PAREIRA BRAVA. 27 



drug. A species of Cissampdos called by the Portuguese in Brazil 

 Caapeba, Cipo de Cobras or Herva de Nossa Senkora described by Piso 

 in 1648/ afterwards became associated with Pareira.Brava on account 

 of similarity of properties. 



Thus was introduced a confusion which we may say was consoli- 

 dated when Linnaeus in 1753,- founded a species as Cissampelos Pareira, 

 citing it as the source of Pareira Brava, — a confusion which has lasted 

 for more than a hundi-ed years. This plant is very distinct from that 

 yielding true Pareira Brava, and though its roots and stems are used 

 medicinally in the West Indies,^ there is nothing to prove that they 

 were ever an object of export to Europe. 



As Pareira Brava failed to realise the extravagant pretensions 

 claimed for it, it gradually fell out of use,* and the characters of the 

 true drug became forgotten. This at least seems to be the explanation 

 of the fact that for many years past the Pareira Brava found in the 

 shops and supposed to be genuine is a substance ver}^ diverse from the 

 original drug, — albeit not devoid of medicinal properties. More re- 

 cently even this has become scarce, and an inert Pareira Brava has been 

 almost the sole kind obtainable. The true drug has however still 

 at times appeared in the European market, and attention having 

 been directed to it,' we may hope that it will arrive in a regular 

 manner. 



The re-introduction of Pareira Bi^ava into medical practice is due 

 (so far as Great Britain is concerned) to Brodie^ who recommended it 

 in 1828 for inflammation of the bladder. 



Description — True Pareira Brava as derived from Chondodendron 

 tomentosinn is a long, bi-anching, woody root, attaining 2 inches or 

 more in diameter, but usually met with much smaller and dividing 

 into rootlets no thicker than a quill or even than a horse-hair. It is 

 remarkably tortuous or serpentine and marked with transverse ridges 

 as well as with constrictions and cracks more or less conspicuous ; 

 l^esides which the surface is strongly wrinkled longitudinally. The 

 bark is of a dark blackish brown or even quite black when free from 

 earth, and disposed to exfoliate. The root breaks with a coarse fibrous 

 fracture; the inner substance is of a light yellowish brown, — sometimes 

 of a dull greenish brown. 



Roots of about an inch in diameter cut transversely exhibit a 

 central column 02 to 0-i of an inch in diameter composed of 10 to 20 

 converging wedges of large-pored woody tissue with 3 or 4 zones 

 divided from each other by a wavy light-coloured line. Crossing these 

 zones are wedge-shaped woody rays, often rather sparsely and irregu- 

 larly distributed. The interradial substance has a close, resinous, waxy 

 appearance. 



The root though hard is easily shaved with a knife, some pieces 

 giving the impression when cut of a waxy, rather than of a woody and 



* Medicina Brasiliensis, 1648. &4. many editions of the Edinburgh Dispen- 



* Species Plantamm, Holmiae, 1753 ; see satory. 



also Mat. Med. 1749. No. 459. * Hanbury in Pharm. Journ. Aug. 2—9, 



2 Lunan, Hort. Jamaic. ii. (1814) 254 ; 1873, pp. 81 and 102. 



Descourtik, Flor. mid. des AntUlee, iii. ^ Lond. Med. Gazette, Feb. 16, 1828; 



(1827) 231. Brodie, Lecture* on DUeases o/the Urinary 



*■ Thus it was omitted from the London Organs, ed. 3. 1842. 108, 138. 



pharmacopoeias of 1809 and 1824, and from 



