294 SAPENDACE^E 



329. GUARANA 

 GUARANA 



A dried paste consisting chiefly of the crushed or pounded seeds of Paullin'ia cupan'a 

 Kunth, yielding, by the official process, 4 per cent, of caffeine. 



BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS. A climbing shrub with alternate, imparipinnate 

 leaves on long stalks, with five oblong-oval, irregularly sinuate-dentate 

 leaflets 5 to 6 in. long and 2 to 3 in. broad, contracted into a shortly attenu- 

 ated blunt point. Flowers in axillary spicate panicles. Fruit ovoid or 

 pyriform, about the size of a grape, with a short, strong beak, and six longi- 

 tudinal ribs. Pericarp thin, leathery, hairy inside, inclosing lenticular, 

 thorny seeds resembling small horse-chestnuts, and each invested with an 

 easily removed, flesh-colored aril. 



HABITAT. B razil . 



DESCRIPTION OF DRUG. In cylinders, cakes, or balls of a dark reddish- 

 brown color, not infrequently met with in the form of a light reddish- 

 brown powder. In preparing the cylinders, etc., above referred to, 

 the seeds deprived of arilode (papery shell) of the plant are first 

 roasted, then ground, kneaded with water in a heated mortar into 

 a pasty and pliable dough, made into forms, and dried. The forms 

 thus made break with an uneven fracture, black-mottled from frag- 

 ments of seeds. The drug has a peculiar characteristic chocolate-like 

 odor and a bitter, astringent taste afterward sweetish. Guarana 

 constitutes the habitual beverage of thousands of people in the 

 Amazon valley. 



Powder. -Characteristics: See Part iv, Chap. I, B. 



CONSTITUENTS. Tannic acid, not precipitated by tartar emetic or copper, 

 gum, albumin, starch, a trace of volatile oil, saponin, a greenish 

 fixed oil, and guaranine, an alkaloid identical with caffeine or theint. 

 Of this it contains a much larger percentage as compared with other 

 caffeine-yielding drugs. For example, good black tea gives an aver- 

 age yield of 2.13 per cent.; coffee, i per cent.; Paraguay tea (324), 1.2 

 per cent., and guarana, 4.5 per cent. 



Preparation of Guaranine. Treat the powder with boiling water. Evapo- 

 rate the decoction on a water-bath to dryness, and exhaust the residue with chloro- 

 form. Distil off chloroform, treat residue with boiling water, filter, and evaporate 

 the liquid to obtain caffeine (guaranine). Tea and kola can be treated in the same 

 way for their active constituents. 



ACTION AND USES. Stimulant, especially beneficial in nervous headache, 

 and used like tea, coffee, and other drugs containing caffeine-like 

 principles. Dose: 15 to 60 gr. (i to 4 Gm.). 



OFFICIAL PREPARATION. 



Fluideztractum Guaranae, Dose: 15 to 60 TTJJ (i to 4 mils). 



