SOIT AMINES. 399 



CURCUMA ZEDOARIA, i?06c. 



Fig,— Rose. SciL, t. 109; Roxh. Cor. PL, t. 101; Bheede, 

 Hort. Mai. xL, t. 7. Zedoary {Eng.), Zedoaire {Ir.). 



Hab. — Eastern Ilimalaya, cultivated throughout India, 

 The tubers. 



Vernacular. — Kachura {HiiuLy Seng.^ Mar,, Can., Gtiz,), 

 Kichilick-kizhanghu, Pulau-ldzhanga [Tarn.), Kichili-guddala^ 

 Kachoram {Tel.), Kacholam, Kachuri-kizhanna, Pula-kiz- 

 hanna (MaL). 



r 



History, Uses, &C. — This plant Is the Sati and Kra^ 

 chura of Sanskrit writers, and the Zerumbad and Uruk-el-kaf ilr, 

 *' camphor root," of the Arcibians, It is noticed by the later 

 Greek physicians under the name Covpofi^ib^ a corruption of the 

 Arabic name, which, in the Middle Ages, was variously written 

 as Zeruban, Zerumber, and Zerumbet. It is not the C^Soap of 

 ^tius (A. D. 540—550) or the rC^rbvapiop of 3Iyrepsus, or the 

 Zedoar of Macer Floridus (A. D. 1140). Barbosa (1516) speaks 

 of Zedoaria and Zeruban as distinct articles of trade at Caunanore, 

 so that it must have been some time after this date that 

 Zerumbet came into use in Europe as a cheap substitute for the 

 Zedoar of the earlier physicians, which, we have no doubt, was 

 the same drug as the Jadwar of the Arabians. This name, 

 correctly written by iEtius, is the jlj j>J (Zhedwar) of the 

 ancient Persians, and is described in the Burhdn (A. D. 1046) 

 as a drug used as an antidote to poisons, the same as the 

 Jadwar of the Arabians, and also called Mahjjurvin. Ibn Sina 

 of Bokhara, who lived about the same time (980—1037), 

 describes Jadwdr shortly in the following words: 

 *i>o ^3^1^ .^J^I^jJlA^^ ^5 &xa{J\ ~"it has the form of 



the root of Aristolochia, but is smaller/' Haji-Zein-el-att^r, 

 the well-known Persian physician and apothecary, and the 

 author of the '^Ikhtiarat" (A. D. 1368), describes Jadwar as a 

 root about the size and shape of the Indian Cyperus root, but 

 harder and heavier, and the same as the Indian diaig Nirbisi, 

 the best internally of a purplish tint. He states that there 



