CORTEX GRANATI RADICIS. 



291 



tree given in the preceding article, the following which concern tlie 



drug under notice may be stated. 



A decoction of the root of the pomegranate y^a^ recommended hy 

 CeLus/ Dioscorides,^ and Pliny ^ for the expulsion of tape-worm; but 

 tlie remedy had fallen into complete oblivion, until its use among the 

 Hindus attracted the notice of Buchanan^ at Calcutta about the 

 yonv 1805. This physician pointed out the efheacy of tlie root-bark, 

 which was further shoAvn by Fleming and others. Pomogranate root 

 is known to have been long used for a similar purpose by tlie 



Chinese.^ 



Though the medicine is admitted to be efficient, and is employed 

 with advantage in India where it is easily procured both genuine and 

 fresh, it is hardly ever administered in England, the extract of male- 



continental 



pnarmacopoeias. 



sometimes 



Description— The bark occurs in rather thin quills or fragments, 3 

 to 4 inches long. Their outer surface is yellowish grey, 

 marked with fine longitudinal striations or reticulated wrinkles, but 

 more often furrow^ed by bands of cork, running together in the 

 thickest pieces into broad flat conchoidal scales. The inner surface, 

 which is smooth or marked with fine stride and is of a greyish 



ood attached to it. 



yellow, has often strips of the tough w^hitish 

 The bark breaks short and 

 taste, but scarcely any odour. 



w 



M 



seen to be the prevailing part of the cortical tissue. 



granular; it has a purely astringent 



On a transverse section, the liber is 



The former 



^ ....^...^,..... ... ^.^ ^^ one of them loaded 



with tufted" c7fsTais of ^ of calchnn, the other filled with starch 



granules and tannic matter. The bark . is traversed by narrow 

 m^^dullary rays, and very large sclerenchjnnatous cells are scattered 

 through the liber. Touched wath a dilute solution of a persalt ot 

 iron, the bark assumes a dark blackish blue tint. 



consists 



Che 



mical Com 



to 



roder (1824), more than 22 per cent, of tannic acid, which Rembold 

 (18G7) has ascertained to consist for the most part of a peculiar variety 

 <^^lhd Punico-tannic Acid, C'WO''; w^hen boiled with dilute sul- 

 phuric acid, it is resolved into Ellagic Acid, C^'H'O^ and sugar 

 tannic acid is accompanied by common tannic acid, peldmg, b} me- 

 of sulphuric acid, gallic acid, which appears ^--^-+^-— t^ nre-exist 



Punico- 



-- bark. If a decoction of pomegranate bark is precipitated by 

 acetate of lead, and the lead is separated from the filtered ^iq^^^*' J^'^ 

 latter on evaporation yields a considerable amount of mannite. 

 1'^ probably the Fiinicin or Granatin of former observers 

 ^. Thet^micide power is due, according to Tanret (J^^^^S) to X-cff^- 

 {f'lne, C^ff'NO, a liquid dextrogyre alkaloid, boilmg at 180 to Ibo U 

 It can be obtained colourless by evaporating its fhercal solution ma 

 vacuum, but in the open air becomes yellow. Pelletierine. so called m 



iEdinb. Med. and Surg. Journ., iii. 

 ^^^DebLx, PAannacie et Mat. M^d. c r 



; i)e J/«/;c,,ia, lib. iv. c. 17. 

 ; |^}b. 1. c. 153. 



^0. xxiii, c. GO. 



Chinois, 1865. 70. 



