ACONITUM 



BALFOURII 



Mohra 



Method of 

 Preservation. 



THE INDIAN ACONITES 



Bashahr 

 Aconite. 



Poisonous 

 Honey. 



Garhwal 

 Aconite. 



White 

 Aconite. 



being weevil-eaten they are often preserved in cow-urine. This may account 

 for the dark colour of some parcels, and may perhaps explain the name kala 

 (black) often given to these, though most writers seem to prefer to translate 

 kala when given to an aconite as meaning deadly. This is the root exported 

 from both Nepal and Sikkim to Calcutta. It has been pointed out that Nepalese 

 traders have been in the habit of draining their supplies from the Sikkim as 

 well as the Nepal side of the Singaleelah range, but that recently the facilities 

 of the Himalayan Railway at Darjeeling have begun to make the Sikkim supply 

 by far the most important. As indicative of the very poisonous nature of this 

 plant, mention may be made of the fact that the sheep have often to be muzzled 

 in the Sikkim Terai. [Cf. Kew Mus. Guide, 1907, 9.] 



III. Poisonous Aconites, one at least of which contains 

 pseudaconitine; they are in Northern and Western India traded in 

 as " White Bikh," safed-bikh, safed-bachnag or some derivative of the 

 word mohra (a word which like bikh denotes a deadly poison). They also 

 constitute grades of the so-called " Nepal Aconite " of Indian commerce, 

 and are the Central Himalayan Aconites, those found in the shops of 

 Upper and Western India. 



A. deinorrhizum, Stapf, I.e. 158-60 ; A. ferox, var. atrox, Watt, 

 Agri. Ledg., 1902, No. 3, 97 (in part). 



This interesting plant was collected in Bashahr ( Jani Kanda) by Mr. Minniken 

 and said to bear the local name of mohra, but it is believed by Stapf to have 

 been very possibly the maura bikh of Cleghorn, the mitha-dudya of Aitchison 

 (Trade Prod. Leh, 175), and the plant referred to by Madden (Journ. As. Soc. 

 Beng., 1846, xv., 95). It is thus very possibly met with throughout the 

 Central Himalaya from Kunawar to Nepal, and has been collected by Mr. Duthie 

 in many parts of Kumaon. Moorcroft spoke of the abundance of aconite (possibly 

 this species) in Kumaon, and supposed the stupefiant effects of the honey from 

 certain localities to be due to the bees feeding on aconite. Dunstan and Andrews 

 on the examination of fresh, more accurately determined roots, have arrived at 

 the conclusion that the present species is that which should be regarded as 

 affording the alkaloid pseudaconitine of previous reports. The existence of that 

 alkaloid in certain forms of Indian aconite appears to have been first made 

 known by Schott (1857), elaborated by Hubschmann (1868), and worked out 

 in every detail by Dunstan and Carr (Trans. Chem. Soc., 1897, reprinted in 

 Agri. Ledg., 1897, No. 19; 1898, No. 3). These distinguished chemists 

 give full particulars of the properties of the alkaloid and its decomposition 

 products. It would appear that pseudaconitine may physiologically be regarded as 

 identical with aconitine, though very much more active. The chief objection to 

 its extended use is the difficulty of obtaining a continuous supply of the root 

 of uniform quality. It seems, moreover, probable that this plant is not 

 separately recognised by the collectors of and dealers in drugs, but is confused 

 with the following : 



A. Balfourii, Stapf, I.e. 160-3 ; A. ferox, Wall, PL As. Ear., 

 i., 35 (in part) ; Balfour, in Edirib. New. Phil. Journ., 1849, xlvii., 

 366, t. v. 



This corresponds with a large portion of the A. ferox, var. utrox, Watf (Agri. 

 Ledg., 1902, No. 3, 97-8), and includes also A. ferox var. itolychix<t, Bruhl. It 

 is met with in the sub-alpine and alpine Himalaya of Garhwal to Nepal, and 

 seems to be known by the vernacular names gobriya and banwa or bhanwa. At 

 present it is doubtful how far the following names belong to this species or to 

 A.. dritiorrMztun : phatikia, kawriya, diliya, dhanla, dhumuriya, jhirina, etc. 

 Mr. Duthie observes that every valley has its own names for its aconites, and 

 even different names for the same plant when of a different shade of colour. 



The difference between the roots of A. d.eiuowtii%nm and A. BaifoitrU is not 

 very great. The latter is shorter and thicker than the former, and has always 

 hardened sharp rootlets attached. The former is that which comes most largely 

 into the markets of India as White Aconite, safed-bikh, safed-bachnag. Ac- 

 cording to Native opinion it is the most valuable and certainly the most ex- 

 pensive form in the bazars. It was furnished to me under the name of 



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