THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 125 



THE OPIUM CURE 



INVESTIGATION OF THE NEW PLANT SAID TO' CURE THE DRUG HABIT. 



The recent publication in Consular and Trade Reports of an ac- 

 count from the China Telegraph of the discovery of an indigenous 

 plant in the Malav Peninsula, which had successfully cured many 

 Chinese of the opium habit, caused numerous American inquiries for 

 further information about this plant. The following article in the 

 London Times from Edward Morell Holmes, curator of the Phar- 

 maceutical Society of Great Britain, will therefore be of interest: 



Hitherto the name of the plant used as a cure for the opium habit 

 in the Straits Settlements does not appear to have been made known. 

 Specimens of the plant in flower and fruit have been presented to the 

 museum of this society by L. Wray, curator of the Taiping Museum, 

 Perak. This gentleman, who is a careful botanist, has identified the 

 plant as Combretum sundaicum, Miquel. It accords well with Miquel's 

 description, and there can be no doubt that it belongs to that species. 

 It is a woody climber, with opposite leaves, in size and shape some- 

 what resembling that of the pear tree, and bears globular clusters of 

 small white flowers arranged in panicles, the flower being followed by 

 a red fruit about an inch long, furnished with four longitudinal wings. 



The plant is abundant on the plains around Kuala Lumpur, in 

 Salangore, Malay Peninsula. The properties of the Combretaceae, 

 the natural order to which it belongs, are very little known ; some are 

 used in malarial fevers, two are known to possess vermifuge properties, 

 and one is used for poisoning bats. As soon as a large quantity of 

 the plant arrives the leaves will be subjected to chemical analysis and 

 physiological investigation, and its actual value or otherwise deter- 

 mined. Meanwhile a few peliminary tests applied in the research 

 laboratory of the Pharmaceutical Society to the small quantity of 

 the leaves available indicate only the presence of an astringent 

 principle, and a coloring matter which do not afford a definite proof 

 of the presence of any alkaloid or glucoside, although the leaves ap- 

 pear to contain some substance as yet unknow^n to chemists. 



What Constitutes a Dose? — M. I. Wilbert claims that an average 

 dose means a quantity which can be doubled, tripled or quadrupled at 

 one time. Dr. C. B. Lowe says that it is necessary to take into con- 

 sideration the length of time required for the elimination of the drug 

 from the system. 



