RADIX TODDALIiE. Ill 



a form of B. crenulata) have to our knowledge been imported on one 

 occasion (1873). They are nearly an inch long, oval, rounded at 

 the hose, strongly crenate, and grow from jjabescent shoots. 



We have seen other leaves which had been imported from South 

 Africa and offered as buchu ; but though probably derived from allied 

 genera they were not to be mistaken for the genuine drug. 



RADIX TODDALIiE. 



Botanical Origin — Toddalia acvl^ata Pars., a ramous prickly 

 bush,^ often climbing over the highest trees, common in the southern 

 parts of the Indian Peninsula as the Coromandel Coast, South Concans, 

 and Canara, also fovmd in Ceylon, Mauritius, the Indian Archipelago 

 and Southern China. 



History — The pungent aromatic properties which pervade the 

 plant, but especially the fresh root-bark, are well known to the natives 

 of India and have been utilized in their medical practice. They have 

 also attracted the attention of Europeans, and the root of the plajit is 

 now recognized in the Pliaiiiiacopceia of India. 



It is from this and other species of Toddalia, or from the allied 

 genus Zanthoxylum,^ that a drug is derived which under the name of 

 Lopez Root had once some celebrity in Europe. This drug which was 

 more precisely termed Radix Indica Lojyeziana or Root of Juan Lopez 

 Pigneiro, was first made known by the Italian physician Redi;^ ~who 

 described it in 1671 from specimens obtained by Pigneiro at the mouth 

 of the river Zambesi in Eastern Africa, — the very locality in which 

 in our times Toddalia lanceolata Lam. has been collected by Dr. Kirk.* 

 It was actually introduced into European medicine by Gaubius* in 

 1771 as a remedy for diarrhoea, and acquired so much reputation that 

 it was admitted to the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia of 1792. The root 

 appears to have been sometimes imported from Goa, but its place of 

 growth and botanical origin were entirely unknown, and it was always 

 extremely rare and costly.^ It has long been obsolete in all countries 

 except Holland, where until recently it was to be met with in the 

 shops. The Pharniacojyoeia Keerlandica of 1851 says of it " Origo 

 hotanica perqiunn dubia — Patria Malacca ? " 



Description — The specimen of the root of Toddalia aeuleata 

 which we have examined was collected for us by Dr. G. Bidie of Madras 

 whose statements regarding the stimulant and tonic action of the drug 

 may be found in the Pharmacopoeia of India, p. 442. It is a dense 

 woody root in cylindrical, flexuous pieces, which have evidently been 

 of considerable length and are from ^ to 1^ inches in diameter, covered 



^ Fig. in Bentleyand Trimen, part 18. ^ Esperienze intorno a diverse cose, natu- 



- The root of a Zanthoxylum sent to us rail, Firenze, 1671. 121. 



frcai JavabyMr. Binnendyk of the Buiten- •* Oliver, Flor. of Trop. Africa, i. (1868) 



zorg Botanical Garden has exactlythe aspect 307. 



of that of Tixldalia. The root of ^. Biaif/ei ^ Adversaria, Leidae, p. 78. 



which we have examined in the fresh state " Our friend Dr. de Vry informs us 



is also completely similar. It is covered that he remembers the price in Holland 



with a soft, corky, yellow bark having a in 1828 being equivalent to about 24«. the 



very bitter taste with a strong pungency ounce ! 



like that of pellitory. 



