28 MENISPERMACE^. 



fibrous substance. The taste is bitter, well marked but not persistent. 

 The drug has no particular odour. Its aqueous decoction is turned 

 inky bluish-black by tincture of iodine. 



The aerial stems especially differ by enclosing a small but well- 

 defined pith. 



Microscopic Structure —The most interesting character consists 

 in the arrangement rather than in the peculiarity of the tissues com- 

 posing this drug. The wavy light-coloured lines already mentioned 

 are built up partly of sclerenchymatous cells. The other portions of 

 the parenchyme are loaded with large starch granules, which are much 

 less abundant in the stem. 



Chemical Composition — From the examination of this drug made 

 by one of us in 1869/ it was shown that the bitter principle is the 

 same as that discovered in 1839 by Wiggers in the drug hereafter 

 described as Coinmion False Pareira Brava, and named by him Pelosine. 

 It was further pointed out that this body possesses the chemical pro- 

 perties of the Bihirine of Greenheart bark and of the Buxine obtained 

 by Walz from the bark of Buxus sempervirens L. It was also obtained 

 on the same occasion (1869) from the stems and roots of Cissampelos 

 Pareira L. collected in Jamaica ; but from both drugs in the very small 

 proportion of about ^ per cent. 



Whether to Buxine (for by this name rather than Pelosine it should 

 be designated) is due the medicinal power of the drug may well be 

 doubted. No further chemical examination of true Pareira Brava has 

 been made. 



Uses — The medicine is prescribed in chronic catarrhal affections of 

 the bladder and in calculus. From its extensive use in Brazil"^ it seems 

 deserving of trial in other complaints. Helvetius used to give it in 

 substance, which in 5-grain doses was taken in infusion made with 

 boiling water from the powdered root and not strained. 



Substitutes — We have already pointed out how the name Pareira 

 Brava has been applied to several other drugs than that described in 

 the foregoing pages. We shall now briefly notice the more important. 



1. Stems and roots of Cissampelos Pareira L. — Owing to the diffi- 

 culty of obtaining good Pareira Brava in the London market, although 

 this plant is very widely diffused over all the tropical regions of both 

 hemispheres, the firm of which one of us was formerly a member 

 (Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, Plough Court, Lombard Street) caused to 

 be collected in Jamaica, under the superintendence of Mr. N. Wilson, 

 of the Bath Botanical Gardens, the stems and root of Cissampelos 

 Pareira L., of which it imported in 1866-67-68 about 300 lb. It was 

 found impracticable to obtain the root per se ; and the greater bulk of 

 the drug consisted of long cylindrical stems,' many of which had been 

 decumbent and had thrown out rootlets at the joints. They had very 



^ Neues Jahrb. f. Pharm. xxxi. (1869) pisias, e suspensao de lochios." — Lang- 



257 ; Pfiarm. Journ. xi. (1870) 192. gaard, Diccionario de Medicina domestica c 



2 " Presentamente [Abutua] 6 reputada popular, Rio de Janeiro, i. (1865) 17. 



diaphoretica, diureticaeemenagoga, eusada 3 Figured, together with the plant, in 



interiormente na dose de duas a quatro Bentley and Trimen, Medic. Plants, part 



oitavas para uma libra de infusao ou cozi- 9 (1876). 

 mento, nas febres interniittentes, hydro- 



