February 2, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



605 



NOTE ON " CHINA BICOLORATA" OR " TECAMEZ 

 BAKK," WITH SUGGESTIONS AS TO ITS PROB- 

 ABLE BOTANICAL ORIGIN, AS INDICATED 

 BY ITS BOTANICAL, CHEMICAL AND 

 MICROSCOPICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



BY JOHN HODGKIN, F.I.C., F.C.S., 



Mem. Soc. Cliem. Industry, Medallist in Chemistry, 

 University College, London. 



An opportunity has lately been afforded me of investigat- 

 ing this most interesting bark, of which after the lapse 

 of many years a small consignment has recently appeared. 

 But before giving the results of my examination, it will 

 be interesting to recapitulate and epitomize the inform- 

 ation that has already been published in various journals 

 and handbooks since its discovery. 



In the first place then, this bark comes from Tecamez 

 or Atacamez, which lies west of Ibarra on the western 

 declivity of the Ootocacha, in Ecuador.* Here it was dis- 

 covered in 1793 by Dr. D. Brown, a ship's surgeon, and 

 a description of it with an illustrative plate was duly 

 published in Lambert's * Description of the Cinchona Genus,' 

 1797 (f. 30, tab. ii.). It appears to have been recom- 

 mended as a useful tonic, in a medical work published in 

 1824, by Dr. Brera, of Padua. Having thus attracted atten- 

 tion, it was submitted to a careful examination by MM. 

 Pelletier, Petroz and Vauquelin, and their elaborate report 

 appears in the Journal de Pharmacie for Oct. 1825 (pp. 

 449—462). M. Pelletier states tnat 100 parts contain 16 

 parts soluble in alcohol, of which 14'65 is bitter substance" 

 and P35 "resin," but they were unable to find any quiuine, 

 in which opinion they have been confirmed by Pfaff, v. 

 Santen and others, and still later Dr. Hesse, who statesf 

 " that it is altogether destitute of alkaloids." Goebel aud 

 Kunze,} give an illustration, and a good description of the 

 oark (to which I shall allude later on), and state that 

 Humboldt saw the tree from which the bark is obtained, 

 and was of opinion that its botanical origin was to be 

 sought amongst Cinchonas or Exostemmas, in which opinion 

 M. Weddell§ tentatively coincides, and whilst Guibourt|| is 

 of opinion that it is a Stenostotnum, Markham*f thinks it 

 is probably a Pinkneya. Now I propose to attempt to 

 demonstrate by a chain of evidence from different sources, 

 microscopical, botanical and chemical, that there is a greater 

 probability in its being a Remijia than any of the above 

 mentioned species. It is best first of all to describe the 

 bark, aud to do this I cannot do better than give Goebel 

 aud Kunze's description with slight amplifications where 

 necessary. "The ' Pitoya ' bark," as they term it, "comes 

 in rolls 4 to 24 inches long, sometimes singly, sometimes 

 many times rolled, aud occasionally rolled together. The 

 outer surface is smooth, and extremely finely wrinkled in 

 the direction of the length, sometimes more so, sometimes 

 less so, of a brownish or greyish yellow, with white or 

 grey patches, occasionally spiraliform, encircling the quills, 

 and generally the bark is studded with little warts. The 

 interior surface is smooth, generally of a browuish black 

 colour: occasionally, however, pieces are to be met with 

 of a reddish brown colour. The Pitoya bark is composed 

 of three portions: — (1) The epidermis; (2) the orange- 

 coloured bark ; (3) a thin layer of fibre (Bastlaye). The 

 lower black surface, which is scarcely T ' 3 of a liue in thick- 

 ness, can be removed by a knife, on soaking the bark, 

 and is composed of fibre. The diameters of the quills 

 range from 4 lines to H inch (Zoll), and the thickness 

 from J to 1J lines. One'uever fiuds flat pieces, the least 

 so which I have hitherto seen were still feebly bent in- 

 wards. The cross fracture is only slightly uneven, the 

 longitudinal fracture is harsh, and often somewhat short 

 splintering. The taste is disagreeable and intensely bitter. 



* Clements R. Markham, c.i).,f.k.s., etc., ' The Cinchona 

 Species of New Granada,' 1867. p. 104. 



f Vide ' Pharmacographia,' 1874, p. 321. Fliiekiger and 

 Hanlmry. 



| Tharm. Waarenkunde,' 1827-29, i., p. 84. Tafel xii., 

 fig. 6 and 7. 

 § 'Hist. Natur. des Quinquinas,' Paris, 1819. p. vii. 

 || • Hist, des Drogues," iii. (1869),190, (Quinquina Bicolort'; 



* ' Chinch, Species, N. Urauada,' p. 104. 



strongly inducing saliva. Of odour, I could distinguish 

 uothing. The bark yields a fine cinammon-coloured powder 

 Thus says Kunze,* and his description certainly does 

 not leave much to add. I would, however, remark that 

 the sample I had was not so elegantly rolled, and appears 

 to have been removed with less care. Some pieces have 

 a whitish "coat," somewhat loosely attached to the bark 

 which, as it curls up in drying, loses this epidermis in 

 tranverse stripes, giving a somewhat "zebra" appearance. 

 Some of the larger pieces on the interior present rather 

 a remarkable appearauce, longitudinal fissures, at an equal 

 distance having been caused by the drying of the evidently 

 somewhat " fleshy " bark. Such pieces are, however the 

 exception rather than the rule, as by far the greater 'por- 

 tion dries with the smooth dark-coloured interior The 

 microscopical section of the bark. Dr. A. Voglf has pointed 

 out, closely resembles that of Remijia pedunculata, and he 

 gives drawings of these two sections for comparison and 

 certainly there is a very striking analogy. Vogl does not 

 offer any suggestions as to the real origin, but simply notes 

 the fact of the resemblance to " cuprea," but, Humboldt 

 who actually saw the tree, was of opinion that it belonged' 

 to the Exostemmas or Cinchonas. But be it borne in mind 

 that at that time, this latter group included the Remijius 

 which were not then so perfectly understood as they are 

 today. In Lambert's illustration of the leaves of the 

 Tecamez bark, the leaves are seen to be of a peculiarly 

 pointed form, closely tallying with the form of the leaves 

 of Remijia pedunculata, as given in Karsten.l We have 

 thus microscopical and botanical evidence from undoubtedly 

 trustworthy sources which, when noticed in conjunction 

 and I believe that they have not hitherto been noticed' 

 together, are rather suggestive of the possibility of the 

 Tecamez bark being a Remijia. Now I am , through a 

 fortunate concatenation of events, enabled to offer such 

 fresh additional evidence as I think will materially tend 

 to strengthen, if not absolutely confirm, this hypothesis 



In the first place, then, I must mention that among 

 the numerous importations of " cuprea " bark, there has 

 come occasionally a small parcel of a "cuprea" of very 

 different appearance to the ordinary R. pedunculata The 

 bark is of a much more orange red, instead of the dull 

 lake of the ordinary " cuprea bark " of commerce ; it comes 

 m very thm, broken quills, or small pieces, and gives almost 

 the appearance of cuprea "shavings." The bark is of fine 

 quality as regards its percentage of quinine. It comes 

 from the State of Tolima (Colombia), and is cut from 

 trees which are very sparsely found, and thus far it does 

 not appear that a large supply will come from that dis- 

 trict. It is shipped from Barranquilla, like all bark of 

 the same description. It is evident, from a careful ex- 

 amination of some hundredweights of this bark, that the 

 tree is a small one m comparison with the R. pedunculata, 

 and the pieces seem relatively but little larger than the 

 China bicolorata, to which with the exception of the colour 

 it bears a strong family likeness. In fact this bark the 

 scientific name of which lam unaware of, seems to stand 

 almost midway between China bicolorata and if. pedunculata 

 The exterior surface is, it is true, a great deal more longitu- 

 dinally wrinkled; the interior surface is very similar 



Secondly then, I must state that my analysis of' the 

 China bicolorata entirely contradicts the experience of 

 previous observers for not only does the blrk contain 

 ,5 per cent of alkaloids, but they are cinchona or remijia 

 alkaloids. The bark contains also chiuovine and chiuic acid 

 which I obtained in the characteristic lime salt, aud identi- 

 fied; the mother-liquor of these crystals smelt strongly of 

 the peculiar odour of "Almaguer bark." The actual ana- 

 lysis is as follows : — 



Quinine sulphate 034 percent. 



=Quinine. q.., 55 ' 



Cinchonidine ... ... ... 



Homoquinine 



Oinchoniue \ q.qq 



Quinidiue ... ... ... #i# Q.flg " 



Amorphous alkaloids 039 



The quinine was carefully identified by the usual tests. 

 Vm^i -d p Ku,7^Tph^m7 Waarenkund,,' Eisl^ 



tlJCur^^^ZZ^Tn. " er S °™* el1 



J 'Flora Columbia;,' etc. Beroliui, 1858. 



