ROYAL SALEP. 155 



1858. 



NOTE ON A DBUG CALLED EOYAL SALEP. 



(Konigs-Salep^) 



AMONG some specimens of Materia Medica from Bombay, for 

 which I am indebted to the kindness of the late Dr. J. E. 

 Stocks, is one which was received under the designation of Bad- 

 shah Saleb or King Salep. The specimen being a solitary one, 

 and no information respecting it, beyond that conveyed by its 

 name, having reached me, it remained almost unnoticed until 

 within the last few months, when an original package, contain- 

 ing about 100 Ibs. of an unknown and unnamed drug from 

 Bombay, was offered for sale in the London market. Upon 

 seeing samples of this drug, I recognised it as Badshali Salel) ; 

 and having obtained from this source a more abundant supply I 

 have been able to some extent to investigate it, and the results 

 of that investiation I will now detail. 



In the first place the name Badsliah Salel c^iso^Jlj is Name. 

 partly Persian and partly Arabic, Badshah being the Persian Saleb!] 

 for King, and Saleb the Arabic original of our word Salep. The 

 term may therefore be rendered King Salep or Royal Salep ; and 

 it has doubtless been applied on account of the drug being re- 

 garded as Salep of pre-eminently large size. That it is in reality 

 very distinct from true Salep in fact, that it is not a tuber, but 

 a 'bulb was pointed out to me by my friend Dr. Lindley, who 

 has further suggested its botanical origin. I will, however, first 

 describe the drug as met with in commerce. 



Eoyal Salep consists of dried bulbs (Fig. 1, 2), whose dimen- 

 sions from base to apex vary from 1 J to 2 inches. The largest 

 specimen weighs 730 grains : the average weight, taking twenty 

 bulbs, was found to be 337 grains. Allowing for considerable 

 irregularity occasioned by drying, the form of the dried bulbs 

 may be described as usually nearly spherical, sometimes ovoid 

 or nearly oblong, always pointed at the upper extremity, and 

 having at the lower either a depressed cicatrix, or frequently a 

 large, white, elevated, scar-like mark. Their surface is striated 



