332 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



sions to styrax were made by Ae'tius (6) and Paulus 

 ^Egineta (494), 1567. The early Arabian physicians 

 were acquainted with styrax and its methods of produc- 

 tion. The Russian Abbott of Tver, 1113-15, describes 

 the tree as found by him in his travels through Asia 

 Minor. Styrax reached China as early at least as 1368 

 by means of Arabian caravans, but it is now shipped to 

 China by way of the Red Sea and India. Its use in 

 medicine combined with other substances is restricted 

 mainly to an external application in skin diseases. It 

 has, however, been recommended for internal use, and 

 in former times it was a constituent of empirical com- 

 pounds designed for internal medication. 



SUMBUL (Muskroot) 



Official from 1880 to 1910. It is not mentioned in earlier 

 editions of the U. S. P. 



Musk root, Ferula Sumbul, was first introduced into 

 Russia as a substitute for musk, and was known in Ger- 

 many in 1840 as a Russian product. Its history is to 

 the effect that in 1869 a Russian traveler, Fedschenko 

 (240), discovered the plant in the northern part of the 

 Khanat of Bukhara, 40 N. Lat. Sumbul has no au- 

 thentic position in medicine, other than that it crept 

 into the British Pharmacopeia in 1867 as a substance 

 that had been recommended as a substitute for musk 

 in cholera. This gave it credit elsewhere. 



TAMARINDUS (Tamarind) 



Official in every edition of the U. S. P. from 1820, excepting 

 that of 1910. 



The tamarind, Tamarindus indica, is a handsome 

 tree, indigenous to tropical Africa. It is also found 



