BOTANIC MATERIA MEDICA, . 301 
are demulcent, laxative, and said to have been 
a food in the early historyof man. Dose, 1 to2 
drachms, usually given with senna or other med- 
icine. 
Guarana, Guarana Paullinia Sorbilis.—Nat- 
ural order Sapindacee. Native of Brazil. This 
woody climber is adorned with alternate leaves 
on long petioles, and arranged impari-pinnately 
(unequally pinnate), having 5 oblong, oval leaf- 
lets, coarsely dentated as to their edges; about 5 
inches in length and 3 inches broad with ob- 
tuse points. The flowers are arranged in ax- 
illary, spicate panicles, about 4 inches in length. 
Fruit, a capsule about the size of a grape, hav- 
ing 6 longitudinal ribs or ridges and a 3-valved 
pericarp. Theseeds are covered by a flesh-col- 
ored arillus, which is easily separated when dry. 
The testa is almost black, and quite thin and 
hard. The seeds are dried, then powdered and 
mixed with water into a pasty mass; thisis then 
made into cakes, and dried, either by the sun’s 
rays or by artificial means. These cakes occur 
in commerce in sub-globular or in cylindrical 
masses, hard, and of a deep-red brown color; 
when broken, the fracture is uneven, showing 
many fragments of the seeds. Odor, agreeable 
and peculiar: taste, bitter, astringent, and gran- 
ular ; containing 4 or 5 percent of caffeine, 26 per 
cent. of fannzn, existing as paullinatannic acid, 
starch, fat, muctlage, resinanda volatile oil. Guar- 
ana is comparatively a new remedy in this coun- 
try, but long known and used in South America as 
an article of diet, and designated by the natives 
as Guarana Bread. Its medical effects are tonic, 
nervine, astringent and stimulant; given in 
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