THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY, 493 



Calumba root, ivaadulterated, seldom if ever occasions any unpleasaut 

 sensation in the stomaoh or alimentary canal, but when adulterated with 

 the turmeric-dyed root of Bryony, it is, not unoften, administered, 

 though unknowingly, with fatal results. Such has been my painful 

 experience^ 



Remember here that Bryoidin referred to by Professor Dragendorff 

 under head ^^ Fixed oils, <&c.'* (Plant Analysis-^Engiish Translation by 

 Greenish, p. 109), has no connection whatsoever with the active 

 principle of the Bryony root^ For according to the researches of 

 Professor Fliickiger, Bryoidin constitutes one of the remarkable series 

 of the Elemi constituents. *' It is a crystaliizable substance, occurring 

 in that resin^ only in small quantities." Be it noted further that this 

 organic substance known as Elemi is " a concrete resinous exudation, 

 the botanical source of which is still undetermined but sometimes 

 referred to Canarium commune (or to Idea alba), Manilla." * 



It may be useful at this stage to quote the other authoritative 

 English writers who have expressed themselves on the poisonous 

 nature of the Bryony root. 



Loudon has observed that the root of the genus Bryonia " is a famous 

 hydragogue, and highly purgative and acrid ."f 



Beck has noted that the administration of Bryony root " has caused 

 vomiting, purging, fainting, violent pain, and profuse alvine evacu- 

 ations."J 



James Aphjon includes the English representatives of the genus 

 Bryonia {alba and dioica) among plants ** which yield the more im- 

 portant vegetable acrids."§ The acrid virtues of Bryony, says he, 

 " reside in a principle soluble in water which was discovered not long 

 since by Brandes and ¥irnhaber, and which they have named Bryo^ 

 nine. There are upon record some cases in which decoctions of the 

 Bryony produced death with hypercatharsis." It m.ay be stated here 

 that the root of the Indian congener I am describing is capable of 

 doing it. 



* Lauder Brurtton's Pharmacology, &c., Edition 1885, London, p. 816. 

 t Encyclopsedia of Plants, 1829, p. 811. 

 X Medical Jurisprudence, p. 829, 5th Ed., London, 1836. 



§ Vide Article « Toxicology," Vol.- IT, p. 219, Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine by Dra. 

 Forbes, Tweedie and Conolly, London, 1835. 



