HYDNOCARPUS VENENATA GAERTNER: FALSE 

 CHAULMOOGRA ^ 



By Hakvey C. Brill 



(From the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Bureau of Science, 

 Manila, P. I.) 



Owing to the inaccessibility of the habitat considerable ob- 

 scurity envelopes the source of the chaulmoogra oil of commerce 

 which is used in the treatment of leprosy. For a long time 

 it was supposed that this oil came from the seeds of Gynocardia 

 odorata R. Br.,^ and this belief has given rise to the name 

 "oleum Gynocardiae," the name by which chaulmoogra oil is 

 still often designated. However, true chaulmoogra oil is ob- 

 tained from the seeds of Taraktogenos kurzii King,^ although 

 the oil from the seeds of Hydnocarpus wightiana Blume, H. 

 anthelminticus Pierre, and H. venenata Gaertner, belonging to 

 the same family, is probably often substituted for chaulmoogra 

 oil. Oil from these last-named trees is known as "kavetel" in 

 Malabar, also as false chaulmoogra oil in many places, and is so 

 similar in all its properties that a distinction by chemical means 

 is hardly possible. 



Dr. E. E. Francis, chief medical officer, Asam-Bengal Railway, 

 and technical adviser to the Indian Forests Economics Products 

 Co. Ltd., in an open letter of February 21, 1914, to the editors 

 of the pharmaceutical and medical journals in England, France, 

 Germany, and America, quotes Mr. E. J. Parry as making the 

 following statements in answer to questions put to him by 

 certain vendors of these hydnocarpus oils : 



I would draw your attention, however, to the fact that persistent 

 attempts have been made to restrict the description of chaulmoogra oil to 

 the products of the seeds of Taraktogenos. Your oil is, in my opinion, the 

 product of the seeds of Hydnocarpus which certain authorities consider 

 the only genuine chaulmoogra oil. 



As a matter of fact the products from both seeds are so similar as to 

 be nearly identical in properties, and I am of the opinion that your sample 

 is properly described as chaulmoogra oil. 



I have examined the above described sample and am of the opinion 

 that it is a genuine chaulmoogra oil free from any adulteration. 



Doctor Francis attacks this opinion and challenges the good 



* Received for publication November 6, 1915. 



'Watt, Economic Products of India. W. H. Allen & Co., London (1890), 

 4, 192. 



'Brandis, Indian Trees. A. Constable & Co. Ltd., London (1907), 721. 



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