250 



NOTES ON CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



186O-62. 



Xauthioid 

 Cardamom. 



_*-!-. -^t- 



j|L K^ Tsaou-kwo ; Ovoid China Cardamom. Fruit of 

 Amomum medium, Loureiro, Flor. Cock., ed. Willd. (1793), p. 5 

 (Scitaminece) ; Cao-go, Tatarinov, Catal. Med. Sinens., p. 5 ; 

 Pharm, Journ. xiv., 419, Fig. 9. 



The Ovoid China Cardamom is a product of Southern China, 

 and abundant in the drug shops of Singapore, as well as in those 

 of China. It is an oval or oblong, three-celled, three-valved and 

 obscurely three-sided fruit, of from 1 to 3f inch in length. 

 The pericarp is of a dusky greyish-brown, deeply striated longi- 

 tudinally, thick and coriaceous, frequently covered on the surface 

 with a whitish efflorescence ; it is but slightly aromatic. The 

 seeds are very large, often upwards of three lines in length, 

 sharply angular, hard and striated, having a powerful and 

 peculiar aromatic smell and taste. 



The seeds of the Ovoid China Cardamom are used by the 

 Chinese for a variety of disorders, and, according to Loureiro, 

 are also employed as a condiment. 



Amomum medium is a plant known at present only through 

 an unsatisfactory description by Loureiro in his Flora Cochin- 

 chinensis. 



Yp "P n-% Sha-jin-Jcti ; Capsules (deprived of seeds) of 

 Amomum xanthioides Wallich (Scitaminece) ; husks of the 

 Xanthioid Cardamom. Pharm. Journ., xiv., 418, Fig. 7. 



These empty capsules are mostly attached to a common stalk, 

 which, when perfect, is about five inches long and beset with the 

 remains of sheathing bracts. The superior portion, which is 

 much stouter than the rest, bears the fruits closely crowded 

 together on short, bracted pedicels. Xo bunch in my possession 

 bears more than twelve fruits, but from the number of pedicels on 

 some specimens it would appear that the flowers at least are often 

 twice as numerous. The capsules having been deprived of seeds 

 are shrunken and compressed, but after soaking in boiling water 

 they acquire their proper volume, becoming nearly spherical and 

 about three-quarters of an inch in diameter. The pericarp 

 is covered with long, acute, recurved spines, which are longest 

 near the base. 



