380 COMPOSITE. 



about 300° a greenish portion is coming over, which can be obtained 

 colourless by again rectifying it. This oil assumes intense colorations 

 if it is shaken with concentrated mineral acids; it becomes blue by 

 distilling it over potash. 



Valerianic acid as afforded by the root is not agreeing with normal 

 valerianic acid. It is, more exactly, isovalerianic acid, or isopropyl- 

 acetic acid : (CIF)2CH.CH-C00H, which is produced by Valeriana as 

 well as by Archangelica officinalis and Viburnum Opulus. The same 

 acid also may be obtained from the fat of Dolphinus giobiceps. 



After the root has been submitted to the distillation of the oil, there 

 is found a strongly acid residue containing malic acid, resin, and sugar, — 

 the last capable, according to Schoonbroodt, of reducing cupric oxide. 



Uses — Valerian is employed as a stimulant and antispasmodic. 



Substitutes — In the London market there has been offered "Kesso" 

 the root of Patrinia scabiosaefolia Link,^ a Japanese herb of the order 

 Valerianacese. This drug consists of a very short rootstock giving off 

 a large number of rootlets about 5 inches long and -^ of an inch in 

 diameter. By the absence of a well-marked upright rhizome in this 

 Japanese Valerian it is widely differing from our Valerian, although 

 at first sight it agrees to some extent with it. As to the odour and 

 taste we find Kesso almost identical with true Valerian. 



The less aromatic and now disused root of Valeriana Phu L. consists 

 of a thicker rhizome which lies in the earth obliquely ; it is less closely 

 annulated and rooted at the bottom only. It resembles by no means 

 true Valerian. 



COMPOSITE. 



RADIX INUL^. 



Radix Enulce, Radix Helenii; Elecampane;'^ F. Racine d'Aunee; 



G. Alantimirzel. 



Botanical Origin — Inula Helenium L. — This stately 4)erennial 

 plant is very widely distributed, occumng scattered throughout the 

 whole of central and southern Europe, and extending eastward to the 

 Caucasus, Southern Siberia and the Himalaya. It is found here and 

 there apparently wild in the south of England and Ireland, as well as 

 in Southern Norway and in Finland (Schiibeler). 



Elecampane was formerly cultivated in gardens as a medicinal and 

 culinary plant, and in this manner has wandered to North America. In 

 Holland and some parts of England and Switzerland, it is cultivated on a 

 somewhat larger scale, most largely probably near Colleda (see p. 877). 



History — The plant was known to the ancient writers on agri- 

 culture and natural history, and even the Roman poets were acquainted 

 with it, and mention Inula as affording a root used both as a medicine 

 and a condiment. Vegetius Renatus, about the beginning of the 5th 

 century, calls it Inula Campana, and St. Isidore in the beginning of 

 the 7th names it as Inula, adding — " quam Alani rustic! vocant." It 

 is frequently mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon writings on medicine cur- 

 rent in England prior to the Norman Conquest; it is also the "marchalan" 



^ According to Holmes, Ph. J. x. (1879)22. latter word referring to the growth of the 

 * A corruption of Enula Campana, the plant in Campania (Italy). 



