SECTION XII 

 EXTRACTS 



Under this heading are grouped together drugs prepared by evapo- 

 rating aqueous decoctions of various plants. 



GAMBIER 

 (Pale Catechu, Terra Japonica, Catechu) 



Source, &c. Gambier is an extract prepared from the leaves and 

 young shoots of Uncaria Gambier, Roxburgh (N.O. fiubiaccce). 



This plant is a climbing shrub indigenous to the Malay Archipelago 

 and largely cultivated on the small islands between Singapore and 

 Sumatra, as well as in British North Borneo, and on other islands of 

 the Archipelago. The drug was introduced into Europe towards the 

 end of the eighteenth century, but was probably used in India at much 

 earlier times for chewing with betel leaf (the leaf of Piper Betle, Linne) . 



The leaves and young shoots of the shrub are collected and boiled 

 with water ; the decoction is evaporated to a syrup in copper pans 

 (iron pans would discolour it) and cooled ; during the cooling the 

 workman works a stick up and down in an oblique direction in the 

 liquor, by which crystallisation is induced and a mass of the consistence 

 of soft clay is obtained. This is usually conveyed in a moist state, 

 often dripping with the mother liquor that drains from the crystalline 

 mass, to Singapore, where it is cut into cubes from 2 to 3 cm. in 

 diameter and dried. Occasionally it is formed into strips, plates, or 

 small round discs, or sometimes it is imported in large blocks, but 

 cube gambier is the form in which it is usually employed in pharmacy. 



Description. Gambier, as observed, is usually seen in the form 

 of tolerably regular cubes, measuring from 2 to 3 cm. each way ; it 

 is light in weight, and of a. dull, dark reddish brown colour externally, 

 which, however, varies slightly, even on different sides of the same 

 piece. The cubes break easily, and internally are of a pale cinnamon- 

 brown colour, porous and friable. The drug has no odour ; the taste 

 is at first bitter and astringent but afterwards sweetish. 



