80 



POLYGALE^. 



i 



other kinds of rhatany previously unlviiown : of fcliese the more im- 

 portant are noticed at pp. 81, 82. 



Description — The root which attains a considerable size in propor- 

 tion to the aerial part of the shrub, consists of a short thick cro^m, 

 sometimes much knotted and as large as a man's fist. This ramifies 

 beneath the soil even more than above, throwing out an abundance of 

 branching, woody roots (frequently horizontal) some feet long and { to 

 i an inch thick. These long roots used formerly to be found in com- 

 raerce; but of late years rhatany has consisted in large proportion 

 of the more woody central part of the root with short stumpy branches, 

 which from their broken and bruised appearance have evidently been 

 extracted with difficulty from a hard soil. 



_ The bark which is scaly and rugged, and yV to ¥<r ^f an inch in 

 thickness, is of a dark reddish brown. 



y^iiow wood. The bark is rather tough, breaking vvitb a nui-.. 

 Iracture. The wood is dense, without pith, but marked with ttim 

 vessels arranged in concentric rings, and with still thinner, dark medul- 

 lary rays. The taste of the bark is purely astringent; the wood i^ 

 almost tasteless ; neither possesses any distinctive odour. 



_ Kr ciatoidea Hook, a plant scarcely to be distinguished from A'- 

 triandra, affords in Chili a rhatany very much like that of Peru. 1^. 

 root was contributed to the Paris Exhibition of 1867. 



The chief portion of the bark is fonnej 



> c^«+;^^ ^,^T,4uu„ ,.,iTv.ovr»ns bundles o' 



Micros 



of hber, which in transverse section exhibits numerous bu 

 yellow fibres separated by parenchymatous tissue and traversed d) 

 narrow brown medullary rays. The small layer of the primary bark 

 made up of large cells, the surface of the root of large suberous cei - 

 imbued with red matter. The latter also occurs in the inner cortica 

 tissue, and ought to be removed by means of ammonia in order to get ; 



clear idea of the structure. Many of the i)arenchymatous cells a ' 

 loaded with starch granules ; oxalate of calcium occurs in the neigl " 

 bourhood of the liber bundles. The woody portion exhibits no structure 

 ot particular interest. 



Cheniical Composition-Wittstein (1854) found in the bark of 

 rhatany (the only part of the drug having active properties) aboj 

 ^0 per cent, of a form of tannin called RaUmUa-tannic Acid, c\of_ 

 related to^ catechu-tannic acid. It is an amorphous powder, the so ut ou 

 ot which is not affected by emetic tartar, but yields with ferric cHo/'J 

 a dark greenish precipitate. By distillation Eissfeldt (1854) obtaine 

 pyrocatechm as a product of the decomposition of ratanhia-tannic aci • 

 ine latter IS also decomposed by dilute acids which convert it » 

 ci} stalhzable sugar and Ilatanhia-red, a substance nearly insoluble 

 water, also occurring in abundance ready formed in the bark, 

 notn.r 7 ' ^^^^^^ '^°^^'^ ^^""^ by fusing ratanhia-red with 



in 



caustic 

 Ratanliiii- 



an annln^ 'Composition C^m^^Qn the same, according to Grabow^ki, J 

 occurHnf ?' P V ^"'^ ^^ ^^^ decomposition of the peculiar tannic^^i 

 occurrmg (as shown bv ■R.nrl.l^rio^ ;^ t^aa\ ;„ ii,. -hnr^P-chestDO^- 



Rochleder in 1866) in the horse-che 



^ See art. Kino. 



