RADIX JALAPS. 443 



The root consists of stout, woody, cylindrical pieces, often spirally 

 twisted, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, covered with a rough, furrowed, 

 greyish-brown bark. They are internally pale brown, tough and resin- 

 ous, with a faint odour and taste resembling jalap. A good sample 

 yielded us o^ per cent, of resin; Kingzett and Farries (1877) showed 

 the root to be devoid of an alkaloid- 



RADIX JALAPiE. 



Tuber Jalapiu ; Jalap, Vera Cruz Jalap; F. Racine de Jalap; 



G. Jalape. 



Botanical Origin — Ipomcea Purga Hayne (Convolvulus Purga 

 Wenderoth, Exogoniuin Purga Bentham), a tuberous-rooted plant, 

 throwing out herbaceous, twining stems, clothed with cordate-acuminate 

 sharply auricled leaves, and bearing elegant salver-shaped, deep pink 

 tlowers. It grows naturally on the eastern declivities of the Mexican 

 Andes, at an elevation above the sea of 5000 to 8000 feet, especially about 

 Chiconquiaco and the adjacent villages, and also aroimd San Salvador 

 on the eastern slope of the Cofre de Perote. In these localities w^here 

 rain falls almost daily, and where the diurnal temperature varies from 

 15' to 24° C. (60° to 75° F.), the plant occurs in shady woods, flourishing 

 in a deep rich vegetable soil. 



The jalap grows freely, in the south of England, if planted in a 

 sheltered border, but its flowers are produced so late in autumn that 

 they rarely expand, and the tubers, which develope in some abundance, 

 are liable to be destroyed in winter unless protected from frost. 



The plant has been introduced on the Neilgherry Hills in the south 

 of India ; it succeeds there remarkably well,^ and might be extensively 

 propagated if there were any adequate inducement. 



History — The use as a purgative of the tuber of a convohmlaceous 

 plant of Mexico, was made kno^\^l by the early Spanish voyagers ; and 

 so highly was the new di'ug esteemed that large quantities of it reached 

 Europe during the 16th century. 



Monardes, writing in 1565, says the new drug was called Ruyharho 

 de las Indias or Ruybarho de Mechoacan, the latter name being given in 

 allusion to the pro\4nce of Michoacan whence the supplies were derived. 

 Some writers have advanced the opinion that mechoacan root was the 

 modern jalap, but in this we do not concur, for the description given of 

 mechoacan and the place of its production do not apply well to jalap. 

 Both drugs were moreover well known about 1610 ; they were perfectly 

 distinguished by Colin, an apothecary of Lyons (1619), who mentions 

 jalap {"racine de lalap ") as then newly brought to France." They were 

 however often confounded, or at least only distinguished by their differ- 

 ence of tint. Thus jalap, which at that period used to be imported cut 

 into transverse slices,"'' was termed, from its darker colour. Black 



1 Thus at Ootacamund, Mr. Broughton, ^ Monardes, Hist, dea Medicamens, trad, 



in a letter to one of us (15 January 1870), par Colin, ed. 2. 16. — The "first edi- 



speaks of receiving "a cluster of tubers " tion of this work seems to be unknown, 



weighing over 9 lb. , and remarks that the ^ Hill, Higtory of the Mat. Med. Lend, 



plant grows as easily as yam. 1751. 549. 



