LAUREL 57 



difficulty visible, even when the leaf is held against a strong light and 

 examined with a lens. The taste is aromatic and bitter. 



The student should note 



(a) The coriaceous texture, 



(b) The entire, wavy margin and acute apex, 



(c) The characteristic odour ; 



and should be careful not to confuse these leaves with cAem/-laurel 

 leaves. 



Constituents. The leaves contain from 1 to 3 per cent, of volatile 

 oil, consisting chiefly of cineol (50 per cent.), eugenol, geraniol, and 

 terpenes. This oil should not be confounded with that of Pimenta 

 acris, Wight, also known as oil of bay, and from which bay rum is 

 made. The latter oil is distilled in the West Indies. 



Uses. Laurel leaves are aromatic and stimulant, but are now 

 seldom employed medicinally. 



MATICO LEAVES 

 (Folia Maticse) 



Source &C. Matico leaves were denned hi the British Pharmacopoeia 

 of 1885, as the leaves of Piper angusti folium, Ruiz and Pa von (N.O. 

 Piperacece), a climbing plant distributed over the north of South 

 America, extending into Bolivia. The name matico appears, however, 

 to be applied to a number of other Piperaceous plants, and the com- 

 mercial drug is obtained from several species of Piper (see below). 

 It has been much used in Peru as a styptic, and also for venereal 

 disease, the leaves, together with occasional stalks and fruits, being 

 exported in bales. 



Description. Matico leaves reach this country usually in brittle 

 compressed masses of a dull, dark, greyish green or yellowish green 

 colour. The leaves, which are very brittle, can easily be separated 

 after soaking in water, spread out, and examined. Those of P. angusti- 

 folium are lanceolate in outline, about 10 to 15 cm. long and 2*5 to 

 4 cm. broad, and taper gradually to an acute apex ; they have short 

 stalks, and are cordate and very unequal at the base, the lamina of 

 one side extending over the petiole so as to conceal it. The margin 

 is entire and revolute. On the upper surface the midrib and the 

 network of lateral veins are so deeply depressed as to divide the surface 

 into small raised squares about 1 mm. in diameter. On the under 

 surface the midrib, lateral veins, and veinlets are nearly equally 

 prominent, and both the veins and veinlets, as well as the interneural 

 depressions, are covered with short, shaggy hairs. The latter are 



