November i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



3153 



Dr. J. E. de Vrij, formerly in chemical charge of the Java 

 plantations, was a great power there fur good, and Ueer 

 J. 0. Bernelot Moens, as '•Directeiir der Gouverneraents 

 Kina-Ondememing op Java," has proved himself a successor 

 of genius. 



In 1862 plants were sent to Java by Mr. AVilliam Graham 

 Mclvor, Superintendent of Cinchonas at Nilgiri, of C. sued- 

 rubra, mierantha, and officinalis, and in 1865-66 seeds were 

 obtained of an excellent variety of C. calisaya in Bolivia 

 by Charles Ledger, and these lave produced trees yielding 

 an extraordinarily rich bark.* 



One of the most interesting ti'iumphs of modern science, 

 as practically adapted to commerce, is in the "shaving" 

 process of Rloeus, and the removing in alternate ribbons 

 of the bark, as adopted by Mclvor; for bark invariably 

 renews when the cambium layer is uninjured, and in 

 twenty-two months, or less, a renewed bark appears, thicker 

 and, which is a very important point, much richer than 

 the natm-al bark of the same age.f 



Thus not only do most species improve under c\Utivation, 

 but when art steps in, a bark is produced far licher than is 

 found when nature is left to herself. 



To show the demand for these barks on the Continent 

 for pharmacists, I extract the following descriptions from 

 tho Ust of one of the important Paris wholesale druggists: — 



Quinquinas, 

 Succiruhra, quill, containing 4'0 total alkaloids (1'5 quin.sulph) 

 „ broken, „ 60 „ (16 „ ) 



Jaxa Malabar, „ 7'8 „ (2-7 „ ) 



„ long bold quill — (2-0 „ ) 



„ Calisaya Scliuh- 



kriif't „ 3-9 „ (1-3 „ ) 



LeJt/eyiana, according to analysis of quinine. 



Practical Conclusions. — It will be interesting to consider- 

 what practical lesson we can derive from the examination 

 of these barks as regards those that we ought to employ, 

 and especially in respect to the yellow bark that we at 

 present make use of. 



Now the authorities are clear on this point. 



The British I'harraacopieia of 1807 (edition 1880, page 

 82) states that 100 grains of yellow cinchona bark should 

 contain of pure quinia not less than 2 grains. 



The French Oodex of 1866 (page SO) says that 1,000 parts 

 of this quinquina calisaya should furnish 35 to 40 iiiu'ts 

 of sulphate of quinme. 



The United States Pharmaoopceia, 6th decennial revision, 

 1882, page 79, under Ci'ncAo/ia _/(nv« (calisaya bark), gives 

 as its definition: — "The bark of the trunk of Ginchmm 

 aclisaya, containing at least 2 per cent of quinine." The 

 latter is not the sulphate, but the pure alkaloid quinia. 



The British Pharmacopruia standard, in my ojjiuion, is 

 not too low an alkaloidal strengtii. Does now the usual 

 flat yellow caUsaya bark of commerce and of daily use in 

 Englanil come up to this standard? 



On this point all our authorities are at one. That calisaya 

 bark has deteriorated of late is the opinion of those of the 

 wholesale trade who have examined these barks. J The 

 opinion of an authoi-ity on this matter. Dr. B. H. Paul, 

 is conclusive: "The officinal yellow bark and the flat calisaya 

 bark were almost invariably worthless as f;u' as the presence 

 of quinine was an element of value. The flat calisaya bark 

 of commerce now really contained nothing more than a 

 little cinchouine, 1^ to 2 per cent, and was not at all 

 e<iual to the character given in the Pharmacop<eia, and it 

 required to be replaced. "§ Mr. D. How:u-d says: "Yellow 

 bark is flat and yellow, but resembles in little else the 

 calisaya bark of a few years back, and must lead to disappoint- 

 ment if substituted in medicine for true calisaya." || 



Indeed, it is probable that tho flat bark we now receive 

 is not Calisaya at all. I am informed that it may probably 

 be from otiier species, brought down from the grey bark 

 district to Para by the rivers flowing theuce, the navigation 

 having been somt^what recently ojjened. Another possible 

 source of this bark may be C. Australis, from South Bolivia. 



But with what shall we replace this bark? for, if our 



* Pharm. Jonrn., July 12, 1873, page 2.5; also "Die 

 Chinarinden," F. A. Fliickiger, Berhn, 1883, page 14. 



t "Peruvian Bark," Clements R. Markham, 1880, pages 

 327-.' 2 ». 



t C. Umney, Pharm. Joum., ix., page 215. 



§ Dr. Paul, "Yr.-bk. Pharm.," 1881, page 514. 



fi Pharm. Jottrn., 1877, page 2. 



British Pharmacopoeia is to be of any value as an authority 

 (and as a whole we are justly proud of it), it ought not 

 to be ignored on such an important article of oiu- materia 

 medica. 



Mr. E. M. Holmes advocates cultivated in preference to 

 South American barks, especially on the ground of the larger 

 average yield of alkaloids. * 



Professor F. A. Fliickiger strongly recommends C. succi- 

 ruhra as being most suitable to adopt as official for pharma- 

 ceutical pm-poses.f It is a hardy ])Iant, growing quickly (a 

 tree in Java of this species attaining the height of 63 "feet 

 in fourteen years), and is fairly rich in alkaloids. It grows 

 readily m many climates: Cinchona succirubra docs well 

 in the brush shades of the Blelbourne Botanic Gardens 

 standing there even under 32 ° . In these gardens, years' 

 ago, cinchonas were already raised by the thousand, t 



Dr. Paul says that, judging from the amount of quinine 

 a very good type of this cinchona is being now cultivated 

 in -Jamaica. § 



But no real arguments have yet met the strong objections 

 to 0. snccirnbra of Mr. John Eliot Howard, our greatest 

 authority on this subject. His opinion is shortly expressed 

 in the following words: — " lu thisspecies the bark deteriorated 

 beyond a certain age. [| 



Mr. Howard has proved that there is a distinct noxious 

 iugi'edient in this East Indian red bark. He has explained 

 the pernicious eilects of the rapid oxidation of the cincho- 

 tannic acid, fine samples containuig 2 per cent of alkaloids, 

 mainly cinchonine and cinchonidine: the truest red bark 

 ill India will come to this by age. " The propagation of so 

 many millions of trees of what is called C. succirnlirn in 

 India is against all cautions and in neglect of all the 

 information I have been able to reproduce from the careful 

 Spanish botanists."^ And again, in his description of red 

 bark, Mr. Howard says, "Quinine, which formed a con- 

 siderable portion of the whole, is now greatly diminished. 

 .... The chief part of this troublesome and noxious re- 

 siduum I now suppose to be paricine."** 



Then, again, C. .succirubra is very prone to form hi/brids; 

 now Mr. Howard says, "On the other hand, it isan un- 

 deniable fact that the best results have been obtained from 

 plants of which the genealogy is known and the succe.s.sion 



kept perfectly pure For another striking illustration 



of the above statement I should refer to the C calisaya an: 

 Ledgeriana in Java. Of course the genealogy of this tree 

 is perfectly known, and has been described in my ' Quinology.' 

 There is not the smallest reason for supposing it a hybrid, 

 and the exceedingly rich production of pure quinine, alike 

 in the three forms I have given, stamp it as a pecuUar 

 sjiecies."!^ 



But if wo turn to the true C. calisaya, of which several 

 varieties, now classed as separate species, are cultivated in 

 Java and Ceylon, we find exactly what we require. Wo 

 can get nothing finer than the barks that come from the 

 seeds coUected by Charles Ledger's faithful servant Manuel, 

 in Boliiia, from particularly fine old trees, some supposed 

 to be 500 years old. 



My conclusions are, therefore, as follows : — 



1. We ought to abandon the present flat yellow barks 

 that appear in our markets. 



2. The evidence is against the East Indian red barks. 

 [Certainly not when renewed. — Ed.] 



3. Besides the use of some of the good analysed South 

 American quill yellow bax-ks (the examination of which does 

 not arise in this paper), we find what we require in a 

 mixture of calisaya barks from the East, viz., the unrivalled 

 Ledcjfviana, mixetl with other true calisayas, so as to give 

 a bark that is not below the strength given in our British 

 Pharmacopceia. 



And, as a last word, I cannot do better than give what 

 Mr. J. G. Howard says on this very point: — 



"On the whole, I think it is evident that the true Calisaya 



* "Yr.-bk. Pharm.," 1881, page 509. ' 



■'(Pharm. Joum., April 30, 1881, page 904. 



J "Eastern Tropical Plants," Baron Ferd. von Miiller, 

 Sydney, 1881, page 79. 



^ SeeaIs(j"C'iuchona Planting in Jamaica," /*//«)■»/. .Jovrn., 

 March 11.1SS2, page 748. 



II Pharm. .Joum., September 6, 1879, page 181. 



% " Yr.-bk. Pharm.," 1881, page 499. 



** "Nueva Quinologia" (C succirubra) page 14. 



ft J. E. Howard, " Yr.-bk. Pharm.," 1877, page 519 



