363 



NOTE ON IPECACUANHA CULTIVATION. 



By E. M. Holmes, f.l.s. 

 Curator of the Pharmaceutical Society's Museums. 



About a year ago I pointed out, with respect to the 

 Ipecacuanha cultivated near Klang, in the protectorate of 

 Selangor, that it was found by Mr. Pfenningwerth, the 

 manager of the estate where it is cultivated, that although 

 the fresh crop from fresh soil was a fairly good one, on try- 

 ing to raise a second it invariably turned out very poor, al- 

 though all kinds of manure had been tried to enrich the 

 land, without apparently restoring to the soil the necessary 

 ingredients for luxuriant growth. Under these circum- 

 stances, it occurred to me that it would be interesting to 

 determine the mineral constituents of the root itself, so that 

 if these were known they might indicate the mineral manure 

 that should be added to the soil. Moreover, if these con- 

 stituents were found to occur in similar proportion in the 

 root collected in such widely distant localities as Matto 

 Grosso, the United States of Colombia, and Selangor, it 

 would still further emphasise the need of such ingredients 

 being required by the plant. Fortunately, I found in Mr. 

 G. S. Blake, B. Sc., A.R.S.M., an analytical chemist willing 

 to undertake the analysis of Brazilian, Carthagena, and 

 Selangor Ipecacuanha roots as met with in commerce and I 

 have at length received his report. The details as given 

 below seem to indicate that phosphate of lime and salts of 

 magnesia and potash are the principal ingredients required 

 by the plant. A certain amount of potash would probably 

 be yielded by the leaf mould in which the plant grows, but 

 lime and magnesia are not so equally distributed as a rule, 

 and it is possible that on a siliceous soil these elements 

 might be deficient. The quantity of calcium oxalate pre- 

 sent in Ipecacuanha root in the form of raphides indicates 

 that lime is used in building up the tissues of the plant. At 

 all events, the use of these bases — the lime in the form of 

 phosphate — is worthy of trial. Fortunately, Mr. Blake has 

 now left for Matto Grosso in connection with a Baptist 

 Missionary expedition to that province, to conduct scientific 

 investigations, and has kindly promised to examine the soil 

 in which the Ipecacuanha plant grows, and the other natural 

 conditions under which the plant flourishes in the wild state. 



