NUX-VOMICA 



51. The nux-vomica or strychnine tree (Strychnos nuoo-wmicd) 

 is mentioned in the Pen ts'ao kan mu under the name ^C IS fan 

 mu-pie (" foreign mu-pie," Momordica cochinchinensis, a cucurbitaceous 

 plant), with the synonymes $1 IS ? ma ts'ien-tse ("horse-coins," re- 

 ferring to the coins on a horse's bridle, hence Japanese matin), ^ K 

 JC 5 k'u Si pa tou ( lt pa-tou [Croton tiglium] with bitter fruits"), 1 and 

 ^C ^ J& JC %$ hwo-$i-k'o pa-tu. The latter term, apparently of foreign 

 origin, has not yet been identified; and such an attempt would also 

 have been futile, as there is an error in the transcription. The correct 

 mode of writing the word which is given in the Co ken lu, 2 written in 

 A.D. 1366, is ^C ^ $0 hwo-Si-la, and this is obviously a transcription of 

 Persian kutla or kutula ("nux-vomica"), a name which is also current 

 in India (thus in Hindustani; Bengali kutila). The second element 

 pa-tu is neither Persian nor Arabic, and, in my opinion, must be ex- 

 plained from Chinese pa-tou (Croton tiglium). 



The text of the Co ken lu is as follows: "As regards hwo-Si-la pa-tu , 

 it is a drug growing in the soil of Mohammedan countries. In appear- 

 ance it is like mu-pie-tse (Momordica cochinchinensis), but smaller. It 

 can cure a hundred and twenty cases; for each case there are special 

 ingredients and guides." This is the earliest Chinese mention of this 

 drug that I am able to trace; and as it is not yet listed in the Cen lei 

 pen ts'ao of 1108, the standard work on materia medica of the Sung 

 period, it is justifiable to conclude that it was introduced into China 

 only in the age of the Mongols, during the fourteenth century. This is 

 further evidenced by the very form of the transcription, which is in 

 harmony with the rules then in vogue for writing foreign words. The 

 Kwan k'iln fan p*u* cites no other source relative to the subject than 

 the Pen ts'ao kan mu, which indeed appears to be the first and only 



1 This name does not mean, as asserted by STUART (Chinese Materia Medica, 

 p. 425), "bitter-seeded Persian bean." STUART (ibid., p. 132) says that the Arabic 

 name for Croton tiglium is "batoo, which was probably derived from the Chinese 

 name pa tou C< S-" True it is that the Arabs are acquainted with this plant as an 

 importation from China (L. LECLERC, Trait6 des simples, Vol. II, p. 95), but only 

 under the name dend. I fail to trace a word batu in any Arabic dictionary or in Ibn 

 al-Baitar. 



2 Ch. 7, p. 5 b. See above, p. 386. 



3 Ch. 6, p. 7. 



448 



