458 JALAP 



doses dissolved in alkalies. For ruminants it is safe, speedy, 

 and manageable when in combination with other purgatives. 

 Half a pound each of Epsom and common salts and an ounce 

 of gamboge form a prompt and effectual purgative in 

 indigestion, gastric impaction, and brain diseases of cattle. 

 Although neither gamboge nor aloes is particularly certain 

 when used alone, an ounce of each, rubbed down and given 

 in solution, constitute an effectual purge for ordinary 

 cattle cases. Applied to wounds it is said to promote heal- 

 ing (Key). 



DOSES, etc. For cattle, ss. to j. ; for sheep, grs. xx. 

 to grs. xxx., given in combination with other purgatives, 

 and in solution ; dogs, grs. ii. to grs. viii. 



JALAP 



JALAPA. The dried tubercules of Ipomoea purga (Hayne). 



(B.P.) Nat. Ord. Convolvulacese. 

 JALAPJE RESLNA. Jalap resin, obtained from Jalap digested 



and percolated with alcohol (90 per cent.). 



Jalap derives its name from Xalapa or Jalapa, a town in 

 Mexico, whence it was first obtained. The hardy climbers 

 yielding it grow on the Andes 6000 feet above sea-level, are 

 cultivated in Southern India, and in sheltered spots in this 

 country produce their salver-shaped crimson or light-red 

 flowers. The perennial root-stock throws off underground 

 shoots, which at intervals send down roots, gradually 

 thickening, becoming irregularly oblong or ovoid, ranging in 

 size from a walnut to an orange, invested with a thin, brown, 

 furrowed, wrinkled cuticle, and presenting within a dirty 

 yellow colour, with dark-brown concentric lines. The 

 larger roots, or tubercules, are divided into halves or quarters 

 or gashed to facilitate drying. They are tough, and difficull 

 to reduce to powder, which has a pale-brown colour, a faint 

 disagreeable odour, and a taste at first sweet and mawkish 

 but afterwards acrid and nauseous. Water dissolves the 

 sugar and mucilage without the cathartic, resinous prin- 

 ciple, which is, however, readily soluble in rectifiec 

 spirit. 



