Sarsaparillas.

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

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

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

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

According to Bentley, who examined specimens of the plant, this drug is derived from Smilax papyracea; we are not prepared to agree in this opinion.

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

(B.) Non-mealy Sarsaparillas.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuber Chinæ.

Radix Chinæ; China Root; F. Squine; G. Chinawurzel.

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

S. glabra Roxb. and S. lanceæfolia Roxb., natives of India and Southern China, have tubers which, according to Roxburgh, cannot be distinguished from the China root of medicine, though the plants are perfectly distinct in appearance from S. China. Dr. Hance, of Whampoa, received a living specimen of China root, which proved to be that of S. glabra. The three above-named species all grow in the island of Hongkong.

History—The use of this drug as a remedy for syphilis was made known to the Portuguese at Goa by Chinese traders about a.d. 1535. Garcia de Orta, who makes this statement, further narrates that so great was the reputation of the new drug, that the small quantities first brought to Malacca were sold at the rate of 10 crowns per ganta, a weight of 24 ounces.

Possibly the drug found its way to Europe even before that year, for we find a careful description of it in the posthumous works of Valerius Cordus and Walther Ryff states in 1548 that the root was brought a few years ago to Venice.

The reported good effects of China root on the Emperor Charles V. who was suffering from gout, acquired for the drug a great celebrity in Europe, and several works were written in praise of its virtues. But though its powers were soon found to have been greatly overrated, it still retained some reputation as a sudorific and alterative, and was much used at the end of the 17th century in the same way as sarsaparilla. It still retains a place in some modern pharmacopœias.

Description—The plant produces stout fibrous roots, here and there thickened into large tubers, which when dried become the drug China root. These tubers, as found in the market, are of irregularly cylindrical form, usually a little flattened, sometimes producing short knobby branches. They are from about 4 to 6 or more inches in length, and 1 to 2 inches in thickness, covered with a rusty-coloured, rather shining bark, which in some specimens is smooth and in others more or less wrinkled. They have no distinct traces of rudimentary leaves, which however are perceptible on those of some allied species. Some still retain portions of the cord-like woody runners on which they grew; the bases of a few roots can also be observed. The tubers mostly show marks of having been trimmed with a knife.

China root is inodorous and almost insipid. A transverse section exhibits the interior as a dense granular substance of a pale fawn colour.

Microscopic Structure—The outermost cortical layer is made up of brown, thick-walled cells, tangentially-extended. They enclose numerous tufts of needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate, and reddish-brown masses of resin. The bark is at once succeeded by the inner parenchyme which contrasts strongly with it, consisting of large, thin-walled, porous cells which are completely gorged with starch, but here and there contain colouring matter and bundles of crystals. The starch granules are large (up to 50 mkm.), spherical, often flattened and angular from mutual pressure. Like those of colchicum, they exhibit a radiate hilum: very frequently they have burst and run together, probably in consequence of the tubers having been scalded. The vascular bundles scattered through the parenchyme, contain usually two large scalariform or reticulated vessels, a string of delicate thin-walled parenchyme, and elegant wood-cells with distinct incrusting layers and linear pores.

Chemical Composition—The drug is not known to contain any substance to which its supposed medicinal virtues can be referred. We have endeavoured to obtain from it Parillin, the crystalline principle of sarsaparilla, but without success.

Commerce—China root is imported into Europe from the South of China—usually from Canton. The quantity shipped from that port in 1872, was only 384 peculs (51,200 lb.); while the same year there was shipped from Hankow, the great trading city of the Yangtsze, no less than 10,258 peculs (1,367,733 lb.), all to Chinese ports. For the year 1874, these figures were: Hankow 9393 peculs, valued at 53,194 taels (one tael about 5s. 10d.), Kewkiang 3627 peculs, Ningpo 2905 peculs, and for 1877 Hankow 12,075 peculs, Kewkiang 3942 peculs.

Uses—Notwithstanding the high opinion formerly entertained of the virtues of China root, it has in England fallen into complete disuse. In China and India it is still held in great esteem for the relief of rheumatic and syphilitic complaints, and as an aphrodisiac and demulcent. Polak asserts that the tubers of Smilax are consumed as food by Turcomans and Mongols.

Substitutes—Several American species of Smilax furnish a nearly allied drug, which at various times has been brought into commerce as Radix Chinæ occidentalis. It was already known to the authors of the 16th century; we met with it in 1872, and before, in the London market, as an importation from Puntas Arenas, the port of Costa Rica on the Pacific coast.

Of the exact species it is difficult to speak with certainty: but S. Pseudo-China L. and S. tamnoides L. growing in the United States from New Jersey southwards; S. Balbisiana Knth., a plant common in all the West Indian Islands; and S. Japicanga Griseb., S. syringoides Griseb. and S. Brasiliensis Spreng., are reputed to afford large tuberous rhizomes which in their several localities replace the China root of Asia, and are employed in a similar manner.

Gramineæ.

Saccharum.

Sugar, Cane-Sugar, Sucrose; F. Sucre, Sucre de canne; G. Zucker, Rohrzucker.

Botanical Origin—Saccharum officinarum L., the Sugar Cane. The jointed stem is from 6 to 12 feet high, solid, hard, dense, internally juicy, and hollow only in the flowering tops. Several varieties are cultivated, as the Country Cane, the original form of the species; the Ribbon Cane, with purple or yellow stripes along the stem; the Bourbon or Tahiti Cane, a more elongated, stronger, more hairy and very productive variety. Saccharum violaceum Tussac, the Batavian Cane, is also considered to be a variety; but the large S. chinense Roxb. introduced from Canton in 1796 into the Botanic Gardens of Calcutta, may be a distinct species; it has a long, slender, erect panicle, while that of S. officinarum is hairy and spreading, with the ramifications alternate and more compound, not to mention other differences in the leaves and flowers.

The sugar cane is cultivated from cuttings, the small seeds very seldom ripening. It succeeds in almost all tropical and subtropical countries, reaching in South America and Mexico an elevation above the sea of 5000-6000 feet. It is cultivated in most parts of India and China up to 30-31° N. lat, the mountainous regions excepted.

From the elaborate investigations of Ritter, it appears that Saccharum officinarum was originally a native of Bengal, and of the Indo-Chinese countries, as well as of Borneo, Java, Bali, Celebes, and other islands of the Malay Archipelago. But there is no evidence that it is now found any where in a wild state.

History—The sugar cane was doubtless known in India from time immemorial, and grown for food as it still is at the present day, chiefly in those regions which are unsuited for the manufacture of sugar.

Herodotus, Theophrastus, Seneca, Strabo, and other early writers had some knowledge of raw sugar, which they speak of as the Honey of Canes or Honey made by human hands, not that of bees; but it was not until the commencement of the Christian era, that the ancients manifested an undoubted acquaintance with sugar, under the name of Saccharon.

Thus Dioscorides about a.d. 77 mentions the concreted honey called Σάκχαρον found upon canes (ὲπὶ τῶν καλάμων) in India and Arabia Felix, and which in substance and brittleness resemble salt. Pliny evidently knew the same thing under the name Saccharum; and the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a.d. 54-68, states that honey from canes, called σάκχαρι, is exported from Barygaza, in the Gulf of Cambay, to the ports of the Red Sea, west of the Promontorium Aromatum, that is to say to the coast opposite Aden. Whether at that period sugar was produced in Western India, or was brought thither from the Ganges, is a point still doubtful.

Bengal is probably the country of the earliest manufacture of sugar; hence its names in all the languages of Western-Asiatic and European nations are derived from the Sanskrit Sharkarā, signifying a substance in the shape of small grains or stones. It is strange that this word contains no allusion to the taste of the substance.

Candy, as sugar in large crystals is called, is derived from the Arabic Kand or Kandat, a name of the same signification. An old Sanskrit name of Central Bengal is Gura, whence is derived the word Gula, meaning raw sugar, a term for sugar universally employed in the Malayan Archipelago, where on the other hand they have their own names for the sugar cane, although not for sugar. This fact again speaks in favour of Ritter’s opinion, that the preparation of sugar in a dry crystalline state is due to the inhabitants of Bengal. Sugar under the name of Shi-mi, i.e. Stone-honey, is frequently mentioned in the ancient Chinese annals among the productions of India and Persia; and it is recorded that the Emperor Tai-tsung, a.d. 627-650, sent an envoy to the kingdom of Magadha in India, the modern Bahar, to learn the method of manufacturing sugar. The Chinese, in fact, acknowledge that the Indians between a.d. 766 and 780 were their first teachers in the art of refining sugar, for which they had no particular ancient written character.

An Arabian writer, Abu Zayd al Hasan, informs us that about a.d. 850 the sugar cane was growing on the north-eastern shore of the Persian Gulf; and in the following century, the traveller Ali Istakhri found sugar abundantly produced in the Persian province of Kuzistan, the ancient Susiana. About the same time (a.d. 950), Moses of Chorene, an Armenian, also stated that the manufacture of sugar was flourishing near the celebrated school of medicine at Jondisabur in the same province, and remains of this industry in the shape of millstones, &c., still exist near Ahwas.

Persian physicians of the 10th and 11th centuries, as Rhazes, Haly Abbas, and Avicenna, introduced sugar into medicine. The Arabs cultivated the sugar cane in many of their Mediterranean settlements, as Cyprus, Sicily, Italy, Northern Africa, and Spain. The Calendar of Cordova shows that as early as a.d. 961 the cultivation was well understood in Spain, which is now the only country in Europe where sugar mills still exist.

William II., King of Sicily, presented in a.d. 1176 to the convent of Monreale mills for grinding cane, the culture of which still lingers at Avola near Syracuse, though only for the sake of making rum. In 1767, the sugar plantations and sugar houses at this spot were described by a traveller as “worth seeing.”

During the middle ages England, in common with the rest of Northern Europe, was supplied with sugar from the Mediterranean countries, especially Egypt and Cyprus. It was imported from Alexandria as early as the end of the 10th century by the Venetians, with whom it long remained an important article of trade. Thus we find that in a.d. 1319, a merchant in Venice, Tommaso Loredano, shipped to London 100,000 lb. of sugar, the proceeds of which were to be returned in wool, which at that period constituted the great wealth of England. Sugar was then very dear: thus from 1259 to 1350, the average price in England was about 1s. per lb., and from 1351 to 1400, 1s. 7d. In France during the same period it must have been largely obtainable, though doubtless expensive. King John II. ordered in 1353 that the apothecaries of Paris should not use honey in making those confections which ought to be prepared with the good white sugar called cafetin, a name alluding to the peculiar shape of the loaf which was not uncommon at that time.

The importance of the sugar manufacture in the East was witnessed in the latter half of the 13th century by Marco Polo; and in 1510 by Barbosa and other European travellers; and the trading nations of Europe rapidly spread the cultivation of the cane over all the countries, of which the climate was suitable. Thus its introduction into Madeira goes back as far as a.d. 1420; it reached St. Domingo in 1494, the Canary Islands in 1503, Brazil in the beginning of the 16th century, Mexico about 1520, Guiana about 1600, Guadaloupe in 1644, Martinique in 1650, Mauritius towards 1750, Natal and New South Wales, about 1852, while from a very early period the sugar cane had been propagated from the Indian Archipelago over all the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

The ancient cultivation in Egypt, probably never quite extinct, has been revived on an extensive scale by the Khedive Ismail Pasha. There were 13 sugar factories, making raw sugar, belonging to the Egyptian Government at work in 1872, and about 100,000 acres of land devoted to sugar cane. The export of sugar from Egypt in 1872 reached 2 millions of kantars, or about 89,200 tons.

The imperfection of organic chemistry previous to the middle of the 18th century, permitted no exact investigations into the chemical nature of sugar. Marggraf of Berlin proved in 1747 that sugar occurs in many vegetables, and succeeded in obtaining it in a pure crystallized state from the juice of beet root. The enormous practical importance of this discovery did not escape him, and he caused serious attempts to be made for rendering it available, which were so far successful that the first manufactory of beet-sugar was established in 1796 by Achard at Kunern in Silesia.

This new branch of industry was greatly promoted by the prohibitive measures, whereby Napoleon excluded colonial sugar from almost the whole Continent; and it is now carried forward on such a scale that 640,000 to 680,000 tons of beet root sugar are annually produced in Europe, the entire production of cane-sugar being estimated at 1,260,000 to 1,413,000 tons.

Among the British colonies, Mauritius, British Guiana, Trinidad, Barbados, and Jamaica, produce at present the largest quantity of sugar.

Production—No crystals are found in the parenchyme of the cane, the sugar existing as an aqueous solution, chiefly within the cells of the centre of the stem. The transverse section of the cane exhibits numerous fibro-vascular bundles, scattered through the tissue, as in other monocotyledonous stems; yet these bundles are most abundant towards the exterior, where they form a dense ring covered with a thin epidermis, which is very hard by reason of the silica which is deposited in it. In the centre of the stem the vascular bundles are few in number; the parenchyme is far more abundant, and contains in its thin-walled cells an almost clear solution of sugar, with a few small starch granules and a little soluble albuminous matter. This last is met with in larger quantity in the cambial portion of the vascular bundles. Pectic principles are combined with the walls of the medullary cells, which however do not swell much in water (Wiesner).

From these glances at the microscopical structure of the cane, the process to be followed for obtaining the largest possible quantity of sugar becomes evident. This would consist in simply macerating thin slices of the cane in water, which would at once penetrate the parenchyme loaded with sugar, without much attacking the fibro-vascular bundles containing more of albuminous than of saccharine matter. By this method, the epidermal layer of the cane would not become saturated with sugar, nor would it impede its extraction,—results which necessarily follow when the cane is crushed and pressed.

The process hitherto generally practised in the colonies,—that of extracting the juice of the cane by crushing and pressing,—has been elaborately described and criticised by Dr. Icery of Mauritius. In that island, the cane, six varieties of which are cultivated, is when mature composed of Cellulose, 8 to 12 per cent.; Sugar, 18 to 21; Water, including albuminous matter and salts, 67 to 73. Of the entire quantity of juice in the cane, from 70 to 84 per cent. is extracted for evaporation, and yields in a crystalline state about three-fifths of the sugar which the cane originally contained. This juice, called in French vesou, has on an average the following composition:—

Albuminous matters 0·03

Granular matter (starch?) 0·10

Mucilage containing nitrogen 0·22

Salts, mostly of organic acids 0·29

Sugar 18·36

Water 81·00

100·00

There is also present in the juice a very small amount of a slightly aromatic substance (essential oil?) to which the crude cane sugar owes a peculiar odour which is not observed in sugar from other sources. The first two classes of the above enumerated substances render the juice turbid, and greatly promote its fermentation, but they easily separate by boiling, and the juice may then be kept a short time without undergoing change. In many colonies the yield is said to be far inferior to what it should be; yet the juice is obtained in a state allowing of easier purification, when its extraction is not carried to the furthest limit.

In beet root as well as in the sugar cane, cane-sugar only was said to be present; Icery however has proved that in the cane some uncrystallizable (inverted) sugar is always present. Its quantity varies much, according to the places where the cane grows, and its age. The tops of quick-growing young canes yielded a vesou containing 2·4 per cent. of uncrystallizable sugar; 3·6 of cane sugar; and 94 of water. Moist and shady situations greatly promote the formation of the former kind of sugar, which also prevails in the tops, chiefly when immature. Hence that observer concludes that at first the uncrystallizable variety of sugar is formed, and subsequently transformed into cane-sugar by the force of vegetation, and especially by the influence of light. Perfectly ripened canes contain only ¹/₇₅ to ¹/₅₀ of all their sugar in the uncrystallizable state.

Description and Chemical Composition—Cane-sugar is the type of a numerous class of well-defined organic compounds, of frequent occurrence throughout the vegetable and animal kingdoms, or artificially obtained by decomposing certain other substances; in the latter case, however, glucose or some other sugar than cane-sugar is obtained. cane-sugar, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁, or C₁₂H₁₄(OH)₈O₃, melts, without change of composition, at 160° C., several other kinds of sugar giving off water, with which they form crystallized compounds at the ordinary temperature.

cane-sugar forms hard crystals of the oblique rhombic system, having a sp. gr. of 1·59. Two parts are dissolved at 15° C. by one part of water, and by much less at an elevated temperature; a slight depression of the thermometer is observable in the former case. One part of sugar dissolved in one of water, forms a liquid of sp. gr. 1·23; two of sugar in one of water, a liquid of sp. gr. 1·33. Sugar requires 65 parts of spirit of wine (sp. gr. 0·84) or 80 parts of anhydrous alcohol for solution; ether does not act upon it.

A ray of polarized light is deviated by an aqueous solution of cane sugar to the right, but by some other kinds of sugar to the left, as first shown by Biot. These optical powers are highly important, both in the practical estimation of solutions of sugar, and in scientific studies connected with sugar or saccharogenous substances. The optical as well as chemical properties of sugar are altered by many circumstances, as the action of dilute acids or alkalis, or by the influence of minute fungi. Yeast occasions sugar to undergo alcoholic fermentation. Other ferments set up an action by which butyric, lactic or propionic acid are produced.

cane-sugar is of a purer and sweeter taste than most other sugars. Though it does not alter litmus paper, yet with alkalis it forms compounds some of which are crystallizable. From an alkaline solution of tartrate of copper, cane-sugar throws down no protoxide, unless after boiling.

If sugar is kept a short time in a state of fusion at 160° C., it is converted into one molecule of Grape Sugar and one of Levulosan; the former can be either isolated by crystallization or destroyed by fermentation, the latter being incapable of crystallizing or of undergoing fermentation.

cane-sugar which has been melted at 160° C. is deliquescent and readily soluble in anhydrous alcohol, and its rotatory power is diminished or entirely destroyed. It is no longer crystallizable, and its fusing point has become reduced to about 93° C. Yet before undergoing these evident alterations, it assumes an amorphous condition if allowed to melt with a third of its weight of water, becoming always a little coloured by pyrogenous products. In the course of time, however, this amorphous sugar loses its transparency and reassumes the crystalline form. Like sulphur and arsenious acid, it is capable of existing either in a crystallized or an amorphous state.

If sugar is heated to about 190° C. water is evolved, and we obtain the dark brown products commonly called Caramel or Burnt Sugar. They are of a peculiar sharp flavour, of a bitter taste, incapable of fermenting and deliquescent. One of the constituents of caramel, Caramelane, C₁₂H₁₈O₉, has been obtained by Gélis (1862) perfectly colourless. When the heat is augmented, the sugar at last suffers a decomposition resembling that which produces tar (see p. 621), its pyrogenous products being the same or very analogous to those of the dry distillation of wood.

Varieties of Cane-sugar—The experiments of Marggraf referred to at p. 717, note 9, showed that cane-sugar is by no means confined to the sugar cane; and it is in fact extracted on an extensive scale from several other plants, of which the following deserve mention:—

Beet Root—The manufacture of cane-sugar from the fleshy root of a cultivated variety of Beta maritima L., is now largely carried on in Continental Europe and in America, and with admirable results.

Of fresh beet root, 100 parts contain on an average 80 per cent. of water, 11 to 13 of cane-sugar, and about 7 per cent. of pectic and albuminous matters, cellulose and salts. Of the total amount of juice which the root contains, eight-ninths are extracted; and by the best process now in practice, 8 to 9 parts of sugar from every 100 parts of fresh root. The yield of crystalline sugar is still on the increase, owing to continual improvements in the mechanical and chemical parts of the process.

Palm—Several species are of great utility for the production of the sugar called by Europeans Jaggery. This substance is obtained by the natives of India in the following manner:—The young growing spadix, or flowering shoot, of the palm is cut off near its apex; and an earthen vessel is tied on to the stump to receive the juice that flows out. This vessel is emptied daily; while to promote a continuous flow of sap, a thin slice is cut from the wounded end. The juice thus collected, if at once boiled down, yields the crude brown sugar known as jaggery. If allowed to ferment, it becomes the inebriating drink called Toddy or palm wine; or it may be converted into vinegar. The spirit distilled from toddy is Arrack.

Of the sugar-yielding palms of Asia, Phœnix silvestris Roxb., which is supposed to be the wild form of the date palm, is one of the more important. The coco-nut palm, Cocos nucifera L.; the magnificent Palmyra palm, Borassua flabelliformis L.; and the Bastard Sago, Caryota urens L., also furnish important quantities of sugar. In the Indian Archipelago, sugar is obtained from the sap of Arenga saccharifera Mart., which grows there in abundance as well as in the Philippines and the Indo-Chinese countries. It is also got from Nipa fruticans Thunb., a tree of the low coast regions, extensively cultivated in Tavoy.

De Vry has advocated the manufacture of sugar from the palm as the most philosophical, seeing that its juice is a nearly pure aqueous solution of sugar: that as no mineral constituents are removed from the soil in this juice, the costly manuring, as well as the laborious and destructive processes required to eliminate the juice from such plants as the sugar cane and beet root, are avoided. And finally, that palms are perennial, and can many of them be cultivated on a soil unsuitable for any cereal.

Maple—In America, considerable quantities of sugar identical with that of the cane are obtained in the woods of the Northern United States and of Canada, by evaporating the juice of maples. The species chiefly employed are Acer saccharinum Wangenh., the Common Sugar Maple, and its variety (var. nigrum) the Black Sugar Maple. A. Pennsylvanicum L., A. Negundo L. (Negundo aceroides Moench.) and A. dasycarpum Ehrh. are also used; the sap of the last is said to be the least saccharine.

As the juice of these trees yields not more than about 2 per cent. of sugar, it requires for its solidification a large expenditure of fuel. The manufacture of maple sugar can therefore be advantageously carried on only in countries remote from markets whence ordinary sugar can be procured, or in regions where fuel is extremely plentiful. In North America it flourishes only between 40° and 43° N. lat. We are not aware of any estimate of the total production of maple sugar. The Census of Pennsylvania of 1870 gave the following figures as referring to its manufacture in that State:—

1850 1860 1870

2,326,525 lb. 2,768,965 lb. 1,545,917 lb.

Sorghum—Another plant of the same order as Saccharum is Sorghum saccharatum Pers. (Holcus saccharatus L.) a native of Northern China, which has of late been much tried as a sugar-yielding plant both in Europe and North America; yet without any great success, as the purification of the sugar is accomplished with peculiar difficulty. As in the sugar cane, there are in sorghum crystallizable and uncrystallizable sugars, the former being at its maximum amount when the grain reaches maturity. The importance of the plant however is rapidly increasing on account of the value of its leaves and grain as food for horses and cattle, and of its stems which can be employed in the manufacture of paper and of alcohol.

Commerce—The value of the sugar imported into the United Kingdom is constantly increasing, as shown by the following figures:—

1868 1870 1872

Unrefined £13,339,758 £14,440,502 £18,044,898

Refined £1,156,188 £2,744,366 £3,142,703

The quantity of Unrefined Sugar imported in 1872 was 13,776,696 cwt., of which about 3,000,000 cwt. were furnished by the Spanish West India Islands, 2,700,000 cwt. by the British West India Islands, 1,800,000 cwt. by Brazil, 1,100,000 cwt. by France, and 960,000 cwt. by Mauritius.

Of Refined Sugar the imports from France and Belgium into the United Kingdom were—

1874 1875 1876

133,800 102,300 92,044 tons.

Uses—Refined sugar is employed in pharmacy for making syrups, electuaries and lozenges, and is useful not merely for the sake of covering the unpleasant taste of other drugs, but also on account of a preservative influence which it exerts over their active constituents.

Muscovado or Raw Sugar is not used in medicine. The dark uncrystallizable syrup, known in England as Molasses, Golden Syrup, and Treacle, and in foreign pharmacy as Syrupus Hollandicus vel communis, which is formed in the preparation of pure sugar by the influence of heat, alkaline bodies, microscopic vegetation, and the oxygen of the air, is sometimes employed for making pill masses. The treacle of colonial sugar alone is adapted for this purpose, that of beet root having a disagreeable taste, and containing from 19 to 21 per cent. of oxalate, tartrate and malate of potassium, and only 56 to 64 of sugar. The treacle of colonial sugar usually contains 5 to 7 per cent. of salts.

Hordeum Decorticatum.

Hordeum perlatum, Fructus vel Semen Hordei; Pearl Barley; F. Orge mondé ou perlé; G. Gerollte Gerste, Gerstegraupen.

Botanical Origin—Hordeum distichum L.,—the Common or Long-eared Barley is probably indigenous to western temperate Asia, but has been cultivated for ages throughout the northern hemisphere. In Sweden its cultivation extends as far as 68° 38’ N. lat.; on the Norwegian coast up to the Altenfjord in 70° N. lat.; even in Lapland, it succeeds as high as 900 to 1350 feet above the level of the sea. In several of the southern Swiss Alpine valleys, barley ripens at 5000 feet, and in the Himalaya at 11,000 feet. In the Equatorial Andes, where it is extensively grown, it thrives up to at least 11,000 feet above the sea. No other cereal can be cultivated under so great a variety of climate.

According to Bretschneider, barley is included among the five cereals which it is related in Chinese history were sowed by the Emperor Shen-nung, who reigned about 2700 b.c.; but it is not one of the five sorts of grain which are used at the ceremony of ploughing and sowing as now annually performed by the emperors of China.

Theophrastus was acquainted with several sorts of barley (Κριθή), and among them, with the six-rowed kind or hexastichon, which is the species that is represented on the coins struck at Metapontum in Lucania, between the 6th and 2nd centuries b.c.

Strabo and Dioscorides in the 1st century allude to drinks made from barley, which according to Tacitus were even then familiar to the German tribes, as they are known to have been still earlier to the Greeks and Egyptians.

Barley is mentioned in the Bible as a plant of cultivation in Egypt and Syria, and must have been, among the ancient Hebrews, an important article of food, judging from the quantity allowed by Solomon to the servants of Hiram, king of Tyre (b.c. 1015). The tribute of barley paid to King Jotham by the Ammonites (b.c. 741) is also exactly recorded. The ancients were frequently in the practice of removing the hard integuments of barley by roasting it, and using the torrefied grain as food.

Manufacture—For use in medicine and as food for the sick, barley is not employed in its crude state, but only when deprived more or less completely of its husk. The process by which this is effected is carried on in mills constructed for the purpose, and consists essentially in passing the grain between horizontal millstones, placed so far apart as to rub off its integuments without crushing it. Barley partially deprived of its husk is known as Scotch, hulled or Pot Barley. When by longer and closer grinding the whole of the integuments have been removed, and the grain has become completely rounded, it is termed Pearl Barley. In the British Pharmacopœia it is this sort alone which is ordered to be used.

Description—Pearl Barley is in subspherical or somewhat ovoid grains about 2 lines in diameter, of white farinaceous aspect, often partly yellowish from remains of the adhering husk, which is present on the surface, as well as in the deep longitudinal furrow with which each grain is indented. It has the farinaceous taste and odour which are common to most of the cereal grains.

Microscopic Structure—The albumen which constitutes the main portion of the grain is composed of large thin-walled parenchyme, the cells of which on transverse section are seen to radiate from the furrow, and to be lengthened in that direction rather than longitudinally. In the vicinity of the furrow alone the tissue of the albumen is narrower. Its predominating large cells show a polygonal or oval outline, whilst the outer layer is built up of two, three or four rows of thick-walled, coherent, nearly cubic gluten-cells. This layer, about 70 mkm. thick, is coated with an extremely thin brown tegument, to which succeeds a layer about 30 mkm. thick, of densely packed, tabular, greyish or yellowish cells of very small size; this proper coat of the fruit in the furrow is of rather spongy appearance.

In some varieties of barley the fruit is constituted of the above tissues alone and the shell, but in most the paleæ are likewise present. They consist chiefly of long fibrous, thick-walled cells, two or four rows deep, constituting a very hard layer. On tranverse section, this layer forms a coherent envelope about 35 mkm. thick; its cells when examined in longitudinal section show but a small lumen of peculiar undulated outline from secondary deposits.

The gluten-cells varying considerably in the different cereal grains, afford characters enough to distinguish them with certainty. In wheat, for instance, the gluten-cells are in a single row, in rice they form a double or single row, but its cells are transversely lengthened.

The inner tissue of the albumen in barley is filled up with large irregularly lenticular, and with extremely small globular starch granules, the first being 20 to 35 mkm., the latter 1, 2 to 3 mkm. in diameter, with no considerable number of intermediate size. The concentric layers constituting the large granules may be made conspicuous by moistening with chromic acid.

The layer alluded to as being composed of gluten-cells is loaded with extremely small granules of albuminous matters (gluten), which on addition of iodine are coloured intensely yellow. These granules, which, considering barley as an article of food, are of prominent value, are not confined to the gluten-cells, but the neighbouring starch-cells also contain a small amount of them: and in the narrow zone of denser tissue projecting from the furrow into the albumen, protein principles are equally deposited, as shown by the yellow coloration which iodine produces.

The gluten-cells, the membrane embroynnaire of Mège-Mouriès, contain also, according to the researches on bread made by this chemist (1856), Cerealin, an albuminous principle soluble in water, which causes the transformation of starch into dextrin, sugar, and lactic acid. In the husks (épiderme, épicarpe and endocarpe) of wheat, Mège-Mouriès found some volatile oil and a yellow extractive matter, to which, together with the cerealin, is due the acidity of bread made with the flour containing the bran.

Chemical Composition—Barley has been submitted to careful analyses by many chemists, more especially by Lermer. The grains contain usually 13 to 15 per cent. of water; after drying, they yield to ether 3 per cent. of fat oil, with insignificant proportions of tannic and bitter principles, residing chiefly in the husks. Lermer further found in the whole grains, 63 per cent. of starch, 7 of cellulose, 6·6 of dextrin, 2·5 of nitrogen, a small amount of lactic acid, and 2·4 of ash.

The analysis of Poggiale (1856) gave nearly the same composition, namely, water 15, oil 2·4, starch 60, cellulose 8·8, albuminous principles 10·7, ash 2·6.

The protein, or albuminous matter consists of different principles, chiefly insoluble in cold water. The soluble portion is partly coagulated on boiling, partly retained in solution: 2·5 per cent. of nitrogen, as above, would answer to about 16 per cent. of albuminous matters. Their soluble part seems to be deposited in the starch-cells, next to the gluten-cells, which latter contain the insoluble portion.

The ash, according to Lermer, contains 29 per cent. of silicic acid, 32·6 of phosphoric acid, 22·7 of potash, and only 3·7 of lime. In the opinion of Salm-Horstmar, fluorine and lithia are indispensable constituents of barley.

The fixed oil of barley, as proved in 1863 by Hanamann, is a compound of glycerin with either a mixture of palmitic and lauric acids, or less probably with a peculiar fatty acid. Beckmann’s Hordeinic Acid obtained in 1855 by distilling barley with sulphuric acid, is probably lauric acid. Lintner (1868) has shown barley to contain also a little Cholesterin (p. 420).

Lastly, Kühnemann (1875) extracted from barley a crystallized dextrogyrate sugar, and (1876) an amorphous lævogyrate mucilaginous substance Sinistrin (see p. 692); according to that chemist, dextrin is altogether wanting in barley.

Barley when malted loses 7 per cent.; it then contains 10 to 12 per cent. of sugar, produced at the expense of the starch; before malting, no sugar is to be found.

Uses—Barley as a medicine is unimportant. A decoction is sometimes prescribed as a demulcent or as a diluent of active remedies. An aqueous extract of malt has been employed.

Oleum Andropogonis.

Oleum Graminis Indici; Indian Grass Oil.

Botanical Origin—Among the numerous species of Andropogon which have foliage abounding in essential oil, the following furnish the fragrant Grass Oils of commerce:—

1. Andropogon Nardus L.,—a noble-looking plant, rising when in flower to a height of 6 or more feet, extensively cultivated in Ceylon and Singapore for the production of Citronella Oil.

2. A. citratus D.C., Lemon Grass,—a large coarse glaucous grass, known only in a cultivated state, and very rarely producing flowers. It is grown in Ceylon and Singapore for the sake of its essential oil, which is called Lemon Grass Oil, Oil of Verbena or Indian Melissa Oil; it is also commonly met with in gardens throughout India and is not unfrequent in English hothouses. In Java it is called Sireh.

3. A. Schœnanthus L., a grass of Northern and Central India, having leaves rounded or slightly cordate at the base, yielding by distillation the oil known as Rúsa Oil, Oil of Ginger Grass or of Geranium.

History—The aromatic properties of certain species of Andropogon were well known to Rheede, Rumphius, and other early writers on Indian natural history; and an oil distilled from the Sireh grass in Amboyna was known as a curiosity as early as 1717.

But it is only in very recent times that the volatile oils of these plants have become objects of commerce with Europe. Lemon grass oil is mentioned by Roxburgh in 1820 as being distilled in the Moluccas; and it was first imported into London about the year 1832. Citronella oil is of much more recent introduction. Ginger grass oil, called in Hindustani Rúsa ka tel, is stated by Waring to have been first brought to notice by Dr. N. Maxwell in 1825.

Production—Citronella and Lemon grass are cultivated about Galle and at Singapore, the same estate often producing both. The grasses are distilled separately, the essential oils being regarded as entirely distinct, and having different market values. In Ceylon they are cut for distillation at any time of year, but mostly in December and January.

On the Perseverance Estate at Gaylang, Singapore, belonging to Mr. John Fisher, an area of 950 acres is cultivated with aromatic grasses and other plants, for the production of essential oils. The manufacture was tried on a small scale in 1865, and has been so successful that an aggregate of 200 lb. of various essential oils is now produced daily. These oils are stated to be Citronella, Lemon Grass, Patchouly, Nutmeg, Mace, Pepper, and Oman (p. 302): and mint is now being cultivated.

Ginger grass oil is distilled in the collectorate of Khandesh in the Bombay Presidency. That produced in the district of Namár in the valley of the Nerbudda, is sometimes called Grass Oil of Namar. We have no particulars of the distillation, which however must be carried on extensively.

Description—The Indian grass oils are lighter than water, devoid of rotatory power when examined by polarized light, and do not alter litmus paper. They are all extremely fragrant, having an odour like a mixture of lemon and rose. Lemon grass, which in colour is a deep golden brown, has an odour resembling that of the sweet-scented verbena of the gardens, Lippia citriodora H.B.K. Ginger grass oil, the colour of which varies from pale greenish yellow to yellowish-brown, has the odour of Pelargonium Radula Aiton. The colour of citronella oil is a light greenish yellow. The manufacture of Winter of Ceylon, and of Fisher of Singapore, have a reputation for excellence, and are generally indicated by name in drug sale catalogues.

Chemical Composition—Stenhouse examined in 1844 oil of ginger grass given to him by Christison as Oil of Namur (or Nimar). The sample was of deep yellow, and apparently old, for when mixed with water and subjected to distillation, it left nearly one half its bulk of a fluid resin, the oil which passed over being colourless. After rectification from chloride of calcium, it was shown to consist of a hydrocarbon mixed with a small proportion of an oxygenated oil. The latter having been decomposed by sodium, and the oil again rectified, a second analysis was made which proved it isomeric with oil of turpentine.

A genuine grass oil from Khandesh, derived as we suppose from the same species, which was examined by one of us (F.), yielded nothing crystalline when saturated with dry hydrochloric acid; but when the liquid was afterwards treated with fuming nitric acid, crystals of the compound, C₁₀H₁₆, HCl, sublimed into the upper part of the vessel. We have observed that the oils both of lemon grass and citronella yield solid compounds, if shaken with a saturated solution of bisulphite of sodium.

Citronella oil was found by Gladstone (1872) to be composed chiefly of an oxidized oil, which he called Citronellol, and which he separated by fractional distillation into two portions, the one boiling at 202-205° C., the other 199-202° C. The composition of each portion is indicated by the formula C₁₀H₁₆O.

Wright’s researches (1874) tend rather to show the prevailing part of citronella oil to consist of the liquid C₁₀H₁₈O, boiling near 210°, which he calls Citronellol. It unites with bromine, and the resulting compound, upon heating, breaks up according to the following equation:—

C₁₀H₁₈OBr₂ = OH₂ · 2 HBr · C₁₀H₁₄.

Cymene.

Commerce—The growing trade in grass oil is exemplified in a striking manner by the following statistics. The export of Citronella Oil from Ceylon in 1864 was 622,000 ounces, valued at £8230. In the Ceylon Blue Book, the exports for 1872 are returned thus:—

To the United Kingdom 1,163,074 ounces 1,595,257 ounces.

British India 5,713 ”

United States of North America 426,470 ”

In 1875 the oil shipped from Ceylon to the United Kingdom was valued at 42,871 rupees, that sent to other foreign countries at 45,871 rupees, to British possessions 660 rupees (one rupee equal to about 2s.).

Oil of Lemon Grass, which is a more costly article and less extensively produced, was exported from Ceylon during the same year to the extent of 13,515 ounces, more than half of which quantity was shipped to the United States. There are no analogous statistics for these two oils from Singapore, where, as stated at p. 726, they are now largely manufactured.

By the official Report on the External Commerce of Bombay, published in 1867, we find that during the year ending 31 March, 1867, Grass Oil [i.e. Ginger Grass or Rúsa Oil] was exported thence to the amount of 41,643 lb. This oil is shipped to England and to the ports of the Red Sea.

Uses—Grass oils are much esteemed in India as an external application in rheumatism. Rúsa oil is said to stimulate the growth of the hair. Internally, grass oil is sometimes administered as a carminative in colic; and an infusion of the leaves of lemon grass is prescribed as a diaphoretic and stimulant. In Europe and America the oils are used almost exclusively by the soapmakers and perfumers.

But the most remarkable use made of any grass oil is that for adulterating Attar of Rose in European Turkey. The oil thus employed is that of Andropogon Schœnanthus L. (see p. 725); and it is a curious fact that its Hindustani name is closely similar in sound to the word rose. Thus under the designation Rusa, Rowsah, Rosa, Rosé, Roshé, it is exported in large quantities from Bombay to the ports of Arabia, probably chiefly to Jidda, whence it is carried to Turkey by the Mahommedan pilgrims. In Arabia and Turkey, it appears under the name Idris yàghi, while in the attar-producing districts of the Balkan it is known, at least to Europeans, as Geranium Oil or Palmarosa Oil. Before being mixed with attar, the oil is subjected to a certain preparation, which is accomplished by shaking it with water acidulated with lemon juice, and then exposing it to the sun and air. By this process, described by Baur, the oil loses a penetrating after-smell, and acquires a pale straw-colour. The optical and chemical differences between grass oil thus refined and attar of rose are slight and do not indicate a small admixture of the former. If grass oil is added largely to attar, it will prevent its congealing.

Adulteration—The grass oil prepared by the natives of India is not unfrequently contaminated with fatty oil.

Other Products of the genus Andropogon.

Herba Schœnanthi vel Squinanthi, Juncus odoratus, Fœnum Camelorum.

The drug bearing these names has had a place in pharmacy from the days of Dioscorides down to the middle of the last century, and is still met with in the East. The plant which affords it, formerly confounded with other species, is now known to be Andropogon laniger Desf., a grass of wide distribution, growing in hot dry regions in Northern Africa (Algeria), Arabia, and North-western India, reaching Thibet, where it is found up to an elevation of 11,000 feet. Mr. Tolbort has sent us specimens under the name of Kháví, gathered by himself in 1869 between Multán and Kot Sultán, and quite agreeing with the drug of pharmacy. The grass has an aromatic pungent taste, which is retained in very old specimens. We are not aware that it is distilled for essential oil.

Cuscus or Vetti-ver—This is the long fibrous root of Andropogon muricatus Retz, a large grass found abundantly in rich moist ground in Southern India and Bengal. Inscriptions on copper-plates lately discovered in the district of Etawah, south-east of Agra, and dating from a.d. 1103 and 1174, record grants of villages to Brahmins by the kings of Kanauj, and enumerate the imposts that were to be levied. These include taxes on mines, salt pits and the trade in precious metals, also on mahwah (Bassia) and mango trees, and on Cuscus Grass.

Cuscus, which appears occasionally in the London drug sales, is used in England for laying in drawers as a perfume. In India it serves for making tatties or screens, which are placed in windows and doorways, and when wetted, diffuse an agreeable odour and coolness. It is also used for making ornamental baskets and many small articles, and has some reputation as a medicine.

Rhizoma Graminis.

Radix Graminis; Couch Grass, Quitch Grass, Dog’s Grass; F. Chiendent commun ou Petit Chiendent; G. Queckenwurzel, Graswurzel.

Botanical Origin—Agropyrum repens P. Beauv. (Triticum repens L.), a widely diffused weed, growing in fields and waste places in all parts of Europe, in Northern Asia down to the region south of the Caspian, also in North America; and in South America to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.

History—The ancients were familiar with a grass termed [Greek Agrôstis] and Gramen, having a creeping rootstock like that under notice. It is impossible to determine to what species the plant is referable, though it is probable that the grass Cynodon Dactylon Pers., as well as Agropyrum repens, was included under these names.

Dioscorides asserts that its root taken in the form of decoction, is a useful remedy in suppression of urine and vesical calculus. The same statements are made by Pliny; and again occur in the writings of Oribasius and Marcellus Empiricus in the 4th, and of Aëtius in the 6th century, and are repeated in the mediæval herbals, where also figures of the plant may be found, as for instance in Dodonæus. The drug is also met with in the German pharmaceutical tariffs of the 16th century. Turner and Gerarde both ascribe to a decoction of grass root diuretic and lithontriptic virtues. The drug is still a domestic remedy in great repute in France, being taken as a demulcent and sudorific in the form of tisane.

Description—Couch-grass has a long, stiff, pale yellow, smooth rhizome, ⅒ of an inch in diameter, creeping close under the surface of the ground, occasionally branching, marked at intervals of about an inch by nodes, which bear slender branching roots and the remains of sheathing rudimentary leaves.

As found in the shops, the rhizome is always free from rootlets, cut into short lengths of ⅛ to ¼ of an inch, and dried. It is thus in the form of little, shining, straw-coloured, many-edged, tubular pieces, which are without odour, but have a slightly sweet taste.

Microscopic Structure—A transverse section of this rhizome shows two different portions of tissue, separated by the so-called nucleus-sheath. The latter consists of an unbroken ring of prismatic cells, analogous to those occurring in sarsaparilla. In Rhizoma Graminis, the outer part of the tissue exhibits a diffuse circle of about 20 liber bundles, and the interior part about the same number of fibro-vascular bundles more densely packed. The pith is reduced to a few rows of cells, the rhizome being always hollow, except at the nodes. No solid contents are to be met with in the tissue.

Chemical Composition—The constituents of couch-grass include no substance to which medicinal powers can be ascribed. The juice of the rhizome afforded to H. Müller about 3 per cent. of sugar, and 7 to 8 per cent. of Triticin, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁, a tasteless, amorphous, gummy substance, easily transformed into sugar if its concentrated solution is kept for a short time at 110°C. When treated with nitric acid, it yields oxalic acid. The rhizome affords also another gummy matter containing nitrogen, and quickly undergoing decomposition; the drug moreover is somewhat rich in acid malates. Mannite is probably occasionally present as in taraxacum (p. 394), for such is the inference we draw from the opposite results obtained by Stenhouse and by Völcker. Starch, pectin and resin are wanting. The rhizome leaves 4½ per cent. of ash.

Uses—A decoction of the rhizome has of late been recommended in mucous discharge from the bladder.

Substitutes—Agropyrum acutum R. et S., A. pungens R. et S., and A. junceum P. Beauv., by some botanists regarded as mere maritime varieties of A. repens, have rootstocks perfectly similar to this latter.

Cynodon Dactylon Pers., a grass very common in the South of Europe and the warmer parts of Western Europe, also indigenous to Northern Africa as far as Sennaar and Abyssinia, affords the Gros Chiendent or Chiendent pied-de-poule of the French. It is a rhizome differing from that of couch-grass in being a little stouter. Under the microscope it displays an entirely different structure, inasmuch as it contains a large number of much stronger fibro-vascular bundles, and a cellular tissue loaded with starch, and is therefore in appearance much more woody. It thus approximates to the rhizome of Carex arenaria L., which is as much used in Germany as that of Cynodon in Southern Europe. The latter appears to contain Asparagin (the Cynodin of Semmola), or a substance similar to it.