424 ASCLEPIADE^. 



Microscopic Structure — All the proper cortical tissue shows a 

 uniform parenchyme, not distinctly separated into liber, medullary rays 

 and mesophlceum. On making a longitudinal section however, one can 

 observe some elongated laticiferous vessels filled with the colourless 

 concrete milky juice. In a transverse section, they are seen to be 

 irregularly scattered through the bark, chiefly in its inner layers, yet 

 even here in not very considerable number. They are frequently 30 

 mkm. in diameter and not branched. 



The wood is traversed by small medullary rays, which are obvious 

 only in the longitudinal section. The parenchymatous tissue of the root 

 is loaded with large, ovoid starch granules. Tannic matters do not occur 

 to any considerable amount, except in the outermost suberous layer. 



Chemical Composition — The root has not been submitted to any 

 adequate chemical examination. Its taste and smell appear not to 

 depend on the presence of essential oil, so far as may be inferred from 

 microscopic examination ; and it is probable the aroma is due to a body 

 of the cumarin class. According to Scott,^ the root yields by simple 

 distillation with water a steroptene, which is probably the substance 

 obtained by Garden in 1837, and supposed to be a volatile acid. 



Uses — The drug is reputed to be alterative, tonic, diuretic and 

 diaphoretic, but is rarely employed, at least in England. 



CORTEX MUDAR. 



Cortex Calotropidis ; Mudar; F. Ecorce de racine de Mudar. 



Botanical Origin — The drug under notice is furnished by two 

 nearly allied species of Calotropis, occupying somewhat distinct geo- 

 graphical areas, but not distinguished from each other in the native 

 languages of India. These plants are : — 



1. Calotropis procera R. Brown (C. Hamiltonii Wight), a large 

 shrub, 6 or more feet high, with dark green, oval leaves, downy 

 beneath, abounding in acrid milky juice. 



It is a native of the drier parts of India, as the Deccan, the Upper 

 Provinces of Bengal, the Punjab and Sind, but is quite unknown in the 

 southern provinces ; it also extends to Persia, Palestine, the Sinaitic 

 Peninsula, Arabia, Egypt, to the oasis Dachel, and other oases of the 

 Sahara, to Nubia, Abyssinia, the lake Tsad and through the Sudan. 

 Lastly it has been naturalized in the West Indies. 



2. C. gigantea R. Brown (A sdepias gigantea Willd.), a large erect 

 shrub, 6 to 10 feet high, with stem as thick as a man's leg,"^ much 

 resembling preceding, indigenous to Lower Bengal and the southern 

 paris of India, Ceylon, the Malayan Peninsula, and the Moluccas. 



Both species are extremely common in waste ground over their 

 respective areas.^ 



^ Pharm. of India, 457 ; also Chetn. appendages of corona with a blunt upward 



Gazette, 1843. 378. point. See Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, 



2 Hence the specific name gigantea. Med. Plants, part 25 (1877). 



^ The botanical distinctions between the C. gigantea, corolla opening flat, flower- 

 two species may be stated thus : — buds Ijluntly conical or oblong, appendages 



C. procera, corolla cup-shaped, petals of corona rounded, 

 somewhat erect, flowerbuda spherical, 



