REVISION OF ANACYCLUS 115 



and for this purpose may with advantage be mixed with camphorated chloroform. It forms an 

 addition to many dentifrices. 



'A gargle of Pellitory infusion is prescribed for relaxed uvula and for partial paralysis of the 

 tongue and lips. To make a gargle two or three teaspoonsful of Pellitory - to be obtained from 

 any druggist - should be mixed with a pint of cold water and sweetened with honey if desired.' 

 Amongst its other, less important uses, it has been prescribed for relief of neuralgia, rheumatism 

 of the head and tongue palsy. Since it is a rubefacient and a local irritant when sliced and applied 

 to the skin, it induces heat, tingling and redness. The powered root produced a good snuff to 

 cure chronic catarrh of the head and nostrils and to clear the brain, by exciting a free flow of 

 nasal mucous and tears. Culpepper's herbal (see Anon, 1814) notes that A.pyrethrum 'is one of the 

 best purges of the brain that grows' and is not only 'good for ague and the falling sickness 

 [epilepsy]' but is 'an excellent approved remedy in lethargy'. After stating that 'the powder of 

 the herb or root snuffed up the nostrils procureth sneezing and easeth the headache', it goes on 

 to mention that 'being made into an ointment with hog's lard it taketh away black and blue spots 

 occasioned by blows or falls, and helpeth both the gout and sciatica'. All the uses described in 

 Culpepper were obsolete by the turn of this century. The pellitory-of-Spain was well known in the 

 thirteenth century and was a valuable remedy for toothache with Welsh physicians (Grieve, 191 1). 

 It was familiar to Arabian writers of medicine and was still a favourite herbal remedy in the east 

 and western Europe until the First World War, having long been an article of export from 

 Algeria and southern Spain by way of Egypt to India. 



The activity of the root appears to be due to two active crystalline resiniferous alkaloids, 

 pellitorine and pyrethrine. A. pyrethrum ceased a long time ago to be used in medicine, since 

 pellitorine, with a melting point of 22 C, has been identified as N-isobutylamide, a reasonably 

 powerful, poisonous insecticide. It was originally identified as N-isobutyl-cis-2-trans-6-decad- 

 ieneamide but is now known to contain a mixture of at least four isomers of this product (Metcalf, 

 1955). 



Polyacetylenes and particular amides are important taxonomically and form a distinct group of 

 natural products characteristic of the genus. Although their biogenesis is not sufficiently clarified, 

 it appears that most of them are derived from C 18 -diyne-ene acid and other compounds closely 

 related to linoleic acid and dehydromatricaria ester (Greger, 1977). 



During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, A.pyrethrum was widely cultivated in European 

 botanic gardens, particularly for its medicinal properties. In his 'Getreue Darstellung und Besch- 

 reibung der in der Arzneykunde gebrduchlichen Gewdchse, . . . part 9', Friedrich Hayne (1825) 

 considered that Linnaeus's concept of Anthemis pyrethrum (subsequently Anacyclus pyrethrum 

 Link) was a 'polytypic' species containing in reality two elements, the cultivated annual 'Bertram 

 wurzel' from Magdeburg botanic garden and the true north African perennial A. pyrethrum. 

 Hayne concluded that Linnaeus's phrase name referred to the common garden form of A. 

 pyrethrum (i.e. var. depresses), and he therefore described the annual German cultivar as a 

 distinct species, A. officinarum. There are very few herbarium specimens of the latter 'species' 

 since it appears to have been extinct since the turn of this century. The Magdeburg apothecaries 

 cultivated the Bertram wurzel to only a limited extent (Bischoff, 1847; Harley, 1876; Hayne, 1925); 

 and their poor knowledge of this plant, which was variously known as the Bertram root, German 

 pellitory, African pellitory and ringblume, has led to a certain amount of misapplication of the 

 name so that today it is incorrectly used for various species, particularly for Anthemis altissima 

 Jacq. but also for Anacyclus pyrethrum, A. radiatus and A. clavatus. Morphological examination 

 of A. officinarum (see Table 2) suggests that it is either an unusual annual derivative of A. pyre- 

 thrum or a hybrid between the latter species and A. radiatus or A. clavatus, since all of these are 

 commonly cultivated together. All attempts to artificially hybridize these three species (and any 

 other annual species) with A. pyrethrum have so far met with failure (Humphries, in press, ), so 

 therefore the first hypothesis is currently favoured. 



Illustrations of Anacyclus officinarum: Hayne, 1825 : tab. 46; Schlectendal & Guimpal, 1833 : tab. 188; 

 Petermann, 1849 : tab. 48, fig. 374; Berg & Schmidt, 1863 : tab. 34e; Bentley & Trimen, 1880: tab. 152; 



