J 16 lABIATM. 



flowers, wKidi reach to the apex and form a spike. The leaves 



are 



on each side of the midrib. The calyx, which is purple, 



colour 



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numerous ribs, and ends in five sharply cut claws; it is studded 



sun 



drug 



an inch long. The odour 



Zufah-i-yab 



of 



appears to be a suiall plant, 6 to 8 inches high; stem not thicker 

 than a crow-quill, 4-angled, purplish, branched from the base, 

 which, is woody; root woody, seldom branched; flower heads 

 numerous, oblong ; calyx striated, hairy, purple, with five sharp 

 teeth ; seeds naked, four in number, oblong, 3- angled, of a pale 

 brown, studded with rows of small round tubercles; on one side 

 of the hilum there is a fringe of smaller tubercles very closely 

 set, and on the other two elongated white prominences. As 

 found in commerce the plant is much broken up ; it has a pleasant 

 odour like sweet hay. Taste bitter ; properties, according 

 to native writers, stimulant, anthelmintic, and deobstrueiit. 

 The drug is generally attributed to Hi/ssopus officinaUs, but 

 this cannot be correct, as the flowers are in oblong spikes. It is 

 imported from Persia. 



H. parvi flora, Benth.^ h a native of the temperate 

 Himalaya. 



Chemical comj^osition. —Besides tannin, resin, fat, sugar, muci- 

 lage, &c., the most important constituent of Hyssop is oil of 

 hyssop, of which the fresh herb yields i to i per cent. It is 

 pale-yellow or greenish, limpid, of about the specific gra^nty 

 U 94, and freely soluble in alcohol; it contains oxygen, and com- 

 mences to boil at 142- C, the boiling-point rising to 180° C. 

 It has the odour and taste of the herb. The hyssopin of Her- 

 berger (1829) was found by Trommsdorff to be impure 

 sulphate o f calcium. 



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