712 



SMILACE^. 



it is insoluble even in boiling water, but crystallizes in white scales 

 from alcohol. 



The composition of parillin and parigenin is not settled ; the former 

 belongs to the class of saponin. Yet parillin differs from saponin as 

 contained in Saponaria or Quillaja ^ by not being sternutatory ; its 

 solutions froth when shaken. 



The presence in sarsaparilla of starch, resin, and calcium oxalate, as 

 revealed by the microscope, has been already pointed out. Pereira ^ 

 examined the essential oil, which is heavier than water and has the 

 odour and taste of the drug ; 140 lb. of Jamaica sarsaparilla afforded of 

 it only a few drops. 



The nature of the dark extractive matter which water removes 

 from the root in abundance, and the proportion of which is considered 

 by druggists a criterion of goodness, has not been studied. 



Commerce — The importation of sarsaparilla into the United King- 

 dom in 1870 (later than which year we have no returns) amounted to 

 345,907 lb., valued at £26,564. 



Uses — Sarsaparilla is regarded by many as a valuable alterative 

 and tonic, but by others as possessing little if any remedial powers. 

 It is still much employed, though by no means so extensively as a few 

 years ago. The preparations most in use are those obtained by a pro- 

 longed boiling of the root in water. 



TUBER CHINM. 



Radix China} ; China Root ; F. Squine ; G. Chinawurzel. 



Botanical Origin — Smilax China L., a woody, thorny, climbing 

 shrub, is commonly said to afford this drug. The plant is a native 

 of Japan, the Loochoo islands, Formosa, China, Cochinchina, also of 

 Eastern India, as Kasia, Assam, Sikkim, Nepal. The chief authority 

 for attributing the China root to this plant is Kampfer, who saw the 

 latter in Japan and figured it.^ 



S. glabra Roxb. and S. lancecefolia Roxb., natives of India and 

 Southern China, have tubers which, according to Roxburgh, cannot be 

 distinguished from the China root of medicine, though the plants are 

 perfectly distinct in appearance from S. China. Dr. Hance,'* of 

 Whampoa, received a living specimen of China root, which proved to 

 be that of S. glabra. The three above-named species all grow in the 

 island of Hongkong. 



History — The use of this drug as a remedy for syphilis was made 

 known to the Portuguese at Goa by Chinese traders about a.d. 1535. 

 Garcia de Orta, who makes this statement, further narrates that so 



figured by Seemann in his Botany of the 

 Herald, 1852-57, tabb. 99-100. S. China 

 is well represented in the Kew Herbarium, 

 where we have examined specimens from 

 Nagasaki, Hakodadi, and Yokohama ; from 

 Loochoo, Corea, Formosa, Ningpo ; and 

 Indian ones from Khasia, Assam, and 

 Nepal. 



1 See Christophson, in DragendorlFs Jah- 

 resbericht, 1874. 155. 



2 Elements of Mat. Med. ii. (1850) 1108. 

 ^"Sankira," p. 783 in the first work 



quoted in the Appendix ; another fig. will be 

 found in Nees von Esenbeck's Plantoi 

 medicinale^', Dusseldorf, 1828. 



4 Trimen's Journ. of Bot. i. (1872) 102. 

 ^,S'. glabra and S. lancecefolia have been 



