590 



PIPERACE.E. 



History — The styptic properties of this plant are said to have been 

 discovered by a Spanish soldier named Matico/ who having applied 

 some of the leaves to his wounds, observed that the bleeding was thereby 

 arrested ; hence the plant came to be called Yei'ha or Palo del Soldado 

 (soldier's herb or tree). The story is not very probable, but it is current 

 in many parts of South America, and its allusion is not confined to the 



plant under notice. 



The haemostatic powers of matico, which are not noticed in the 

 Avorks of Ruiz and Pavon, were first recognized in Europe by Jeffreys," 

 a physician of Liverpool, in 1839, but they had already attracted 



attention in North America as early as 1827. 



Description — Matico, as it arrives in commerce, consists of a com- 

 pressed, coherent, brittle mass of leaves and stems, of a light green hue 

 and pleasant herby odour. More closely examined, it is seen to be made 

 up of jointed stems bearing lanceolate, acuminate leaves, cordate and 

 unequal at the base, and having very short stalks. Tlie leaves are rather 

 thick, with their whole upper surface traversed by a system of minute 

 sunk veins, which divide it into squares and give it a tessellated appear- 

 ance. On the under side, these squares form a corresponding series of 

 depressions which are clothed with shaggy hairs. The leaves attain a 

 length of about 6 inches by 1| inches broad. The flower and fruit spikes 

 which are often 4 to 5 inches long, arc slender and cylindrical with the 

 flowers or fruits densely packed. The leaves of matico have a bitterish 

 aromatic taste ; their tissue shows numerous cells, filled with essential 

 oil.3 



Chemical Composition— The leaves yield on an average 2-7 per 

 cent.4 of essential oil, which we find slightly' dextrogyre ; a large pro- 

 portion of it distills at 180° to 200^ Q, the remainder becoming thickish. 

 Both portions are lighter than water ; but another specimen of the oi 

 of matico which we had kept for some years, sinks in water. We hav 

 observed that in winter the oil deposits remarkable crystals of a cam- 

 phor, more than half an inch in length, fusible at 103° C; they belong 

 to the hexagonal system, and have the odour and taste of the oil fi-om 

 which they separate. , , 



Matico further affords, according to Marcotte (1861)," a crystalhzab e 

 acid, named Artcmthic Acid, besides some tannin. The latter is made 

 evident by the "dark brown colour which the infusion assumes on addition 

 of ferric chloride. The leaves likewise contain resin, but as shown d} 

 Stell in 1858, neither pipcrin, cubebin, nor any analogous principle suci 

 as the so-called Maticin formerly supposed to exist in them. 



Commerce— The drug is imported in bales and serons by way o 

 Panama. Among the exports of the Peruvian port of Arica m i^ii> 



e 



Matico 



Uses— Matico leaves, previously softened in water, or in a sta e o 



^Matico is tlie diminutive of Mateo, the 

 Spanisli for Mailhtu). 



2 Hemarks on the effimnj of Matico as a 

 f^typk and astrhujent, 3rd ed., Lond. 1845. 



3 Microscopic examination of the leaves, 

 Pockhngton, Pharm, Journ. v. 



oUl. 



*As Messrs. Sclnmim-l & Co., LeiP^'S' 



F.A.F. . . go 



kindly informed me.— t.A. t. • , 

 « Deviating only 0''. 7 m a column 



mm. long. 



des 



(1874) 



in. long. . rr;./ uen 



6Guibourt (et Tlanchonl J^l^'' ^^^ 



AVe are 



Droqiies, ii. (18G9) 27S.^^\^ j 

 ao^oiiainted with ''artanthic acul. 



acquainted with 



