FOLIA TYLOPHORiE. 427 



FOLIA TYLOPHORiE. 



Country or Indian Ipecaciianha. 



Botanical Origin — Tylop}ioraasthinaticaWightetAxnoit{Asdepias 

 asthniatica Roxb.), a twining perennial plant, common in sandy soils 

 throughout the Indian Peninsula and naturalized in Mauritius. It 

 may be distinguished from some of its congeners by its reddish or dull 

 pink flowers, with the scale of the stamina! corona abruptly contracted 

 into a long sharp tooth.^ 



History — The employment of this plant in- medicine is well 

 known to the Hindus, who call it Antamul and use it with 

 considerable success in dysentery, but we have not succeeded in 

 tracing it in the ancient Indian literature. During the last century 

 it attracted the attention of Roxburgh ^ who made many obser- 

 vations on the administration of the root, while physician to 

 the General Hospital of Madras from 1776 to 1778. It was 

 also used very successfully in the place of ipecacuanha by Anderson, 

 Physician- General to the Madras army.^ In more recent times, 

 the plant has been prescribed by O'Shaughnessy, who pronounced 

 the root an excellent substitute for ipecacuanha if given in rather larger 

 doses.* Kirkpatrick' administered the drug in at least a thousand 

 cases, and found it of the greatest value ; he prescribed the dried leaf, 

 not only because superior to the root in certainty of action, but also as 

 being obtainable without destruction of the plant. The drug has been 

 largely given by many other practitioners in India. Tylophora is also 

 employed in Mauritius, where it is known as Ipe'ca sauvage or Ipeca du 

 ptays. It has a place in the Bengal PharmacopoRia of 1844, and in the 

 Pharmiaxiopoeia, of India of 1868. 



Description*' — The leaves are opposite, entire, from 2 to 5 inches long, 

 f to 2 J inches broad, somewhat variable in outline, ovate or subrotund, 

 usually cordate at the base, abruptly acuminate or almost mucronate, 

 rather leathery, glabrous above, more or less downy beneath with soft 

 simple hairs. The pedicel, which is channelled, is | to f of an inch in 

 length. In the dry state the leaves are rather thick and harsh, of a 

 pale yellowish green ; they have a not unpleasant herbaceous smell, 

 with but very little taste.'^ 



Chemical Composition — A concentrated infusion of the leaves has 

 a slightly acrid taste. It is abundantly precipitated by tannic acid, by 

 neutral acetate of lead or caustic potash, and is turned greenish-black 

 by perchloride of iron. Broughton of Ootacamund (India) has informed 

 us (1872) that from a large quantity of the leaves he obtained a small 



^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med. * Drawn up from an ample specimen 



Plants, part 29 (1878). kindly presented to us, together with one of 



- Flora Indica, ed. Carey, ii (1832) 33. theroot, by Mr. Moodeen Sheriff of Madras. 



3 Fleming, Catalogue of Indian Plants ' A figure of the leaves may be found in 



and Drugs, Calcutta, 1810. 8. a paper on Unto-mool by M. C. Cooke, 



* Bengal Dispensatory (1842) 455. Pharm. Journ. Aug. 6, 1870. 105 ; and one 



^ Catalogue of Madras ExMbition o/1855, of the whole plant in Wight's hones Plant- 



— list of Mysore drugs; also Pharm. of arum Jndice Orientalls, iv. {1850) tah. 1277. 

 India, 458. 



