NOTES ON CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



235 



a strong acid reaction. It fuses at 95 F., and congeals at 50. 186O-62. 

 Heated with solution of potash, it formed a soap-like compound. Chinese 

 The other constituents of the pulp are pectin, gum, glucose, Fruits. 

 citric acid, and chlorophyll. 1 



~fc {fj: ~j Ta-hai-tsze ; Fruits of Erioglossum ? or Neplielium ? 

 (Sapindacece) ; Boa-tam-paijang, Guibourt, Hist, des Drogues, 

 tome iii., page 543 , Bungtalai (otherwise written Poung-ta-rai) 

 of the Siamese. 2 



This fruit is of some interest as having been introduced into 

 France about twenty years ago as a certain specific in diarrhoea 

 and dysentery. Its claims to this character, which were tested 

 in the Hopital Beaujon in Paris, did not however hold good, 

 no results being obtained from its use, but such as were 

 attributable to the effect of repose, diet, and a mucilaginous 

 beverage. But the drug had the merit of an unknown origin, a 

 barbarous name, and a very high price, 3 and notwithstanding the 

 unfavourable report made upon it by those officially appointed 

 to give it a trial, it continued for some time to be prescribed. 



Boa-tam-paijang, for such is the name under which it was 

 introduced into Europe, though in Bangkok, whence I have 

 received specimens, it is better known as Bungtalai, is pro- 

 duced in Cambodia, from a tree which has not at present been 

 botanically determined. Sir Eobert H. Schomburgk, British 

 Consul at Bangkok, succeeded in obtaining fresh seeds which 

 germinated, but the young plants thus raised perished before 

 attaining maturity. The leaves which Sir Eobert sent me are 

 about 5 inches long, simple, entire, oblong or ovate, acuminate, 

 rounded or subcordate at the base, and perfectly glabrous on both 



1 In the Annales de Chimie et de Physique for March, 1864, M. Be" champ 

 publishes a paper on the existence of several odoriferous and homologous 

 fatty acids in the fruit of Gingko biloba, L. He has found therein, formic, 

 acetic, propionic, butyric, valeric, caproic, and caprylic acids, butyric, 

 acetic and caproic predominating. Chem. News, May 7, 1864, p. 226. 



2 Are they not the " LuJckrabow Seeds" of which 48 piculs are reported 

 as shipped from Bangkok (all to Hong Kong) in 1871 ? Commercial Reports 

 of H. M. Consul-General in Siam for 1871, p. 6. They are actually the 

 seeds of Scaphium scaphigerum, Wallich. See my note in Pharm. Journ., 

 iv. (1863) p. 109. 



3 In the wholesale price list of MM. Menier, druggists, of Paris (1854), 

 it is quoted at 200 francs per kilogramme, i.e. 3 13s. per Ib. 



Boa-tam- 

 paijang vel 

 Bungtalai. 



