^l78 D. Hooper — Rusot: an ancient Eastern Medicine, [No. 4, 



Galen (De Simp. Medicam, lib. VIL, 64) the latter was regarded as by- 

 far the most valuable and powerful for all purposes. Avicenna (Ganon 

 Medicinse, lib. II. cap. 398) gives a long account of the medical uses of 

 Lykion and remarks, " Magis vincens, secundum existimationem, est 

 quod Indicum est, " and he compares its properties with a specimen 

 from Mecca. Scribonius Largus, the reputed house-physician of the 

 Emperor Claudius, and Marcellus laud its powers, the former declared 

 that he attributed to no collyrium whatever, such great efficacy as to 

 the genuine Indian Lycium used by itself. 



Dr. J. Forbes Royle in a paper read before the Linnean Society of 

 London in 1833^ was the first to prove that the Indian Lycium is the 

 same as Rusot, an inspissated extract prepared from the wood and roots 

 6f several species of Berberis. Dr. Royle, on inquiring in the shops of 

 druggists in the bazars of India, learned that both the wood (dar-huld) 

 and the extract, Rusot, were imported from the hills into the plains and 

 that large quantities continued to be brought from Naggarkot as well 

 as other places. He found that Rusot was procurable in every bazar in 

 India, and was used by native practitioners who are fond of applying it 

 both in incipient and chronic inflammation of the eye, it was used both 

 simply and in combination with opium and alum. 



It should be understood that in early times everything to which 

 the adjective Indicum appertained was not necessarily derived from 

 Hindustan ; but with regard to Lycium or Rusot it is clear that the 

 drug was a pi-oduct of the peninsula. The authors of the Pharmaco- 

 graphia say, " The author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea who 

 probably lived in the 1st century, enumerates Xvklov as one of the 

 exports of Barbarike at the mouth of the Indus, and also names it 

 along with Bdellium and Oostus among the comriiodities brought to 

 Barygaza : and further, lycium is mentioned among the Indian drugs on 

 which duty was levied at the Roman custom house of Alexandria about 

 A.D. 176-180.2 



The nomenclature of the drug further confirms its Indian origin as 

 it is interesting to find that two of the names for Lycium given by Ibn 

 Bay tar in the 13th century are precisely those under which Rusot is met 

 with in the Indian bazars at the present day. 



The names by which the extract of Barberry is known in the trade 

 and profession in the country are Rusot, Rusivat, Raswanti, Rusvat, 

 Rusout, from the Sanskrit Rasanjana ; in Sinde it is Ruswal ;in Persia, 



I Trans, LiTi.Soc, XYII., -p. 87. 

 ^ 2 Vincent, Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian Ocenriy. iij 

 (1807)390,410,734. 



