RADIX PYRETHRL 383 



the present day;^ it would be of great interest to examine it chemically 

 with regard to elecampane. 



RADIX PYRETHRI. 



Pellitory Root, Pellitcyry of Spain; F. Pyrethre salivaire ; G. Bei-tram- 



wurzel. 



Botanical Origin — Anacylus Pyrethrum DC. (Antheniis Pyre- 

 thrum L.), a low perennial plant with small, much divided leaves, and a 

 radiate flower resembling a large daisy. It is a native of northern 

 Africa, especially Algeria, growing on the high plateaux that intervene 

 between the fertile coast regions and the desert. 



History — The irvpSpov of Dioscorides was an umbelliferous plant, 

 the determination of which must be. left to conjecture. The pellitory 

 of modern times was familiar to the Arabian writers on medicine, 

 one of whom, Ibn Baytar, describes it very correctly from specimens 

 gathered by himself near the city of Constantine in Algeria. 

 The plant, says he, called by the Berbers sandasab, is found nowhere 

 but in Western Africa, from which region it is carried to other 

 countries.- 



Pellitory root is a favourite remedy in the East, and has long been 

 an article of export by way of Egypt to India. An Arabic name for it 

 is Adqarqarhd or Akulkara^, a word which, under slight variations, is 

 found in the principal languages of India. In Germany, pellitory was 

 known as early as the 12th century ; it is named in the oldest printed 

 works on materia medica. In the 13th century " pellitory of Spain " 

 (Pelydr ysbain) was a proved " remedy for the toothache " with the 

 Welsh physicians.* 



Description — The root as found in the shops is simple, 3 to 4 

 inches long by f to f of an inch thick, cylindrical, or tapering, some- 

 times terminated at top by the bristly remains of leaves, and having 

 only a few hair-like rootlets. It has a brown, rough, shrivelled surface, 

 is compact and brittle, the fractured surface being radiate and destitute 

 of pith. The bark, at most o^ of an inch thick, adheres closely to the 

 wood, a narrow zone of cambium intervening. The woody column is 

 traversed by large medullary rays in which, as in the bark, numerous 

 dark resin-ducts are scattered. The root has a slight aromatic smell, 

 and a persistent, pungent taste, exciting a singular tingling sensation, 

 and a remarkable flow of saliva. The drug is very liable to the attacks 

 of insects. 



Microscopic Structure — The cortical part of this root is remark- 

 able on account of its suberous layer, which is partly made up of scleren- 

 chyme (thick- walled cells). Balsam-ducts (oil-cells) occur as well in the 

 middle cortical layer as in the medullary rays. Most of the parenchy- 

 matous cells are loaded with lumps of inulin ; pellitory in fact is one of 

 those roots most abounding in that substance. 



Chemical Composition — Pellitory has been analysed by several 



* See Cooke, Pharm. Journ. viii. (1877) Rohlfs' Archiv fiir Geschichte der Medicin 



41 ; Fluckiger, ibid. 121. (1879) 342. 



- Sontheimer's translation, ii. (1842) 179. * Meddygon Myddfai (see Appendix) 184. 



' Haq'rcarcha; see Steinschneider, in 292. 374. 



