Missouri Botanical 

 Garden Bulletin 



Vol. IX St. Louis, Mo., September, 1921 No. 7 



CHAULMUGRA OIL 

 A REPORTED SPECIFIC FOR LEPROSY 



lu spite of the fact thai chairs of materia medica no longer 

 exist in many of the leading medical colleges, il is still neces- 

 sary occasionally to turn to plants to find a cure which can 

 nut be obtained elsewhere. Even though the essential prin- 

 ciple of Hi" remedy ultimately he made - ithetically, its 

 original application was learned through the beneficial use 

 of some planl and it is inter thai the few real 



specifics in medicine have all had I heir origin in plant prod- 

 ucts. Prom some results recently obtained it would appear 

 that in the expressed oil from the seed of Hydnocarpus 

 Kurzii (King) Warb. medicine has found another specific, 

 this time for the dread disease of leprosy. This oil, called 

 chaulmugra oil, has long been associated with Burmese folk- 

 lore and t radii ion as a cure for leprosy. The Buddhisl his- 

 tories of a thousand years ago contain a legendary accounl 

 of one of the kings of Burma who cured himself with the 

 oil iron) the tree known by the natives as "Kalaw." At 

 the same time he likewise succeeded in removing the curse 

 of lepn sy from a woman who afterwards became his queen. 



Chaulmugra oil was early recognized by the Indian phar- 

 macopoeia. M was valued in both India and China as a 

 remedy for skin diseases and other complaints due to im- 

 purities th hlnod. In Mauritius it was regarded as the 

 only remedy for leprosy, and so high a value was placed 

 upon iis puritv thai seed were imported direct from India 

 in order to prevent adulteration. 



About the middle of the last; century certain Englishmen 

 became interested in the reported efficacy of chaulmugra oil, 

 and a c ible number of trials were made calculated to 



test the real value of the remedy. Not only was it recom- 

 mended f< r lepn sy, but great claims were made for its use 

 in rheumatism, neuralgia, toothache, sciatica, eruptions of 



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