386 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



form, carbon disulphide, petroleum benzin and oil of turpentine. 

 It is precipitated from alcoholic solutions by the addition of water. 



Literature Jacobs, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1879, p. 443. 



Azadirachta Indica. CORTEX MARGOS.E, INDIAN AZADIRACH, 

 MARGOSA OR NEEN BARK. The dried bark of Azadirachta indica 

 (Fam. Meliacese), a tree indigenous to the East Indies and rather 

 widely distributed in the tropical countries of Asia and to some 

 extent cultivated. It is used in India and the eastern colonies of 

 Great Britain, as a simple bitter, replacing gentian and quassia. 



Description. Usually in flat, somewhat transversely curved 

 pieces, from 5 to 15 cm. in length, 1 to 3 cm. in breadth, and 5 to 10 

 mm. in thickness; outer surface grayish-brown, more or less fissured 

 and rough and scaly; inner surface yellowish-brown, longitudinally 

 striate and fibrous; fracture short, fibrous; transverse surface 

 somewhat radiate from the narrow, yellow medullary rays, crossed 

 by alternating, tangentially arranged groups of brownish bast fibers, 

 separated by lighter strands of leptome and parenchyma; inodorous 

 taste of inner bark, bitter, while that of the outer bark is astringent. 



Inner Structure. Outer layer consisting of a number of thin- 

 walled and nearly colorless cork cells; the parenchyma of the primary 

 cortex contains either a brownish amorphous content or rosette aggre- 

 gates of calcium oxalate, and in among which are distributed the large, 

 somewhat thick-walled and elongated secretion cells; inner bark 

 with tangentially elongated groups of bast fibers surrounded by 

 crystal fibers, each having a rhombohedra crystal of calcium oxalate; 

 separating the groups of bast fibers are the more or less collapsed 

 leptome cells which are thin-walled, possessing rather large pores; 

 medullary rays from 4 to 6 cells wide, those in the outer bark pos- 

 sessing a brownish amorphous content; the bast fibers are from 

 0.500 to 1 mm. in length, about 0.020 mm. in width and possessing 

 large lumina; the bast parenchyma consists of spheroidal or poly- 

 hedral cells having a dark brown content; a small amount of starch 

 is found in the parenchyma cells and medullary rays of the inner 

 portion of the secondary cortex. 



Constituents. A bitter alkaloid, margosine; a bitter amorphous 

 resin; margosic acid; and tannic acid. 



Literature. Mittlacher, Zeitschr. d. Allgem. oster. Apoth. 

 Verein, 1900, p. 19. 



