GULANCHA. 83 



hydrocoffcic, umbellic and veratric (or dimethylprotocatechuic acid 

 see Semen Sabadillse) acids. 



Pelletier and Couerbe (1833) obtained from the pericarp of Cocculus 

 Indicus two crystallizable, tasteless, non-poisonous substances, having 

 the same composition, and termed respectively Menispermine and 

 Poramenispermvae. These bodies, as well as the very doubtful 

 amorphous Hypopicrotoxic Acid of the same chemists, require re- 

 examination. 



_ The fat of the seed, which amounts to about half its weight, is used 

 m India for industrial purposes. Its acid constituent, formerly regarded 



Heintz 



amirti 



mm 



;rce — Cocculus Indicus is imported from Bombay and 

 *.adras, but we have no statistics showing to what extent. The stock 

 in the dock warehouses of London on 1st of December, 1873, was 1168 

 packages, against 2010 packages on the same day of the previous year. 

 Ihe drug is mostly shipped to the Continent, the consumption in Great 

 l-ritam being very small. 



Uses — ^In British medicine Cocculus Indicus is only employed 

 as an ingredient of au ointment for the destruction of pediculi. It 

 has been discarded from the British Pharmacopoeia, hut has a place 

 m that of India. 



m India at the early part of the present century.' 



Pubhshed at Calcutta in 1827,' the parts used ar 

 root, mtTi,- v _.• • , '.. .A „ , 



GULANCHA. 



Caulis et radix Tinosjjora'. 



Botanical Origin — Tinospora cordifolia Miers (Cocculus cordi- 

 joUusT)C.), a lofty climbing shrub found throughout tropical India 

 n ^n ^''^^^ *^ Assam and Burma, and from Concan to Ceylon and 

 tlie Carnatic' It is called in Hindustani Gulancha ; in Bombay the 

 ^lug IS known under the name of Goohvail 



History — The virtues of this plant which appear to have been long 

 lamihar to the Hindu physicians, attracted the attention of Europeans 



According to a paper 



, , — ^. e the stem, leaves, and 



ot, which are given in decoction, infusion, or a sort of extract called 

 Wox,^ ^'ariety of diseases attended with slight febrile symptoms. 



one of the most valuable in 

 proved a very useful tonic. Similar favourable 

 ^stimony is borne by Waring. Gulancha was admitted to the Bengal 

 '*^mnuco2)aiia of 1844, and to the Pharmacopoeia of India of 1868. 



run .^^^^^P*^°^ — The stems are perennial, twining and succulent, 

 lenc fl?^ ^\^^^ ^^^ highest trees and throwii]g out roots many yards in 



thi t f"^^ descend like slender cords to the earth. They have a 

 ^ corky bark marked with little prominent tubercles. 



^/ajiif part f^^^^^y and Trimen, Med. » On the native drug called Gulancha by 



'FlemincT n , i ^ Ram Comol Shen. — Trans, of Med. and 



a>*d Drun. f-? A of Indian Med. Plants Phys. Soc. of Calcutta, iii. (1827) 295. 

 ^rutjx, Calcutta, ISIO. 27. 



C 



T ,?'S^^aughnessy declares the i)lant to be 

 ^naia, and that it has proved a very usefu 



