45 BAROSMA BETULINA 



cuneate leaves with, their blunt recurved apex and cartilaginous 

 margins set with large spreading denticulations. It must, 

 however, be allowed that plants occur which it is difficult to 

 place in either species, and of these the B. crenata, Kunze, with 

 its two forms ovalis and obovata, seems to be composed. 



This shrub was formerly cultivated in our gardens, having been 

 introduced by Masson in 1774, but like many other Cape species 

 has been lost. 



Harv. & Sond., Fl. Cap., i, p. 393; Lindley, Fl. Med., p. 213. 



Official Part and Names. BUCHU FOLIA ; the dried leaves of 

 Barosma betulina, Bart., Barosma crenulata, Hook., and Barosma 

 serratifolia, Willd. (B. P.). The dried leaves (Barosma vel Buchu 

 Folia) of the above species of Barosma (I. P.). BUCHU ; the 

 leaves of Barosma crenata, and of other species of Barosma 

 (U. S. P.). 



Gommerce. The leaves of the species of Barosma now under 

 notice, as well as of the other official species, are entirely derived 

 from the Cape of Good Hope. In 1873, the total exports from 

 the Cape Colony were about 400,000 Ibs., of which nearly 60,000 

 Ibs. were forwarded direct to the United States. 



General Characters and Composition. The general characters 

 and composition of commercial Buchu are described under 

 Barosma crenulata. The leaves of Barosma betulina, called in 

 the United States Pharmacopoeia B. crenata, the species now 

 under notice, are commonly less esteemed than those of the 

 other two official species, and are of less commercial value; 

 although Professor Bedford, of New York, found them to yield 

 on an average 1*21 per cent, of volatile oil, whilst the more 

 highly valued leaves of B. serratifolia only yielded him 0*66 per 

 cent. Fliickiger and Hanbury obtained as much as 1*56 per 

 cent, of volatile oil from the leaves of B. betulina ; and as Buchu 

 leaves owe their properties, in a great degree at least, to their 

 volatile oil, there is no satisfactory evidence to indicate the 

 inferiority of the present species. The leaves of B. betulina are 



