December i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



531 



sile in Boxhurgh's specimens ; and aie rightly so described 

 by him, and correctly figured in the plates above quoted. 

 The species figured iu llayue ix, t. 4, anvl Steph. aud 

 Oh., t. ISl— both copied from Koxbiirgh, Plants of Ouro- 

 maudel, t. 298 — is G, Camhofjia^ Desrouss. (C-nnbot/m Guttft, 

 Liiiu., G, I'apilla, Wight;, a treo al.so growing in South 

 India and Ceylon. There are other figures in AVight, Ic. 

 Plant. Ind. Orient., t. U(JO, and Beddome, Fl. Sylvatica, 

 t. 85. It is closely allied to G. indica, Choisy (see No. 32). 

 Ko.'ib., Fl. Indica, ii, p. 627 ; Fl. Brit. India, i, p. 2()4 ; 

 D. Haubury, in Tran.s. Linn. Soc. Lond., xxiv, p. 4-'7 

 (1864) ; Hook, f., in Jouru. Liim. Soc. Loud., xiv. p. 

 485 ; Lanessan, iu Adansonia, x, p. 282, and Hist, des 

 Drogues, p. I(i4 ; Ohristisou, in Proc. Royal Soc. Edin- 

 burgh, ii, p. 263 (18-)1), and in Hook., Oomp. Bot. 

 Mag., ii, p. 233; Wight, ibid., p. 379; Royle, Mat. 

 Medica, ed. 2, p. 350. 

 Official Fart and Sfame. — Cambogia ; a gum-resin obtained 

 from Garcinia Morella, Desrouss., var. pedicellata (B. P.). 

 The gum-resin (I. P.). Gambogia; a gum-resiu (U. S. P.). 

 Froduction aud Commerce. — Gamboge is imported into 

 Europe and the Vnited States from Singapore, Bangok, 

 and Saigon ; and is the produce of Siam, Cambodia, and 

 the southern parts of Cochin-China. According to Konig, 

 a Roman Catholic priest who formerly resided iu Oochin- 

 Ohiua, gamboge was obtained in his time by breaking the 

 leaves and twigs and collecting the yellow juice which 

 exudi'd, eitlier on the leaves of the tree or in coconut 

 shells ; it was then transferred to large flat earthen ves- 

 sels, aud allowed to harden during the summer season, 

 aud afterwards enveloped with leaves. In this way the 

 gamboge was obtained in shapeless cakes or lumps, thus 

 constituting lump or cake camhoije. Or, at other times, 

 the gamboge while in the liquid state was received iuto 

 joints of bamboo, in which it subse juently hardened in 

 rolls or cy.iuders, and then formed the roll or pipe gam- 

 boge of commerce. At the present day it appears to be 

 usually obtained as follows : — At the commencement of the 

 rainy season a spiral incision is made in the bark round 

 half the circumference of a full-sized tree, and the juice 

 which then slowly exudes for several month.-, is received 

 into a juint of bamboo which is pla-ed at the lower end 

 of the incision for that purpose. When the juice has 

 hardened, the shell of bamboo is removed, and the gam- 

 boge is then obtained in the form of a roll or cyliader. 

 According to Spencer St. John, a trie will yield" on an 

 average, in a season, sufficient gamboge to fill three joints 

 of bamboo . inches hi length by about 1| inches in dia- 

 meter. The trees should only be incised in "alternate years. 

 General Characters ami Varieties. — Gamboge is found in 

 two forms, that is, in cylindrical pieces, termed pipe or 

 roll i/amboi/e ; and in cakes or amorphous masses, fre- 

 quently weighing several pounds called lump o- cake r/am- 

 boye. The latter is inferior to the best pipe kind, being 

 generally adulterated with rice flour, sand, and other sub- 

 stances ; and pieces of wood, leaves, &c., are also com- 

 monly to be found intermixed with it. It is now but 

 rarely seen in commerce, the ordinary, and commonly the 

 best variety met with at the present time, and the one 

 described iu the British Pharmacopojia, being that termed 

 roll or pipe ijamboge. This kind occurs in sticks or rolls, 

 varying from one to about tlireo inches in di.ameter. and 

 from four to eight inches in length; these are either 

 solid or more or less hollow ; and generally striated long- 

 itudinally with impressions from the inside of the lengths 

 of bamboo in which the gamboge juice has been received 

 and hardenoil. The rolls are covered e.xternally with a 

 dirty greenish-yellow powder; and are either distinct or 

 agglutinated, or folded together, so as to form masses of 

 varying size.s aud forms. Good gamboge is brittle; its 

 fracture is conchoidal ; its fractured surface is smooth, 

 opaque, of a uniform reddish-yellow colour and glistening 

 appearance; and its powder is of a bright yellow colour. 

 It has no marked odour, and but little taste at first, 

 althou^'h subsequently disagreeably acrid. When rubbed 

 up with water it forms a yellow emulsion ; it is com- 

 pletely dissolved by the successive action of ether aud 

 water ; and if a solution of iodine be added to an emul- 

 sion made with boiling wafer and cooled, it does not be- 

 come green, thus showing the absenc^o of starch which is 

 a common adulterant. Inferior quiilities of gamboge are 

 harder ; their fractured surfaces are brownish, rough, and 

 frequently marked with blackish spots from the inter- 



mixture of foreign substances; they are not completely 

 dissolved by the successive action of ether and water; 

 and solution of iodine frequently produces a green colour 

 in the cooled emulsion. 



■Adulterations. — The common adulterations of gamboge 

 are rice flour, sand, and tho powdered bark of the tree. 

 These may be readily detected by the tests already given. 

 Fragments of wood, bark, and other substances are also 

 frequently to be found intermixed in specimens of gamboge. 

 Composition. — Gamboge is a mixture of resin and yum ; 

 the best qualities yiekling from 7*' to 75 per cent of the 

 former, aud from 15 to 20 per cent of the latter. The 

 yum is soiuble in cold water like gum arable ; but it is 

 not identical with it, as its solution does not redden lit- 

 mus, and neither silicate of sodium or neutral acetate of 

 lead produce any precipitate when added to it The resin 

 possesses acid properties, aud hence it is sometimes termed 

 yamboyic acid. The medicinal properties aud colour of 

 gamboge reside in this resin, it is obtained by evapor- 

 ating an ethereal tincture of gamboge. It is cherry-red 

 in mass, but in thiu layers it has a deep orange colour, 

 and in powder it is yellow. It is insoluble in water, but 

 soluble in alcohol, and still more so in ether and chloro- 

 form. Its colour is so inteuse that it is said to com- 

 municate a perceptible yellowness to ten thousauel parts 

 of alcohol. It forms with the alkalies dark red solutions 

 (yamboyiates), from which the acids throw down gambogic 

 acid of a yellow colour. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Gamboge is a valuable 

 drastic and hyilragogue cathartic ; and also possesses an- 

 thelmintic and diuretic properties. It frequently, however, 

 produces nausea and vomittiug, and in excessive doses it 

 acts as an irritant poison. It forms the active ingredient 

 of the once celebrated nostrum termed Morison's pills, 

 and the deaths which formerly occurred from the exces- 

 sive use of these pills were mainly attributable to the 

 gamboge they contained. It is a valuable medicine in 

 dropsy wheu given in combiuation with the acid tartrate 

 of potash ; in obstinate constipation it is also a very useful 

 remedy, but when given alone as it is apt to occasion 

 nausea, vomiting, and griping, it should be combined with 

 other substances, as in the official compound pill of gam- 

 boge. In cerebral affections, such as apoplexy, when com- 

 bined with calomel, it is also held in some esteem; and 

 has been fouud serviceable as an anthelmintic, more espe- 

 cially in the expulsion of tape-worm. It is said to have 

 formed an important constituent in the formerly celebrated 

 empirical authelmintic formula, known as Madame Nouffer'a 

 specific. An alkaline solution of gamboge has been recom- 

 mended and employed on the Continent as a powerful 

 diuretic. 



Gamboge is also used in veterinary practice for cattle 

 and sheep; but on account of the uncertainty and vio- 

 lence of its action, it is unsuited for horses or dogs. 



The principal use of gamboge is not, however, as a 

 medicine, but as a pigment in water-colour painting. It 

 is also employed to give a colour to the lacquer varnish 

 for brasswork. &;c. 



OriiEH SouHCES 01-' Gamboge. — Besides the ofiicial gam- 

 boge, other gum-resins of a like character are obtained 

 from different species and varieties of Garcinia ; but none 

 of these are used in Europe or the United States, but 

 are only locally important. Thus, in Ceylou and Southern 

 India, good gamboge may be obtained from the variety 

 of Garcinia Morella which has sessile male flowers; iu 

 Travancoro, good gamboge in abundance is derived from 

 G. travancorica, Beddome; and iu My.sore, Canara, and 

 other parts of tho Ma.;iras peninsula, the gamboge known 

 as Indian gamboge is obtained from G. pictoria, Boxb., 

 and has been found by Christison and Broughton fully 

 equal to Siam g.^mboge, for which it might therefore 

 form an excellent substitute. 



[•' Jlorrison's vegetable pills," once so celebrated were, 

 Uko Holloway's now, composed chiefly of gamboge. — Ed.] 



Almonds feosi Morocco. — Almonds, the seeds of Pronus 

 Amygdalus, form a very important item in the exports from 

 Morocco. The quantity exported from JIazagan last year 

 showed an increase over the previous year, aud it is con- 

 sidered that the future trade in Almonds with the above 

 port bids fair to become of very considerable importance, 

 — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



