INDIAN PATCHOULI 



D.E.P., 

 vi., pt. i., 

 299-306. 

 American 

 Mandrake. 



Resin. 



Prepara- 

 tion. 



Action. 



Value. 



D.E.P., 



vi., pt.'i., 

 307-9. 

 Indian 

 Patchouli. 



Perfume. 



PODOPHYLLUM EMODI, Wall. ; Fl. Br. Ind., i., 112-3 ; 

 BBRBERIDE^E. May Apple, Duck's Foot, American Mandrake, pdpra, 

 bhavan-bakra, ban-kakri, chimydka, wan-wdngan, etc. A small, erect, 

 herbaceous plant, met with in the higher rich and shady temperate forests 

 from Sikkim to Simla, Kashmir, Hazara, Tibet, the Kuram Valley and 

 Afghanistan. 



Is closely allied to the American species JP. peitattim, the source of the resin. 

 of PodopHyiium. of the British Pharmacopoeia. The resinous constituent, 

 known as podophyllin, was first prepared from the Indian root from specimens 

 collected by me at Kullu and sent to the late Dr. Dymock at Bombay in 1888. 

 The process adopted was that recommended in the British Pharmacopoeia, which 

 consists in exhausting the drug by percolation with alcohol, concentrating the 

 percolate and precipitating the resin by adding water. Podophyllin thus ob- 

 tained is an amorphous powder of a bright brown-yellow colour, if procured 

 from the American species, but much lighter in colour, if from the Indian. 

 The active portion podophyllotoxin consists of an amorphous principle soluble in 

 alcohol, and isolated from a chloroformic extract of the root. Although the 

 chemistry of the American species has been fully investigated, little had been 

 done in that direction with the Indian plant till a few years ago, when specimens 

 were sent by the Reporter on Economic Products to the Imperial Institute for 

 examination. At the same time the therapeutic and physiological action of the 

 Indian drug were investigated by Dr. H. G. Mackenzie and Mr. W. Dixon of 

 St. Thomas' Hospital. The results of these inquiries proved that the chemical 

 constituents of both the American and Indian drugs were identical and that 

 the podophyllin prepared from the Indian species is as valuable a purgative as 

 that obtained from P. peitatwm. Bhaduri (Rept. Labor. Ind. Mus., 1902-3, 28) 

 found the Indian resinoid prepared at the Calcutta Medical Stores to contain 

 35'7 podophyllotoxin. The Indian drug, moreover, was found to furnish a 

 larger proportion of podophyllin than the American, and to be consequently 

 of greater value as a source of the resin. It is thus highly desirable that a regular 

 trade in the Native drug should be established. The commercial value of podo- 

 phyllin is subject to considerable fluctuation, but is generally stated to vary 

 from Is. 6d. to 10*. a pound in wholesale quantities. The root also contains 

 a valuable dye-stuff, guercetin, which is easy to isolate. Dunstan states that 

 the separation of the dye as a by-product of the manufacture of podophyllin 

 would probably repay the Indian producer. [Cf. Pharmacog. 2nd., i., 69-70 ; 

 iii., app M 99-101 ; Henry, Econ. Bot. China, 1893, 25 ; Lawrence, Valley of 

 Kashmir, 1895, 75, 85 ; Edgar Millard, Note on Ind. and Amer. Resins of Podo- 

 pyhllum, in Pharm. Journ., March 26, 1898, vi., 304-5 ; Dunstan and Henry, 

 Chem. Investig. of Ind. and Amer. Podophyllum, in Trans. Chem. Soc., April 

 1898 ; Mackenzie and Dixon, Phsiol. Action and Therap. Prop, of Podophyllum, 

 in Edinb. Med. Journ., 1898 ; Dunstan, in Ind. For., 1898, xxiv., 321-2 ; Imp. 

 Inst. Ann. Rept., 1898-9, 22, 28, 41 ; Rept. Proc. Cent. Indig. Drugs. Comm., 

 1901, i., 46, 62, 72-4; 211-8, 273-6, etc. ; Imp. Inst. Tech. Repts., 1903, 170; 

 White and Humphrey, Pharmacop., 1904, 557-8, 561.] 



POGOSTEMON HEYNEANUS, Benth. ; in Wall., PI As. 

 Ear., i., 31 ; P. Patchouli, Hook., /., FL Br. Ind., iv., 633 ; LABIATE. 

 Indian Patchouli, peholi, pacholi, pacMpdt, panel, mali, pachpanadi, 

 poko nilam, etc. A plant found both wild and cultivated in Western and 

 Central India from Bombay and Berar southwards, and said to be the 

 chief source of the Indian patchouli. The plant which affords the greater 

 part of the patchouli perfume of European commerce is, however, P. 

 suave, Tenor e (considered by Hooker a variety of P. Patchouli], 

 which does not appear to be met with in India at all, but to be a cultivated 

 form of JP. Cablin, Benth., a native of the Philippines. \Cf. Kew Bull., 

 1908, 81.] 



Genuine patchouli (i.e. JP. suave) is cultivated chiefly in the Straits Settle- 

 ments and Penang. The patchouli of Assam is obtained from Jnicrotmna ct/mosa, 

 Prain. In the Central Provinces and Berar I found JP. Heyneamis growing 



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