PAREIRA BRAVA. 25 



loaded with tine crystals of oxalate of calcium, whilst all the other 

 cells contain very large starch granules, attaining as much as 90 mkm. 

 The short fracture of the root is due to the absence of a pro^^er ligneous 

 or liber tissue. 



Chemical Composition — The bitter taste of calumba, and probably 

 likewise its medicinal properties, are due to three distinct substances, 

 Columbin, Berberine, and Columhic Acid. 



Columbin or Columba-Bitter was discovered by Wittstock in 1830. 

 It is a neutral bitter principle, crystallizing in colourless rhombic prisms, 

 slightly soluble in cold alcohol or ether, but dissolving more freely in 

 those liquids when boiling. It is soluble in aqueous alkalis and in acetic 

 acid. 



The presence of Berberine in calumba was ascertained in 1848 by 

 Bodeker, who showed that the yellow cell-walls of the root owe their 

 colour to it and (as we may add) to Coliunbic Add, another substance 

 discovered by the same chemist in the following year. Columbic Acid 

 is yellow, amorphous, nearly insoluble in cold water, but dissolving in 

 alcohol and in alkaline solutions. It tastes somewhat less bitter than 

 columbin. Bodeker surmises that it may exist in combination with the 

 berberine. 



Bodeker has pointed out a connection between the three bitter prin- 

 ciples of calumba. If we suppose a molecule of ammonia, NH*, to be 

 added to columbin C^H^O", the complex molecule thence resulting will 

 contain the elements of berberine C^H^'NO^ columbic acid O"H"^0'^, 

 and water 3W0. 



Among the more usual constituents of plants, calumba contains (in 

 addition to starch) pectin, gum, and nitrate of potassium, but no tannic 

 acid. It yields when incinerated 6 per cent, of ash. 



Commerce — Calumba root is shipped to Europe and India from 

 Mozambique and Zanzibar, and exported from Bombay and other 

 Indian ports. 



Uses — It is much employed as a mild tonic, chietly in the form of 

 tincture or of aqueous infusion. 



PAREIRA BRAVA. 



Radix Par eircb ; Fareira Brava^; F. Racine de Butua ou de Pareira- 

 Brava ; G. Grieswurzel, 



Botanical Origin — Ghondodendron toTnentosum Ruiz et Pav. (non 

 Eichler) (Cocculiis Ghondodendron DC, Botryopsis platyphylla Miers'). 

 — It is a lofty climbing shrub with long woody stems, and leaves as 

 much as a foot in length. The latter are of variable form, but mostly 

 broadly ovate, rounded or pointed at the extremity, slightly cordate at 

 the base, and having long petioles. They are smooth on the upper side ; 

 on the under covered between the veins with a fine close toraentum of 



^ From the Portuguese parreira, signify- in Martins' Flor. Bras. fasc. 38. tab. 48. 



ing a vine that grows against a wall (in The Cissampelos Abutua of Vellozo's Flora 



French treille), and hrava, wild. Fluminensis, torn. x. tab. 140 appears to 



* For a figure see Bentley and Trimen, us the same plant. 

 Medk. Plants, Part 5 (1876) ; also Eichler 



