324 UMBELLIFEKiE. 



red colour when warmed with hydrochloric acid. The mucilage of 

 galbanum has not been minutely examined. 



Commerce — Galbanum is, we believe, brought into commerce chiefly 

 from Eastern Europe. It is stated that considerable quantities reach 

 Russia by way of Astrachan and Orenburg. 



Uses — Galbanum is administered internally as a stimulating expec- 

 torant, and is occasionally applied in the form of plaster to indolent 

 swellings. 



Allied Substances. 



Sagapenum — This is a gum-resin which, when pure, forms a tough 

 softish mass of closely agglutinated tears. It differs from asafoetida in 

 forming brownish (not milk-white) tears, which when broken do not 

 acquire a pink tint ; also in not having an alliaceous odour. A good 

 specimen presented to us by Professor Dymock of Bombay (1878) re- 

 minds in that and other respects rather of galbanum. We find this 

 sagapenum to be devoid of sulphur but containing umbelliferone ; it is 

 extremely remarkable for the intense and permanent purely blue colour 

 it acquires in cold when the smallest fragment of the drug is immersed 

 in hydrochloric acid 1'13 sp. gr. 



Sagapenum, which in mediaeval pharmacy was often called Sera- 

 pinum, is so frequently mentioned by the older writers that it must 

 have been a plentiful substance. At the present day it can scarcely 

 be procured genuine even at Bombay, whither it is sometimes brought 

 from Persia. The botanical origin of the drug is unknown. 



AMMONIACUM. 



Gii/mmi-resiTia Ammoniacum; Ammoniacum or Gum, AmmoniacuTn; 

 r. Gomme-resine Ammoniaque ; G. Ammoniak-gummiharz. 



Botanical Origin. — Dorema Ammoniacum, Don, a perennial plant,^ 

 with a stout, erect, leafless flower-stem, 6 to 8 feet high, dividing towards 

 its upper part into numerous ascending branches, along which are dis- 

 posed on thick short stalks, ball-like simple umbels, scarcely half an inch 

 across, of very small flowers. The aspect of the full-grown plant is there- 

 fore very unlike that of Ferula. The Dorema has large compound 

 leaves with broad lobes. The whole plant in its young state is covered 

 with a tomentum of soft, stellate hairs, which give it a greyish look, but 

 which disappear as it ripens its fruits. The withered stems long remain 

 erect, and occurring in immense abundance and overtopping the other 

 vegetation of the arid desert, having a striking appearance.^ The root is 

 described in the article on Sumbul, p. 313. 



The plant occurs over a wide area of the barren regions of which 

 Persia is the centre. According to Bunge and Bienert, its north-western 

 limit appears to be Shahrud (S.E. of Asterabad), whence it extends east- 

 wards to the deserts south of the Sea of Aral and the Sir-Daria. The 

 most southern point at which the plant has been observed is Basiran, 

 a village of Southern Khorassan in N. lat. 32°, E. long, 59°. 



^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Medic. 118 ; Polak, Persien, das Land und seine 

 Plants, part 33 (1878). Leule, ii. (1865) 282. 



2 Fraser, Journey into Khorasdn, 1825. 



