The above statements show, that the chemical properties of sinalbin and its derivatives correspond closely with those of sinigrin (p. 62) and the substances which make their appearance in an emulsion of black mustard. The other constituents of white mustard seed are nearly the same as those of black. The fat oil appears to yield in addition to the acids mentioned at p. 63, Benic Acid, C22H4O2. White mustard is said to be richer than black in myrosin, so that, as explained in the previous article, the pungency of the latter may be often increased by an addition of white mustard. By burning white mustard dried at 100° C., with soda-lime, we obtained from 4.20 to 4:30 per cent. of nitrogen, answering to about 28 per cent. of protein substances. The fixed oil of the seed amounts to 22 per cent. The mucilage as yielded by the epidermis is precipitable by alcohol, neutral lead acetate, or ferric chloride, and is soluble in water after drying. Erucin and Sinapic Acid mentioned by Simon (1838) 2 as peculiar constituents of white mustard are altogether doubtful, yet may deserve further investigation. The sinapic acid of Von Babo and Hirschbrunn 3 (1852) is a product of the decomposition of sinapine. 3 Uses White Mustard seeds reduced to powder and made into a paste with cold water act as a powerful stimulant when applied to the skin, notwithstanding that such paste is entirely wanting in essential oil. But for sinapisms they are actually used only in the form of the Flour of Mustard which is prepared for the table and which contains also Brown Mustard seed. RADIX ARMORACIE. Horse-radish; F. Raifort (i.e. racine forte), Cran de Bretagne ; G. Meerrettig. Botanical Origin-Cochlearia Armoracia L., a common perennial with a stout tapering root, large coarse oblong leaves with long stalks, and erect flowering racemes 2 to 3 feet high. It is indigenous to the eastern parts of Europe, from the Caspian through Russia and Poland to Finland. In Britain and in other parts of Europe to the polar circle, it occurs cultivated or semi-wild. History The vernacular name Armon is stated by Pliny to be used in the Pontic regions to designate the Armoracia of the Romans, the Wild Radish ('papavìs ȧypía) of the Greeks, a plant which cannot be positively identified with that under notice. Horse-radish is called in the Russian language Chren, in Lithuanian Krenai, in Illyrian Kren, a name which has passed into several German dialects, and as Cran or Cranson into French. From these and similar facts, De Candolle 5 has drawn the conclusion that the propagation of the plant has travelled from Eastern to Western Europe. Both the root and leaves of horse-radish were eaten with food in Germany during the middle ages. But the use of the former was not 6 1 Experiments performed by Mr. Weppen in my laboratory, 1869.-F. A. F. 529. Gmelin, Chemistry, xiv. (1860) 521 and 3 Ibid. 521. 4 Lib. xix. c. 26. (Littré's translation.) common in England until a much later period. 1 The plant though known in England as Red-cole in the time of Turner, 1568, is not mentioned by him as used in food, nor is it noticed by Boorde, 1542, in his chapter on edible roots. Gerarde 3 at the end of the 16th century remarks that horse-radish-" is commonly used among the Germanes for sauce to eat fish with, and such like meats, as we do mustard." Half a century later the taste for horse-radish had begun to prevail in England. Coles (1657) states that the root sliced thin and mixed with vinegar is eaten as a sauce with meat as among the Germans. That the use of horse-radish in France had the same origin is proved by its old French name Moutarde des Allemands. The root to which certain medicinal properties had always been assigned, was included in the materia medica of the London Pharmacopoeias of the last century under the name of Raphanus rusticanus. Description-The root which in good ground often attains a length of 3 feet and nearly an inch in diameter, is enlarged in its upper part into a crown, usually dividing into a few short branches each surmounted by a tuft of leaves, and annulated by the scars of fallen foliage; below the crown it tapers slightly, and then for some distance is often almost cylindrical, throwing off here and there filiform and long slender cylindrical roots, and finally dividing into two or three branches. The root is of a light yellowish brown; internally it is fleshy and perfectly white, and has a short non-fibrous fracture. Before it is broken it is inodorous, but when comminuted it immediately exhales its characteristic pungent smell. Its well-known pungent taste is not lost in the root carefully dried and not kept too long. A transverse section of the fresh root displays a large central column with a radiate and concentric arrangement of its tissues, which are separated by a small greyish circle from the bark, whose breath is fromto 2 lines. In the root-branches there is neither a well-defined liber nor a true pith. The short leaf-bearing branches include a large pith surrounded by a circle of woody bundles. The bark adheres strongly to the central portion, in which zones of annual growth are easily perceptible, at least in older specimens. Microscopic Structure-The corky layer is made up of small tabular cells as usual in suberous coats. In the succeeding zone of the middle bark, thick-walled yellow cells are scattered through the parenchyme, chiefly at the boundary line of the corky layer. In the root the cellular envelope is not strikingly separated from the liber, whilst in its leafy branches this separation is well marked by wedgeshaped liber bundles, which are accompanied by a group of the yellow longitudinally-elongated stone cells. The woody bundles contain a few short yellow vessels, accompanied by bundles of prosenchymatous, not properly woody cells. The centre, in the root, shows these woody bundles to be separated by the medullary parenchyma; in the branches the central column consists of an uniform pith without woody bundles, the latter forming a circle close to the cambium. The parenchyma 531; Pfeiffer, Buch der Natur von Konrad ton Megenberg, Stuttgart, 1861. 418. 1 Herball, part 2. (1568) 111. 2 Dyetary of Helth, Early English Text Society, 1870. 278. 3 Herball, edited by Johnson, 1636, 240. 4 Adam in Eden, or Nature's Paradise. Lond. 1657. chap. 256. of the whole root collected in spring is loaded with small starch granules. Chemical Composition-Among the constituents of horseradish root (the chemical history of which is however far from perfect) the volatile oil is the most interesting. The fresh root submitted to distillation with water in a glass retort, yields about per mille of oil which is identical with that of Black Mustard as proved in 1843 by Hubatka. He combined it with ammonia and obtained crystals of thiosinammine, the composition of which agreed with the thiosinammine from mustard oil. An alcoholic extract of the root is devoid of the odour of the oil, but this is quickly evolved on addition of an emulsion of White Mustard. The essential oil does not therefore pre-exist, but only sinigrin (myronate of potassium) and an albuminoid matter (myrosin) by whose inutual reaction in the presence of water it is formed (p. 62). This process does not go on in the growing root, perhaps because the two principles in question are not contained in the same cells, or else exist together in some condition that does not allow of their acting on each other, a state of things analogous to that occurring in the leaves of Lauro-cerasus. No crystals of sinigrin are visible in the tissue of horse-radish when examined under the microscope. By exhausting the root with water either cold or hot, the sinigrin is decomposed and a considerable proportion of bisulphate is found in the concentrated decoction. Alcohol removes from the root some fatty matter and sugar (Winckler 1849). Salts of iron do not alter thin slices of it, tannic matters being absent. The presence of myrosin which at present has been inferred rather than proved, ought to be further investigated. Uses-An infusion or a distilled spirit of horse-radish is reputed stimulant, diaphoretic, and diuretic, but is not often employed. Substitute-In India the root of Moringa pterygosperma Gärtn. is considered a substitute for horse-radish. It yields by distillation an essential oil of disgusting odour which Broughton who obtained it in minute quantity, has assured us is not identical with that of mustard or of garlick. CANELLACEÆ. CORTEX CANELLÆ ALBÆ. Canella Bark, Canella Alba Bark; F. Cannelle blanche; G. Canella-Rinde. Botanical Origin-Canella alba Murray, a tree, 20 to 30 or even 50 feet in height, found in the south of Florida, the Bahama Islands (whence alone its bark is exported), Cuba, Jamaica, Ste. Croix, Guadaloupe, Martinique, Barbados and Trinidad. History The drug was first mentioned in 1605 by Clusius1 who remarks that it had been then newly brought to Europe and had received the name of Canella alba (White Cinnamon). It was afterwards known as Costus corticosus, Costus dulcis, Cassia alba, Cassia lignea Jamaicensis or Jamaica Winter's Bark. Dale 2 writing in 1693 notices it as not 1 Exotica, 78. * Pharmacologia, 432. unfrequently sold for Winter's Bark. Pomet1 (1694) describes it as synonymous with Winter's Bark, and observes that it is common yet but little employed. The drug is mentioned by most subsequent writers, some of whom like Pomet probably confounded it with the bark of Cinnamodendron (p. 19). It is usually described as produced in Jamaica or Guadaloupe, from which islands no Canella alba is now exported. On the other hand New Providence, one of the Bahamas whence the Canella alba of the present day is shipped, is not named. Nor do we find any allusion to the drug in the records of the Company (1630-50) which was formed for the colonization of New Providence and the other islands of the group, though their staple productions are frequently enumerated.2 Canella alba Murr. was described and figured by Sloane (1707) and still better by Patrick Brown in 1789. Collection-In the Bahamas where the drug is known as White Wood Bark or Cinnamon Bark, it is collected thus:-preparatory to being stripped from the wood, the bark is gently beaten with a stick which removes the suberous layer. By a further beating, the remaining bark is separated, and having been peeled off and dried, is exported without further preparation.3 Description-Canella bark occurs in the form of quills, more or less crooked and irregular, or in channelled pieces from 2 or 3 up to 6, 8, or more inches in length, an inch to 1 or 2 inches in width, and a line or two in thickness. The suberous layer which here and there has escaped removal is silvery grey, and dotted with minute lichens. Commonly the external surface consists of inner cellular layers (mesophlæum) of a bright buff, or light orange-brown tint, often a little wrinkled transversely, and dotted (but not always) with round scars. The inner surface is whitish or cinnamon-coloured, either smooth or with slight longitudinal striæ. Some parcels of canella show the bark much bruised and longitudinally fissured by the above-mentioned process of beating. The bark breaks transversely with a short granular fracture which distinctly shows the three, or in uncoated specimens the two, cortical layers, that of the liber being the largest and projecting by undulated rays or bundles into the middle layer, which presents numerous large and unevenly scattered oil-cells of a yellow colour. Canella has an agreeable cinnamon-like odour and a bitter, pungent acrid taste. Even the corky coat is somewhat aromatic. Microscopical Structure-The spongy suberous coat consists of very numerous layers of large cells with thin walls showing an undulated rather than rectangular outline. The next small zone is constituted of sclerenchymatous cells in a single, double, or triple row, or forming dense but not very extensive groups. This tissue is sometimes (in unpeeled specimens) a continuous envelope, marking the boundary between the corky layer and the middle portion of the cellular layer; but an in Hist. des Drog. part i. 130. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660, Lond. 1860. Information communicated to me by the Hon. J. C. Lees, Chief-Justice of the Bahamas. The second beating would seem to be not always required.-D. H. 4 A specimen in Sloane's collection in the British Museum labelled "Cortex Winteranus of the Isles," but under the microscope seen to be absolutely identical with canella alba, still retains its proper fragrance after nearly two centuries.-F. A. F. terruption in this thick-walled tissue often takes place when portions of it are enveloped and separated by the suberous layer. The proper cellular envelope shows a narrow tissue with numerous very large cells filled with yellow essential oil. The liber forming the chief portion of the whole bark, exhibits thin prosenchymatous cells, which on transverse section form small bands of a peculiar horny or cartilaginous appearance, on which account they have been distinguished as horny liber (hornbast of German writers).1 The liber-fibres show reticulated marks due to the peculiar character of the secondary deposits on their cell walls. The oil-cells in the liber are less numerous and smaller; the medullary rays are not very obvious unless on account of the crystalline tufts of oxalate of calcium deposited in the latter. This crystalline oxalate retains air obstinately and has a striking dark appearance. Chemical Composition-The most interesting body in canella is the volatile oil examined in 1843 under Wöhler's direction by Meyer and Von Reiche, who obtained it'in the proportion of 0.94 from 100 parts of bark. They found it to consist of four different oils, the first being identical with the Eugenic Acid of oil of cloves; the second is closely allied to the chief constituent of cajuput oil. The other oils require further examination.2 The bark of which we distilled 201b., afforded 0·74 per cent. of oil. This when distilled with caustic potash in excess was found to be composed of 2 parts of the acid portion and 1 part of the neutral hydrocarbon; the latter has an odour suggesting a mixture of peppermint and cajuput. Meyer and Von Reiche evaporated the aqueous decoction of canella and removed from the bitter extract by alcohol 8 per cent. of mannite, which they ascertained to be the so-called Canellin described in 1822 by Petroz and Robinet. The bark yielded the German chemists 6 per cent. of ash, chiefly carbonate of calcium. The bitter principle has not yet been isolated. An aqueous infusion is not blackened by a persalt of iron. Commerce-Canella alba is collected in the Bahama Islands and shipped to Europe from Nassau in New Providence, the chief seat of trade in the group. Uses-The bark is an aromatic stimulant, now but seldom employed. It is used by the West Indian negroes as a condiment. BIXINEÆ. SEMEN GYNOCARDIÆ. Botanical Origin-Gynocardia odorata R. Br. (Chaulmoogra Roxb. Hydnocarpus Lindl.), a large tree with a globular fruit of the size of a shaddock, containing numerous seeds immersed in pulp. It grows in the forests of the Malayan peninsula and Eastern India as far north as First figured and described by Oude- 2 Gmelin, Chemistry, xiv. (1860) 210. maus,--Aanteekeningen op het.... Gedeelte der Pharm. Neerlandica, 1854-56, 469. |