142 PHARMACOPEIA!, DRUGS 



galls have been used from the earliest times; during 

 the Middle Ages, however, they were not precisely an 

 article of great importance, being then, no doubt, for a 

 large part replaced by sumach. 



"Nutgalls have long been an object of commerce 

 between Western Asia and China. Barbosa, in his 

 Description of the East Indies, written in 1514, calls 

 them Magican, and says they are brought from the 

 Levant to Cambay by way of Mekka, and that they 

 are worth a great deal in China and Java. From the 

 statements of Porter Smith (605a), we learn that they 

 are still prized by the Chinese." 



GAMBIR (Gambir) 



Introduced in 1900, to replace Catechu, official in all U. S. P's. 

 until that date. 



Gambir (or gambier), Ourouparia gambir, is a shrub 

 native to the countries bordering the Straits of Malacca, 

 being found also in Ceylon and India. The dried juice 

 of an Indian tree (Acacia catechu and Acacia sumo), is 

 often confused with gambir, and its extract, (catechu or 

 cutch), is only too often substituted therefor. Gambir 

 has been obtained from the Orient from the beginning 

 of historical records, and in those countries, mixed with 

 other substances, seems ever to have been used as an 

 astringent in domestic medicine. Both gambir and 

 catechu, as these products are often called, indifferently, 

 have ever been articles of export to China, Arabia and 

 Persia, but were not brought into Europe until the 17th 

 century. They are similarly astringent, and although the 

 U. S. P., 1900 edition, drops the word catechu, it is 

 questionable whether, in commerce, a close distinction 

 is drawn in extractive products. The history of Gam- 



