312 UMBELLIFER^. 



this drug. In Greece, anise is largely cultivated under the uame of 

 yXvKavicrov, and it is much grown in Northern India. Considerable 

 quantities are also now imported from Chili. The drug is, on the 

 whole, always of a remarkably uniform appearance. 



Uses — Anise is an aromatic stimulant and carminative, usually 

 administered in the form of essential oil as an adjunct to other medicines. 

 It is also used as a cattle medicine. The essential oil is largely consumed 

 in the manufacture of cordials, chiefly in France, Spain, Italy, and South 

 America. 



Adulteration — The fruits of anise are sometimes mixed with those 

 of hemlock, but whether by design or by carelessness we know not. • 

 Careful inspection with a lens will reveal this dangerous adulteration. 

 We have known powdered anise also to contain hemlock, and have 

 detected it by trituration in a mortar with a few drops of solution 

 of potash, a sample of pure anise for comparison being tried at the 

 same time. 



The essential oil of aniseed may readily be confounded with that of 

 Star-anise, w^hich is distilled from the fruits of the widely different 

 Illicium anisatum. As stated at p. 22, these oils agree so closely in 

 their chemical and optical properties, that no scientific means are known 

 for distinguishing them. 



RADIX SUMBUL. 



Sumbul Root; F. Racine de Sumbul, 8o/mhola ou Samhula ; 



G. Moschusvmrzel. 



Botanical Origin — Ferula Surtibid Hooker fil. (Euryangium 

 Sumbul Kauffmann^), a tall perennial plant discovered in 1869 by a 

 Russian traveller, Fedschenko, in the mountains of Maghian near 

 Pianjakent, in the northern part of the Khanat of Bukhara, nearly 40° 

 N. lat., and 68° to 69° E. long. From Wittmann's statements (1876) 

 it would appear that the Sumbul plant abounds far east from that 

 country, in the coast province of the Amoor. A living plant trans- 

 mitted from the former district to the Botanical Garden of Moscow 

 flowered there in 1871, another in 1875 at Kew, where the plant died 

 after flowering. 



History — The word sumbid, which is Arabic and signifies an ear 

 or spike, is used as the designation of various substances, but especially 

 of Indian Nard, the rhizome of Nardostachys Jaiartiansi DC. Under 

 what circumstances, or at what period, it came to be applied to the 

 drug under notice, we know not. Nor are we better informed as to 

 the history of sumbul root, which we have been unable to trace by 

 means of any of the works at our disposal. All we can say is, that the 

 drug was first introduced into Russia about the year 1835 as a sub- 

 stitute for musk, that it was then recommended as a remedy for 

 cholera, and that it began to be known in Germany in 1840, and ten 

 years afterwards in England. It was admitted into the British 

 Pharrrmcopoeia in 1867. 



1 youv, Mem. de la Soc. imp. des Nat. Also figured in Bentley and Trimen, Med. 

 de Moscou, xii. (1871) 253. tabb. 24. 25.— Plants, part 20 (1877). 



