The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Part 93

The following is the arrangement of these barks adopted by Pereira, who has gone very fully into the subject:--

A. True cinchonas, with a brown epidermis.

I. Pale barks 1. Crown or Loxa bark. _C. Condaminea_. 2. Gray or silver or Huanuco bark. _C. micrantha_. 3. Ash or Jaen bark. _C.

ovata_. 4. Rusty or Huamalies bark. _C. p.u.b.escens_.

II. Yellow barks. 5. Royal, yellow or Calisaya bark. _C. sp ?_

III. Red barks. 6. Red bark. _C. sp ?_

B. True cinchonas, with a white epidermis.

I. Pale barks. 7. White Loxa bark.

II. Yellow barks. 8. Hard Carthagena bark. _C. cordifolia_. 9.

Fibrous ditto. Perhaps _C. cordifolia_. 10. Cuzco bark. _C. sp.?_ 11. Orange bark of Santa Fe. _C. lancifolia_.

III. Red barks. 12. Bed bark of Santa Fe. _C. oblongifolia_.

The genus Exostemma yields various kinds of false cinchona bark, which do not contain the cinchona alkalies. The following are some of the kinds noticed by Pereira:--

1. St. Lucia or Piton bark. _Exostemma floribundum_.

2. Jamaica bark. _E. caribaeum_.

3. Pitaya bark. _E. sp?_ 4. False Peruvian bark. _E. peruvianum_.

5. Brazilian bark. _E. souzianum_.

The mode adopted by the bark-peelers of obtaining cinchona varies somewhat in different districts. The Indians (says Mr. Stevenson, "Twenty Years' Residence in South America") discover from the eminences where a cl.u.s.ter of trees grow in the woods, for they are easily discernable by the rose-colored tinge of their leaves, which appear at a distance like bunches of flowers amid the deep-green foliage of other trees. They then hunt for the spot, and having found it out, cut down all the trees, and take the bark from the branches, and after they have stripped off the bark, they carry it in bundles out of the wood, for the purpose of drying it. The peelers commence their operation about May, when the dry season sets in. Some writers state that the trees are barked without felling.

In a letter published in one of the Calcutta papers not long ago, from the pen, I believe, of Mr. Piddington, he strongly urged the introduction of the cinchona tree into British India:--

There is (he observes) one tree, the introduction and the copious distribution of which within certain appropriate points of the sub-Himalayan range, "would confer a greater blessing on the great body of natives, than any effort the Government has made or can make, and that is the cinchona bark tree.

Without any reference to the greater or less force of medical theories as to the efficacy of cinchona bark, I now only take an experienced and practical view, well knowing that the sufferings of many millions of poor and rich natives, especially in the jungle districts, are yearly very great, and the mortality quite enormous from remittent and intermittent fevers, by far the greater part of which would be immensely relieved, or wholly cured, by the free use of cinchona bark.

If by abundance the price be once brought within the poor native's reach, he will readily take to it, having no objection whatever on account of caste to anything of the nature of the bark of a tree.

If the cinchona tree were once growing in abundance, quinine could be easily prepared in India, from the facility of procuring, and cheapness of spirits of wine used in the process of its elimination.

I take it that every hundred Sepahees sick of fevers remaining in hospital off duty for thirty days, drawing an average pay of eight rupees each, form a full monthly loss to Government of eight hundred rupees; while a free use of quinine and bark would cure them in ten days on the average, costing at present about forty rupees; thus by the twenty days' services gained, Government would save nearly five hundred rupees.

But the cinchona tree once glowing abundantly, quinine would of course become infinitely cheaper.

Under a proper system of culture, quill bark only need be taken without destroying the trees, and an earlier return be obtained.

There never yet has been a subst.i.tute found for cinchona bark and its salts, as an antiperiodic and tonic.

It yet remains for some one to find an equally efficacious subst.i.tute, and thus make a fortune. In the mean time the importance of the cinchona is paramount.

The cinchona tree, like the pimento, deteriorates under cultivation, and in moist, warm, rich valleys the bark becomes inert. The best bark is from trees growing on mountain tops or steep declivities.

From the full accounts of Condamine, Mutis, and Humboldt, a soil and climate like that of the north west sub-Himalayan range is admirably adapted to the planting and prospering of cinchona trees.

In Lord W. Bentinck's time, before there were steamers in or to India, seeing the immense benefit to be derived, I sent in a proposition to procure young cinchona plants from Vera Cruz, begging to be then permitted to proceed there on that account, and my proposition was civilly and even favorably received; but these were not the days to act on it.

Of about the twenty species of cinchona trees the following would of course be the best to bring--the _Cinchona bineifolia_, the _cinchona cordifolia_, the _cinchona oblongifolia_, the _cinchona micrantha_, and the _cinchona condaminea_.

The Calumba plant (_Cocculus palmatus_, Decandolle, or _Minispermum palmatum_) furnishes the medicinal Colombo root, which is one of the most useful stomachics and tonics in cases of dyspepsia. It is scarcely ever cultivated, the spontaneous produce of thick forests on the sh.o.r.es of Oibo and Mozambique and many miles inland on the eastern sh.o.r.es of Africa, Madagascar and Bombay, proving sufficient. The supplies princ.i.p.ally go to Ceylon. The roots are perennial, and consist of several fasciculated, fusiform, branched, fleshy, curved and descending tubers, from one to two inches thick, with a brown warty epidermis; internally deep yellow, odorless, very bitter.

The main roots are dug up by the natives in March (the hot season).

The offsets are cut in slices and hung up on cords to dry in the shade. It is deemed fit to ship when, on exposure to the sun, it breaks short, and of a bad quality when it is soft and black.--("Pereira's Materia Medica.")

It contains a bitter crystallizable principle called Calumbin.

The commercial parcels are often adulterated with the roots of _Costus indicus, C. speciosus_, and _C. Arabicus_ (Kusmus, Putckuk, &c.). It is imported into this country in bags and chests of from one to three cwt., and ranges in price from 1 to 2 the cwt. The imports in 1846 to London were 82 packages, and in 1850, 214 packages, but the stock held in London is always large, being nearly 2,500 packages.

Colocynth, furnished by _Cuc.u.mis colocynthis_ and _C.

pseudocolocynthis_, is the dried medullary part of a wild species of gourd which is cultivated in Spain. It also grows wild in j.a.pan, the sandy lands of Coromandel, Cape of Good Hope, Syria, Nubia, Egypt, Turkey, and the islands of the Grecian Archipelago. It may be obtained in the jungles of India in cart loads. The fruit, which is about the size of an orange, with a thin but solid rind, is gathered in autumn, when ripe and yellow, and in most countries is peeled and dried either in the sun or by stoves. It comes over from Cadiz, Trieste, Mogadore, &c., in cases, casks, &c., and duty was paid on about 11,000 lbs. in 1839.

CUBEBS.--The dried unripe fruit of _P. Cubebi_, or _Cubeba qfficinalia_, a climbing plant of the pepper tribe, native of Prince of Wales' Island, Java, and the Indian islands furnishes the medicinal cubebs, which is used extensively in arresting discharges from mucous membranes. In appearance cubebs resemble black pepper, except that they are higher colored and are each furnished with a stalk two or three lines long. Dr. Blume says, that the cubebs of the shops are the fruit of _P. caninum_. This species of pepper, when fresh and good, contains nearly 10 per cent. of essential oil.

In 1842 the quant.i.ty entered for home consumption was 67,093 lbs. The average imports are about 40 to 50 tons annually. 3 cases were imported into Liverpool in 1851. The price in the Liverpool market, in January 1853, was 3 10s. to 4 10s. the cwt.

GAMBOGE.--This resinous juice, which is a most important article of commerce, is furnished by some of the plants of Gambogia, natives princ.i.p.ally of South America. It is a powerful irritant, and is employed medicinally as a drastic and hydragogue cathartic. From its bright yellow color it is also used as a pigment.

Gamboge fetches in the London market from 5 to 11 per cwt.

Some of the species of _Stalagmites_ (Murray), natives of Ceylon and the East, yield a similar yellow viscid juice, hardly distinguishable from gamboge, and used for the same purpose by painters. They are a genus of fine ornamental trees, thriving well in soils partaking of a mixture of loam and peat.

According to Koenig, the juice is collected by breaking off the leaves or young branches. From the fracture the gamboge exudes in drops, and is therefore called _gum gutta_. It is received on leaves, coco-nut sh.e.l.ls, earthen pots, or in bamboos; it gradually hardens by age, and is then wrapped up in leaves prior to sale.

The common gamboge of Ceylon is produced by a plant which Dr. Graham was led to view as a species of a new genus under the name of _Hebradendron Gambogoides_. A very different species, the _Garcinia Gambogia_, of Roxburgh, once supposed to produce gamboge, and indeed actually confounded by Linnaeus with the true gamboge tree of Ceylon, he has proved not to produce gamboge at all.

This substance is also obtained from several other plants, as the _Mangostana Gambogia_ (Gaertner), _Hypericwm bacciferum_ and _Cayanense_, natives of the East Indies, Siam and Ceylon, whence it is imported in small cakes and rolls or cylindrical twisted ma.s.ses. Its composition is as follows: number 1 being an a.n.a.lysis by Professor Christison of a commercial specimen from Ceylon; number 2 of a fine sample of common ditto:--

1 2 Resin, or fatty acid 78.84 74.8 Coloring matter 4.03 3.5 Gum 12.59 16.5 Residue 4.54 5.2 ----- ----- 100. 100.

The average imports of gamboge into the port of London, during the past five or six years, have been from 400 to 500 chests of one to two cwt. each.

Gentian.--The yellow gentian root (_Gentiana lutea_) is the officinal species, and a native of the Alps of Austria and Switzerland.

The stems and roots of _G. amarella_ and _campestris_, British species, and _G. cruciata, purpurea, punctata_, &c., are similar in their effects, having tonic, stomachic, and febrifugal properties. So has _G. kurroo_ of the Himalayas. The root is generally taken up in autumn, when the plant is a year old. It is cut longitudinally into pieces of a foot or a foot and a half long. They are imported into this country in bales from Havre, Ma.r.s.eilles, &c., and a good deal comes from Germany. In 1839, 470 cwts. were entered for home consumption.

Chiretta is the herb and root of _Agathotes Chirayta_, Don; _Gentiana Chirayta_, Fleming; or _Ophelia chirayta_, a herbaceous plant, growing in the Himalaya mountains about Nepaul and the Morungs.

Ipecacuan.-- _Cephaelis Ipecacuanhae_, Richard, yields the ipecacuan of the shops. The plant is met with in the woods of several Brazilian provinces, as Pernambuco, Bahia and Rio Janeiro. It is found growing in moist shady situations, from 8 to 20 degs. south lat.i.tude. The roots, which are the officinal part, are contorted, knotty and annulated, and about the thickness of a goose quill.

Besides this brown or gray annulated ipecacuan, there are spurious kinds, such as the striated or black Peruvian, the produce of _Pyschotria elliptica_, and other species; and white or amylaceous ipecacuan, furnished by _Richardsonia scabra_, an herbaceous perennial, native of the provinces of Rio Janeiro and Minas Geraes.

_Manettia glabra_ or _cordifolia_, also furnishes ipecacuan in Buenos Ayres. It is imported into this country from Rio in bales, barrels, bags, and serons, and the average annual imports in the eight years ending in 1841 were 10,000 lbs. In 1840, the shipments from Rio were as much as 20,000 lbs.