641 



CARYOPHYLLUS AROMATICUS. 



CASCARILLA BARK. 



043 



very lately it has been introduced into Brazil. A tree 12 years ol 

 will yield from 5 to 20 pounds of cloves annually ; when older it ma; 



yield about 60 pounds, after which the quantity again diminishes. 

 But as a single stem may live 1 50 years, it may furnish during that 

 time 1100 pound*) of cloves. Each clove is about half an inch iu 

 length. The external colour is dark brown, appearing as if covered 

 with dust or little warts, with a somewhat fatty coating. When broken 

 across, the appearance is decidedly oily, and oil quickly exudes from 

 the exposed broken surfaces. The odour is strong and peculiar, but 

 agreeable ; the taste aromatic and burning. 



Several varieties of cloves are found in the market. The difference 

 of colour is attributed to the different season of the year when the 

 gathering was made. 1st. Soft cloves, called also the Dutch Company's 

 cloves ; these have generally been distilled once, and have but a faint 

 odour and taste. 2nd. Dry cloves, which are mostly distinguished 

 according to their place of growth. The English Company's cloves, 

 which are the finest sort, are of a large size, and of a bright reddish- 

 brown colour. The Amboyna are probably the soft Dutch cloves. 

 The Bourbon cloves are small ; those of Guiana are still smaller ; these 

 two last-named sorts are chiefly used to mix with the former and finer 

 kinds. Analysed by Trommsdbrff, 1000 parts yielded of 



Volatile oil 180 parts 



Scarcely soluble extractive 



Gum 



Resin. 



Tannin 



Lignine 



Water 



40 

 130 



60 

 130 



280 

 180 



The volatile oil seems to be of two kinds, respectively termed : light 

 oil of cloves, a hydro-carbon, isomeric with oil of turpentine ; heavy 

 oil of cloves, called also clove acid, caryophyllic acid, and eugenic acid. 

 It is this oil which has an acid re-action, and combines with alkaline 

 bases. It is essential to be acquainted with it and its properties, as in 

 Dome analyses its presence gives rise to a supposition of opium being in 

 the Itomach. Eugenin is the stearopten of oil of cloves. Caryophyllin 

 is clove sub-resin. Clove tannin has some slight points of difference 

 from other kinds of tannin. 



By distillation a thickixh oil is obtained, which is at first colourless, 

 but by time becomes yellow and brown. Its odour partakes strongly 

 of that of cloves ; its taste is very fiery and aromatic ; it re-acts as an 

 acid. In time there separates from it a stearopten or clove-camphor, 

 called caryophyUin. This principle may be procured in greatest 

 qiiantity from the English Company's cloves ; more sparingly from the 

 Bourbon and Cayenne cloves; in some it appears to be altogether 

 wanting. Owing to the presence of so much oil, cloves cannot be 

 powdered without adding some gum or sugar during the process. 



Cloves are employed in medicine, and also more extensively for 

 culinary purposes. When received into the stomach they are power- 

 fully stimulant, and ppiin,,!.- digestion when taken along with food 

 which is insipid or difficult of digestion. Though the action is generally 

 limited to the stomach, yet if taken in excess, or the use very long 



ARTS AND SCI. DIV. VOL. II. 



continued, it extends to the brain, causing giddiness and other incon- 

 veniences. Cloves may be given in powder, along with gum, in very 

 moderate doses ; but the infusion is a preferable form. Infusion of 

 cloves is a grateful gargle to persons salivated by mercury. Either 

 alone, or when made the vehicle for carbonate of ammonia, nothing so 

 effectually and safely removes that feeling of coldness and weight about 

 the stomach experienced by hysterical or gouty persons, and renders it 

 unnecessary to have recourse to alcoholic stimulants, such as brandy, 

 which is too frequently employed under such circumstances. Oil of 

 cloves is used to drop into decayed teeth, and also is given along 

 with many purgative and other medicines to correct their griping 

 tendencies. 



The fruit of the clove, called the mother clove, possesses little odour 

 or acrimony; but when preserved with sugar, it forms a good condi- 

 ment to be eaten at dessert by persons with weak digestion. What is 

 called the royal clove is merely a monstrous variety of that above 

 described. 



The buds of the Calyptranthes aromatica are employed in Brazil as a 

 substitute for those of the Caryophyllus aromaticus. The botanical 

 portion of this article was accidentally omitted in the NAT. HIST. 

 DIV., and has therefore been supplied here. 



CASCARILLA BARK. Whatever doubts may have existed re- 

 specting the plants which yielded this bark, or its course to Europe, 

 seem now entirely dissipated by the researches of Dr. Wm. Freeman- 

 Daniel!, staff-surgeon, while stationed in the Bahama Islands, and the 

 botanical commentaries of Mr. J. J. Bennett, secretary to the Linneean 

 Society. It appears that three distinct species of the genus Croton, 

 yield eascarilla bark. Of these, two are natives exclusively of the 

 Bahama Islands, one common to the Bahama Islands and Jamaica. 

 Of these is 



1. Croton Eluteria, Bennett ; synonymous vtithEkuteriaprovidentiae, 



Hort. Cliff.) ; Clutia Eluteria, s. Cascarilla, Woodv. ' Med. Bot.' p. 633 t. 

 223, f. 2. Grows in the Bahama Islands : Catesby, Dean, Dr. W F 

 Daniell. 



2. Croton Cascarilla, Bennett ; synonymous with Ricinwdes elaagni 

 folio, Plum. Spec. 20, Icon. p. 236, t. 240, f. 1, Catesby 'Cardl.' vol. ii. 

 t. 46 ; Clutia Cascarilla, L. ' Sp. Plant.' ed. 1, p. 1042. Grows in the 

 Bahama Islands, Catesby ; Providence, Dr. W. F. Dauiell. 



3. Croton lineare, Bennett ; synonymous with the plant in Sloane's 

 ' Hist, of Jamaica,' i. p. 133, t. 86, f. 1 ; Croton frnliadosum, Browne 

 'Jam.' p. 347; Clutia Cascarilla, Linn. ' Ainoen. Acad.,' v., p. 411, and 

 the specimen so named in the ' Herbarium ' of Linn. ; Croton lineare, 

 Jacq. ' Amer.' p. 256, t. 162, f. 4, Pict. p. 124, t. 263, f, 80 ; and with 

 Croton Cascarilla, Woodv. 'Med. Bot.' p. 629, t. 222. It grows in 

 Jamaica (Sloane, Houston, Wright), and in the Bahama Islands, 

 Catesby, Daniell. 



4. Croton Sloanei, Bennett ; synonymous with the plant in Sloane, 

 Jamaica,' ii., p. 30, t, 174, f. 2 ; Clutia Eluteria, Linn. ' Arnoen. Acad.' v., 



p. 411, Linn. 'Herb.;' Croton Eluteria, Swartz, ' Flor. Ind. Occid.' p. 1183, 

 Wright in Med. Journ. viii. p. 3, Woodv., ' Med. Bot.' p. 634, t. 223, f. 1 

 Very bad fig.), Hayne, Arzneygen. xiv. t. A native of Jamaica; 

 assigned by most writers as the source of eascarilla ; probably yields 

 none of the bark of British commerce, though some of the continental 

 eascarilla may come from it, as well as Croton micans, L., another 

 Jamaica species. Swartz's plant is the " wild rosemary " of the West 

 Indies. The plant assigned by the late Prof. Don as the source of 

 Cascarilla, is the Croton Pieudo-China Schlectendal, a native of Mexico, 

 and in the shops of Jalapa is known as the Quina Cluca, or CopalcM. 

 Some of this has been brought to Hamburg as the Cascarilla de Tri- 

 tidad. It corresponds in appearance with the Ash Jaen, or (corruptly 

 Ten) bark, the produce of some species of Cinchona, to the barks of 

 all which the term Cascarilla or little bark is given in South America, 

 eading to much confusion, and lending countenance to the idea that 

 cascanlla bark comes from Lima. 



There is a corky copalchi bark yielded probably by Croton sulcerug, 

 rlumb. ; but it has none of the aromatic taste of true eascarilla, though 

 n burning it gives out an aromatic odour. It comes from Chili, 

 mder the name of Natri. (Pereira, ' Materia Med.') 



The bark occurs in pieces from one to four inches long, which are 

 riibular or overlapping ; externally covered with a cuticle, which easily 

 >eels off, so that the liber or bark is often exposed, in which case it 

 eels soft and cork-like. The colour externally is yellowish, ash-gray, 

 >r varying to reddish brown ; this last colour is mostly owing to the 

 >resence of lichens. The . surface is .also marked by irregular, deep, 

 ongitudinal furrows. The inner surface is a dirty or rusty brown 

 olour. Odour faintly aromatic ; taste bitter, not unpleasant, and 

 timulating. No alkaloid has been detected in it, but it possesses 

 much volatile oil ; one pound of bark yields one drachm and a half of 

 olatile oil. This bark is sometimes mixed with the cinchona barks, 

 >eing called gray-fever bark ; a substitution in no respect hurtful. 



The action of eascarilla on the human system depends partly on its 

 itter principle, and partly on its volatile oil : by the former it 

 pproaches the pure bitters ; by the latter, the aromatic stimulants, 

 t possesses this great advantage over almost all other tonic medicines, 

 lat it is more easily digested by the stomach, when uo other affection 



T T 



