SALEP. 655 



The salep of the Indian bazaars, known as Sdlib 'niisi'i, for fine 

 qualities of which the most extravagant prices are paid by wealthy 

 orientals, is derived from certain species of EuloiiUda, as E. campesti'is 

 Lindl., E. herbacea Lindl., and probably others.^ 



History — Under the superstitious influence of the so-called doctrine 

 of signatures,^ sule-p^ has had for ages a reputation in Eastern countries 

 as a stimulant of the generative powei-s ; and many Europeans who 

 have lived in India, although not prepared to admit the extravagant 

 virtues ascribed to it by Hindus and Mahommedans, yet regard it as a 

 valuable nutrient in the sick room. 



The drug was known to Dioscorides and the Arabians, as well as 

 to the herbalists and physicians of the middle ages, by whom it was 

 mostly prescribed in the fresh state. Gerarde (1636) has given excellent 

 figures of the various orchids whose tubers, says he, " our age useth." 



GeoflTroy^ having recognized the salep imported from the Levant to 

 be the tubers of an orchis, pointed out in 1740 how it might be prepared 

 from the species indigenous to France. 



Collection — The tubers are dug up after the plant has flowered, and 

 the slirivelled ones having been thrown aside, those which are plump 

 are washed, strung on threads and scalded. By this process their 

 vitality is destroyed, and the drying is easily effected by exposure to 

 the sun or to a gentle artificial heat. Though white and juicy when 

 fi^esh, they become by drying hard and horny, and lose their bitterish 

 taste and peculiar odour. 



Salep is largely collected near Melassa (Milas) and Mughla (or Moola), 

 south-east of Smyrna, and also -brought there from Mersina, opposite 

 the north-eastern cape (Andrea) of Cyprus. The drug found in English 

 trade is mostly imported from Smyrna. That sold in Germany is partly 

 obtained from plants growing wild in the Taunus mountains, Wester- 

 wald, Rhon, the Odenwald, and in Franconia. Salep is also collected in 

 Greece, and used in that country and Turkey in the form of decoction, 

 which is sweetened with honey and taken as an early morning drink.'^ 

 The salep of India is produced on the hills of Afghanistan, Beluehistan, 

 Kabul and Bokhara;/' the Neilgherry Hills in the south, and even 

 Ceylon are said likewise to afford it. . 



Description — Levant salep, such as is found in the English market, 

 consists of tubers half an inch to an inch in length, of ovoid or oblong 

 form, often pointed at the lower end, and rounded at the upper where 

 is a depressed scar left by the stem ; palmate tubers are unfrequent. 

 They are generally shrunken and contorted, covered with a roughly 

 granular skin, pale brown, translucent, very hard and horny, with but 

 little odour and a slight not unpleasant taste. After maceration in 

 water for several hours, they regain their original form and volume. 



'The Indian species of Eiilophia have ffaraifones and Goatstones have all been 



been reviewed by Lindiey in Journ. of given in allusion to the fonn of the 



Linn. Soc. Bot. iii. (1859) 23. tubers. 



■^ See Appendix, Porta. •* M^m. de VA cad. des Sciences for 1740. 99. 



^ Salep is the Arabic for/ox, and the drug ^ Heldreich, Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands, 



is called in that language -K^/tMS ya<(t's sa/a6, Athen, 1862. 9. 



i.e. fox's testicle ; ov Khtis yatu'l kalb, i.e. ^ Powell, Economic Product-^ of tJie Punjab, 



dog's tfisticJe. The word Orchis, and the Roorkee, i. (1868) 261 ; Stewart, Punjab 



old English names Dogstones, Foxsfones, Plants, Lahore, 1869. 236. 



