GULANCHA. 33 



hydrocofFeic, umbellic and veratric (or dimethylprotocatechuic acid — 

 see Semen Sabadillfe) acids. 



Pelletier and Couerbe (1833) obtained from the pericarp of Cocculus 

 Indicus two crystallizable, tasteless, non-poisonous substances, having 

 the same composition, and termed respectively Menispermine and 

 Faramenisjyermine. These bodies, as well as the very doubtful 

 amorphous Hypopici'otoxic Acid of the same chemists, require re- 

 examination. 



The fat of the seed, which amounts to about half its weight, is used 

 in India for industrial purposes. Its acid constituent, formerly regarded 

 as a peculiar substance under the name of Stearophavic or AnaTnirtie 

 Acid, was found by Heintz to be identical with stearic acid. 



Commerce — Cocculus Indicus is imported from Bombay and 

 Madras, but we have no statistics showing to what extent. The stock 

 in the dock warehouses of London on 1st of December, 1873, was 1168 

 packages, against 2010 packages on the same day of the previous year. 

 The drug is mostly shipped to the Continent, the consumption in Great 

 Britain being very small. 



Uses — In British medicine Cocculus Indicus is only employed 

 as an ingredient of an ointment for the destruction of pediculi. It 

 has been discarded from the British Phai^Tnacopceia, but has a place 

 in that of India. 



GULANCHA. 



Caulis et radix Tinosporce. 



Botanical Origin — Tinospora cordifolia Miers (Cocculus cordi- 

 folius DC), a lofty, climbing shrub found throughout tropical India 

 from Kumaon to Assam and Burma, and from Concan to Ceylon and 

 the Carnatic.^ It is called in Hindustani Gulancha ; in Bombay the 

 drug is known under the name of Goohuail. 



History^The virtues of this plant which appear to have been long 

 familiar to the Hindu physicians, attracted the attention of Europeans 

 in India at the early part of the present century." According to a paper 

 published at Calcutta in 1827,^ the parts used are the stem, leaves, and 

 root, which are given in decoction, infusion, or a sort of extract called 

 pdlo, in a variety of diseases attended with slight febrile symptoms. 



O'Shaughnessy declares the plant to be one of the most valuable in 

 India, and that it has proved a very useful tonic. Similar favourable 

 .testimony is borne by Waring. Gulancha was admitted to the Bengal 

 [Fharmacopoeia of 1844, and to the Pharmacopoeia of India of 1868. 



Description — The stems are perennial, twining and succulent, 

 running over the highest trees and throwing out roots many yards in 

 'length which descend like slender cords to the earth. They have a 

 thick corky bark marked with little prominent tubercles. 



^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med. * On the native drug called GuJancha by 



Plants, part 13. Ram Comol Shen. — Trans, of Med. and 



* Fleming, Catcd. of Indian Med. Plants Phys. Soc. of Calcutta, iii. (1827) 295. 

 \and Drugs, Calcutta, 1810. 27. 



