378 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



principle and an alkaloid are found in Cascara Amarga or Honduras 

 Bark, which is derived from Picrsena Vellozii, of southern Brazil. 



SIMARUBA. Cortex Simarubae, Simaruba Bark. The bark of 

 the root of Simaruba officinalis and S. amara (Fam. Simarubacese), 

 stately trees, the former indigenous to northern Brazil, French Guiana 

 and Guatemala, and furnishing the bark known commercially as 

 Orinoco Simaruba; the latter growing in Panama, Guatemala, the 

 Bahama Islands and in Florida, and yielding the bark known as 

 Jamaica Simaruba. The root bark is collected and deprived of the 

 periderm. Most of the commercial supplies come from Ciudad 

 Bolivar (Angostura) on the Orinoco River, Venezuela. 



Orinoco Simaruba. (Fig. 166.) In flattened or somewhat trans- 

 versely curved pieces, from 0.3 to 1 M. in length, 4 to 12 cm. in 

 width, and from 2 to 5 mm. in thickness; externally grayish- or 

 yellowish-brown, somewhat velvety to the touch, irregularly wrinkled, 

 marked with a few, irregular, brownish scars and with occasional 

 patches of the shining silvery periderm; inner surface yellowish- 

 brown, longitudinally striate; fracture short fibrous, porous and 

 with yellowish stone cells; inodorous; taste very bitter and slightly 

 aromatic. 



Inner Structure. Middle bark consisting of tangentially 

 elongated parenchyma, having thin walls and containing small, 

 nearly colorless or yellowish-brown granules, and interspersed among 

 which are the light yellowish resin secretion cavities, and numerous 

 more or less irregular, very thick-walled, light-yellowish stone cells 

 either single or in small groups, usually surrounded by crystal fibers, 

 the crystals being nearly cubical and from 0.010 to 0.025 mm. in 

 diameter; inner bark with irregular groups of bast fibers consisting 

 of thin, bright yellow, somewhat lignified walls, separated by narrow 

 strands of more or less obliterated leptome and parenchyma; med- 

 ullary rays in somewhat wavy rows from 1 to 20 cells in width and 

 having usually slightly thickened porous walls. In the broad wavy 

 wedges of phloem are distributed large stone cells, the walls resembling 

 those found in the middle bark but being comparatively thinner, 

 and are arranged in spindle-shaped longitudinal rows, and like the 

 bast fibers are usually surrounded with crystal fibers. The drug 

 is apparently free from starch. 



Jamaica Simaruba. In flattened pieces about 50 cm. or more 

 in length and about 10 cm. in width; flexible, very fibrous and bitter. 

 The inner structure closely resembles the Orinoco bark. 



Constituents. A volatile oil having an odor resembling benzoin; 

 a non-volatile oil; a crystalline bitter principle, giving a violet 



