590 PIPERACEtE. 



History — The styptic properties of this plant are said to have been 

 discovered by a Spanish soldier named Matico/ who having applied 

 some of the leaves to his wounds, observed that the bleeding was thereby 

 arrested ; hence the plant came to be called Verba or Palo del Soldado 

 (soldier's herb or tree). The story is not very probable, but it is current 

 in many parts of South America, and its allusion is not confined to the 

 plant under notice. 



The haemostatic powers of matico, which are not noticed in the 

 Avorks of Ruiz and Pavon, were first recognized in Europe by Jeffreys,' 

 a physician of Liverpool, in 1839, but they had already attracted 

 attention in North America as early as 1827. 



Description — Matico, as it arrives in commerce, consists of a com- 

 pressed, coherent, brittle mass of leaves and stems, of a light green hue 

 and pleasant herby odour. More closely examined, it is seen to be made 

 up of jointed stems bearing lanceolate, acuminate leaves, cordate and 

 unequal at the base, and having very short stalks. The leaves are rather 

 thick, with their whole upper surface traversed by a system of minute 

 sunk veins, which divide it into squares and give it a tessellated appear- 

 ance. On the under side, these squai'es form a corresponding series of 

 depressions which are clothed with shaggy hairs. The leaves attain a 

 length of about 6 inches by 1 J inches broad. The flower and fruit spikes 

 which are often 4 to 5 inches long, are slender and cylindrical with the 

 flowers or fruits densely packed. The leaves of matico have a bitterish 

 aromatic taste ; their tissue shows numerous cells, filled with essential 

 oil.3 



Chemical Composition — The leaves yield on an average 2*7 per 

 cent.* of essential oil, which we find slightly'^ dextrogyre ; a large pro- 

 portion of it distills at 180° to 200° C, the remainder becoming thickish. 

 Both portions are lighter than water ; but another specimen of the oil 

 of matico which we had kept for some years, sinks in water. We have 

 observed that in winter the oil deposits remarkable crystals of a cam- 

 phor, more than half an inch in length, fusible at 103° C ; they belong 

 to the hexagonal system, and have the odour and taste of the oil from 

 which they separate. 



Matico further aflfords, according to Marcotte (1864),'' a crystallizable 

 acid, named Artanthic Acid, besides some tannin. The latter is made 

 evident by the dark brown colour which the infusion assumes on addition 

 of ferric chloride. The leaves likewise contain resin, but as shown by 

 Stell in 1858, neither piperin, cubebin, nor any analogous principle such 

 as the so-called Maticin formerly supposed to exist in them. 



Commerce— The drug is imported in bales and serons by way of 

 Panama. Among the exports of the Peruvian port of Arica in 1877, 

 we noticed 195 quintales (19,773 ft)) of Matico. 



Uses — Matico leaves, previously softened in water, or in a state of 



1 Matico is the diminutive of 3/a<eo, the ■'As Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig, 



Spanish for Mattheio. kindly informed me. — F. A. F. 



^Remarks on the efficacy of Matico as a ^^ Deviating only O".? in a column 50 



styptic and astringent, 3rd ed., Load. 1845. mm. long. 



3 Microscopic examination of the leaves, ^ Guibourt (et Plauchon), Hist, dcs 



Pocklington, Pharm. Journ. v. (1874) Drogues, ii. (1869) 278.— We are not 



301. acquainted with " artanthic acid. " 



