94 MALVACEAE. 



been kept long, or not very dry. Under such conditions, the asparagin 

 gradually disappears, and the root then yields a brownish decoction, 

 sometimes having a disagreeable odour of butyric acid. There is no 

 doubt that a protein-substance here acts as a ferment. The sections of 

 the root when touched with ammonia or caustic lye should display a 

 bright yellow, not a dingy broAvn, colour. 



The peeled root dried at 100° C. and incinerated afforded us 4-88 of 

 ash, rich in phosphates. 



Uses — Althaea is taken as a demulcent; it is sometimes also applied 

 as an emollient poultice. It is far more largely used on the continent 

 than in Enirland 



FRUCTUS HIBISCI ESCULENTI. 



Capsulae Hibisci esculent i ; UehJca, Ohro, Okra, Bendi-kai^ ; 

 F. Gombo (in the French Colonies). 



Botanical Origin — Hibiscus esculentus h. {Abelnioschus esculentus 

 Guill. et Perr.) an herbaceous annual plant 2 to 3 or even 10 feet high, 

 indigenous to the Old World.- It has been found growing abundantly 

 wild on the White Nile by Schweinfurth, and also in 1861 by Col. 

 Grant in Unyoro, 2° N. lat., near the lake Victoria Nyanza, where it is 

 known to the natives as Bameea. 



The plant is now largely cultivated in several varieties in all tropical 

 countries. 



History— The Spanish Moors appear to have been well acquainted 

 with Hibiscus esculentus, which was known to them by tKe same name 

 that it has in Persian at the present day — Bdmiyah. Abul- Abbas el- 

 Nebati, a native of Seville learned in plants, who visited Egypt in 

 A.D. 1216, describes^ in unmistakeable terms the form of the plant, its 

 seeds and fruit, which last he remarks is eaten when young and tender 

 with meat by the Egyptians. The plant was figured among Egytian 

 plants in 1592 by Prosper Alpinus,* who mentions its uses as an ex- 

 ternal emollient. 



The powdered fruits as imported from Arabia Felix were known for 

 some time (about the year 1848) in Europe as i\^a/e of the Arabs. 

 They are noticed in the present work from the circumstance that they 

 have a place in the PharTnacoposia of India. 



Description — The fruit is a thin capsule, 4 to 6 or more inches long 

 and about an inch in diameter, oblong, pointed, with 5 to 7 ridges cor- 

 responding to the valves and cells, each of which latter contains a single 

 row of round seeds. It is covered with rough hairs and is green or 

 |)urplish when fresh ; it has a slightly sweet mucilaginous taste and a 

 weak herbaceous odour. Like many other plants of the order. Hibiscus 

 esculentus abounds in all its parts with insipid mucilage. 



^ Uehka in Arabic, according to ^ Fig. Bentley and Trimen, Med. 



Schweinfurth. Okro or Okra are common Plants, part 35 (1878). 



names for the plant in the East and West ^ Ibn Baytar, Sontheimer's translation, i. 



Indies. Bendikai, a Canarese and Tamil 118 ; Wiistenfekl, Geschichte der Arab. 



word, is used by Europeans in the South Aerzte etc. 1840. 118. 



of India. Gigambo in (^\xv&(}&o. * De plant. jEg]/pt.,Venet. 1592. csip. ^. 



