Hemidesmus Root, Nunnari Root, Indian Sarsaparilla.
Botanical Origin—Hemidesmus indicus R. Brown (Periploca indica Willd., Asclepias Pseudo-sarsa Roxb.), a twining shrub, growing throughout the Indian Peninsula and in Ceylon. The leaves are very diverse, being narrow and lanceolate in the lower part of the plant, and broadly ovate in the upper branches.[1564]
History—In the ancient Sanskrit literature the plant occurs frequently under the name Sārivā, and its root under the name of Nannārī or Ananta-mūl (i.e. endless root) has long been employed in medicine in the southern parts of India.[1565] Ashburner in 1831 was the first to call the attention of the profession in Europe to its medicinal value.[1566] In 1864 it was admitted to a place in the British Pharmacopœia, but its efficiency is by no means generally acknowledged.
Description[1567]—The root is in pieces of 6 inches or more in length; it is cylindrical, tortuous, longitudinally furrowed, from ²/₁₀ to ⁷/₁₀ of an inch in thickness, mostly simple or provided with a few thin rootlets emitting slender, branching woody aerial stems, ³/₀ of an inch or less thick. Externally it is dark brown, sometimes with a slight violet-grey hue, which is particularly obvious in the sunshine. The transverse section of the hard root shows a white mealy or brownish or somewhat violet cortical layer, not exceeding ⅒ of an inch in thickness, and a yellowish woody column, separated by a narrow dark undulated cambial line. Neither the wood nor the cortical tissue present a radiate structure in the stout pieces; in the thinner roots, medullary rays are obvious in the woody part. The extremely thin corky layer easily separates from the bark, which latter is frequently marked transversely by large cracks. The root, whether fresh or dried, has an agreeable odour resembling tonka bean or melilot. The dried root has a sweetish taste with a very slight acidity. The stems are almost tasteless and inodorous. The root found in the English market is often of very bad quality.
Microscopic Structure—All the proper cortical tissue shows a uniform parenchyme, not distinctly separated into liber, medullary rays and mesophlœum. On making a longitudinal section however, one can observe some elongated laticiferous vessels filled with the colourless concrete milky juice. In a transverse section, they are seen to be irregularly scattered through the bark, chiefly in its inner layers, yet even here in not very considerable number. They are frequently 30 mkm. in diameter and not branched.
The wood is traversed by small medullary rays, which are obvious only in the longitudinal section. The parenchymatous tissue of the root is loaded with large, ovoid starch granules. Tannic matters do not occur to any considerable amount, except in the outermost suberous layer.
Chemical Composition—The root has not been submitted to any adequate chemical examination. Its taste and smell appear not to depend on the presence of essential oil, so far as may be inferred from microscopic examination; and it is probable the aroma is due to a body of the cumarin class. According to Scott,[1568] the root yields by simple distillation with water a stearoptene, which is probably the substance obtained by Garden in 1837, and supposed to be a volatile acid.
Uses—The drug is reputed to be alterative, tonic, diuretic and diaphoretic, but is rarely employed, at least in England.
Cortex Calotropidis; Mudar; F. Ecorce de racine de Mudar.
Botanical Origin—The drug under notice is furnished by two nearly allied species of Calotropis, occupying somewhat distinct geographical areas, but not distinguished from each other in the native languages of India. These plants are:—
1. Calotropis procera R. Brown (C. Hamiltonii Wight), a large shrub, 6 or more feet high, with dark green, oval leaves, downy beneath, abounding in acrid milky juice.
It is a native of the drier parts of India, as the Deccan, the Upper Provinces of Bengal, the Punjab and Sind, but is quite unknown in the southern provinces; it also extends to Persia, Palestine, the Sinaitic Peninsula, Arabia, Egypt, to the oasis Dachel, and other oases of the Sahara, to Nubia, Abyssinia, the lake Tsad and through the Sudan. Lastly it has been naturalized in the West Indies.
2. C. gigantea R. Brown (Asclepias gigantea Willd.), a large erect shrub, 6 to 10 feet high, with stem as thick as a man’s leg,[1569] much resembling preceding, indigenous to Lower Bengal and the southern parts of India, Ceylon, the Malayan Peninsula, and the Moluccas.
Both species are extremely common in waste ground over their respective areas.[1570]
History—The ancient name of the plant, which occurs already in the Vedic literature, was Arka (wedge), alluding to the form of the leaves which were used in sacrificial rites. From one of the Sanskrit names of this plant, namely Mandāra, Mudar is a corruption;[1571] the latter is frequently mentioned in the writings of Susruta.
The plant was likewise well known to the Arabian physicians.[1572]
C. procera was observed in Egypt by Prosper Alpinus (1580-84), and upon his return to Italy was figured, and some account given of its medicinal properties.[1573] It is also the “Apocynum syriacum” figured by Clusius.[1574]
C. gigantea was figured by Rheede[1575] in 1679, and in our own day by Wight.[1576]
The medicinal virtues of mudar, though so long esteemed by the natives of India, were not investigated experimentally by Europeans until the present century, when Playfair recommended the drug in elephantiasis, and its good effects were afterwards noticed by Vos (1826), Cumin (1827), and Duncan (1829). The last named physician also performed a chemical examination of the root-bark, the activity of which he referred to an extractive matter which he termed Mudarine.[1577]
Description—The root-bark of C. procera, as we have received it,[1578] consists of short, arched, bent, or nearly flat fragments, ⅛ to ⅕ of an inch thick. They have outwardly a thickish, yellowish-grey, spongy cork, more or less fissured lengthwise, frequently separating from the middle cortical layer; the latter consists of a white mealy tissue, traversed by narrow brown liber-rays. The bark is brittle and easily powdered; it has a mucilaginous, bitter, acrid taste, but no distinctive odour. The light yellow, fibrous wood is still attached to many of the pieces.
The roots of C. gigantea are clothed with a bark which seems to be undistinguishable from that of C. procera just described. The wood of the root consists of a porous, pale yellow tissue, exhibiting large vascular bundles, and very numerous small medullary rays, consisting of 1 to 3 rows of the usual cells.[1579]
Microscopic Structure—In the root-bark of C. procera, the suberous coat is made up of large, thin-walled, polyhedral, or almost cubic cells; the middle cortical layer, of a uniform parenchyme, loaded with large starch granules, or here and there containing some thick-walled cells (sclerenchyme) and tufts of oxalate of calcium. The large medullary rays are built up of the usual cells, having porous walls and containing starch and oxalate. In a longitudinal section, the tissue, chiefly of the middle cortical layer, is found to be traversed by numerous laticiferous vessels, containing the dry milk juice[1580] as a brownish granular substance not soluble in potash.
The microscopic characters of the root-bark of C. gigantea agree with those here detailed of C. procera. The stems of Calotropis are distinguished by strong liber-fibres, which are not met with in the roots.
Chemical Composition—By following the process of Duncan above alluded to, 200 grammes of the powdered bark of C. gigantea yielded us nothing like his Mudarine, but 2·4 grammes of an acrid resin, soluble in ether as well as in alcohol. The latter solution reddens litmus; the former on evaporation yields the resin as an almost colourless mass. If the aqueous liquid is separated from the crude resin, and much absolute alcohol added, an abundant precipitate of mucilage is obtained. The liquid now contains a bitter principle, which after due concentration may be separated by means of tannic acid.
We obtained similar results by exhausting the bark of C. procera with dilute alcohol. The tannic compound of the bitter principle was mixed with carbonate of lead, dried and boiled with spirit of wine. This after evaporation furnished an amorphous, very bitter mass, not soluble in water, but readily so in absolute alcohol. The solution is not precipitated by an alcoholic solution of acetate of lead. By purifying the bitter principle with chloroform or ether, it is at last obtained colourless. This bitter matter is probably the active principle of Calotropis; we ascertained by means of the usual tests that no alkaloid occurs in the drug. The large juicy stem, especially that of C. gigantea, ought to be submitted to an accurate chemical and therapeutical examination.[1581]
Uses—Mudar is an alterative, tonic and diaphoretic,—in large doses emetic. By the natives of India, who employ it in venereal and skin complaints, almost all parts of the plant are used. According to Moodeen Sheriff,[1582] the bark of the root and the dried milky juice are the most efficient; the latter is however somewhat irregular and unsafe in its action. The same writer remarks that he has found that the older the plant, the more active is the bark in its effects. He recommends that the corky outer coat, which is tasteless and inert, should be scraped off before the bark is powdered for use: of a powder so prepared, 40 to 50 grains suffice as an emetic.
The stems of C. gigantea afford a very valuable fibre which can be spun into the finest thread for sewing or weaving.[1583]
Country or Indian Ipecacuanha.
Botanical Origin—Tylophora asthmatica Wight et Arnott (Asclepias asthmatica Roxb.), a twining perennial plant, common in sandy soils throughout the Indian Peninsula and naturalized in Mauritius. It may be distinguished from some of its congeners by its reddish or dull pink flowers, with the scale of the staminal corona abruptly contracted into a long sharp tooth.[1584]
History—The employment of this plant in medicine is well known to the Hindus, who call it Antamul and use it with considerable success in dysentery, but we have not succeeded in tracing it in the ancient Indian literature. During the last century it attracted the attention of Roxburgh[1585] who made many observations on the administration of the root, while physician to the General Hospital of Madras from 1776 to 1778. It was also used very successfully in the place of ipecacuanha by Anderson, Physician-General to the Madras army.[1586] In more recent times, the plant has been prescribed by O’Shaughnessy, who pronounced the root an excellent substitute for ipecacuanha if given in rather larger doses.[1587] Kirkpatrick[1588] administered the drug in at least a thousand cases, and found it of the greatest value; he prescribed the dried leaf, not only because superior to the root in certainty of action, but also as being obtainable without destruction of the plant. The drug has been largely given by many other practitioners in India. Tylophora is also employed in Mauritius, where it is known as Ipéca sauvage or Ipéca du pays. It has a place in the Bengal Pharmacopœia of 1844, and in the Pharmacopœia of India of 1868.
Description[1589]—The leaves are opposite, entire, from 2 to 5 inches long, ¾ to 2½ inches broad, somewhat variable in outline, ovate or subrotund, usually cordate at the base, abruptly acuminate or almost mucronate, rather leathery, glabrous above, more or less downy beneath with soft simple hairs. The pedicel, which is channelled, is ½ to ¾ of an inch in length. In the dry state the leaves are rather thick and harsh, of a pale yellowish green; they have a not unpleasant herbaceous smell, with but very little taste.[1590]
Chemical Composition—A concentrated infusion of the leaves has a slightly acrid taste. It is abundantly precipitated by tannic acid, by neutral acetate of lead or caustic potash, and is turned greenish-black by perchloride of iron. Broughton of Ootacamund (India) has informed us (1872) that from a large quantity of the leaves he obtained a small amount of crystals,—insufficient for analysis. Dissolved and injected into a small dog, they occasioned purging and vomiting.
Uses—Employed in India, as already mentioned, as a substitute for ipecacuanha, chiefly in the treatment of dysentery. The dose of the powdered leaves as an emetic is 25 to 30 grains, as a diaphoretic and expectorant 3 to 5 grains.
Radix Tylophoræ—This root is met with in the Indian bazaars, and has been employed, as before stated, as much or more than the leaf. It consists of a short, knotty, descending rootstock, about ⅛ of an inch in thickness, emitting 2 to 3 aerial stems, and a considerable number of wiry roots. These roots are often 6 inches or more in length by ½ a line in diameter, and are very brittle. The whole drug is of a pale yellowish-brown; it has no considerable odour, but a sweetish and subsequently acrid taste. In general appearance it is suggestive of valerian, but is somewhat stouter and larger.
Examined microscopically, the parenchymatous envelope of the rootlets is seen to consist of two layers, the inner forming a small nucleus sheath. The outer portion is built up of large cells, loaded with starch granules and tufted crystals of oxalate of calcium. Salts of iron do not alter the tissue.