n. o. acanthaoejE. 967 



market this reason of the year, but, as a rule, the fresh plant only 

 can be obtained from the herbalists. Cultivated at Matunga, 

 near Bombay. Kiryat as a substitue for Quassia and Chiretta, 

 and as a possible means of lessening quinine expenditure seems 

 well worthy of consideration. Chiretta is almost always adulterat- 

 ed and is produced, I believe, in Nepal. Can be readily culti- 

 vated from the seed in shady places" (Report, Central Indigen. 

 Drugs Com. Vol. I p. 157.) 



In the Second Report of the said Committee (p. 61) it is 

 stated that : — 



Andrographis puniculata is very extensively used in India as a remedy for 

 malaria and also in dysentey and diarrhoea. It is not unlikely that in the 

 bazaars it and Indian chiretta are offered rather indiscriminately. It is also 

 the basis of an English " patent " tonic. Ward, in the Pharmaceutical Journal 

 LV, page 197, remarks that there are so many bitters in England that there 

 is little call to resort to it. But in India there are not so many, and the plant 

 is so common that the drug is very readily available. The whole of it is medi- 

 cinal. Boorsma (Mededeelingen uit S' Lands Plantentuin XVIII 66) reports that 

 the plant may contain an alkaloid, but that he could not definitely prove its 

 presence. The bitter principle is another substance— a crystalline glucoside, 

 most abundant in the leaves, which Boorsma calls " andrographid." Its chemi- 

 cal properties were to some extent investigated by Boorsma, but no one has 

 yet had it isolated in quantity for pharmacological examination. 



Cliemical composition.— According to the authors of the Pharmacographia : — 

 " The aqueous infusion of the herb exhibits a slight acid reaction and has an 

 intensely bitter taste, which appears to be due to an indifferent, non-basic 

 principle, for the usual reagents do not indicate the presence of an alkaloid. 

 Tannic acid, on the other hand, produces an abundant precipitate, a compound 

 of itself with the bitter principle. The infusion is but little altered by 

 the salts of iron ; it contains a considerable quantity of chloride of sodium." 



In " Food and Drugs " of Calcutta, for Jany 1915, Mr. Kshiti 

 Bhushan Bhaduri, M. Sc, gives the results of his analysis of this 



plant as follows : — 



For examination 68 Gm. of the powdered leaves and stems were taken and 

 exhausted in a Soxhleb apparatus successively by petroleum ether, ether, 

 chloroform, and alcohol. ****** 



The plant is very rich in chlorophyll, one portion of which is soluble in 

 chloroform and the other not, though both are soluble in alcohol. 



Examination of the Petroleum Ether Extract. 



This was a viscid, brownish- yellow colored liquid from which, on keeping 

 a small quantity of an inactive, needleshaped crystalline substance separat- 

 ed out, having 117° C. as its melting-point, the quantity obtained was so small 

 that no further examination was possible. The viscid mass also contained a 



