29 



Medicinal Plants. 



applicants. That Ayapana has found here congenial conditions is evident, though 

 it shows no attempt at spontaneous reproduction, seldom producing fertile seed. 



Uses.— Belief in the virtues of Ayapana appears to be as yet mostly 

 confined to its native home and some tropical countries to which it has been 

 introduced for cultivation. It is not generally given in the standard Pharmacopoeias 

 of Europe, though these include other species of Eupatorium of probably less repu- 

 tation medicinally. It has been suggested as possible, however, that this is 

 due to want of a thorough knowledge of the properties of Ayapana. It some- 

 times happens that the virtues of some exotic plants have been so unduly 

 extolled by native practitioners as to preclude European physicians from placing 

 any faith in them. A good example of this is the Chinese " Ginseng," which in 

 China is regarded as a miracle worth its weight in gold, but though acknowledged 

 to possess certain unimportant medicinal properties it is generally discarded by physi- 

 cians of other countries. On the other hand the belief is held by some people that 

 every country furnishes remedies for such maladies as the natives of the soil are natur- 

 ally subject to. At any rate, it seems reasonable to suppose that much of the value 

 of the medicinal principles of plants depends upon a proper knowledge of their prepar- 

 ation, and that this can at least to some extent be claimed by the people who from 

 necessity make use of them habitually. Dr. Lindley remarked in his Flora Medica 

 that " it by no means follows that plants are inert because medical men reported 

 unfavourably upon them." It has also been asserted that the beneficial effects 

 of plants may vary with the climate in which they are administered, for, accord- 

 ing again to Dr. Lindley, " the heat of a country, its humidity, food, and the 

 social habits of a people will predispose them to varieties of disease for which 

 the drugs of Europe offer no effectual remedy ; that which may be relied on 

 in one country may be almost worthless in another." Dr. Warming, in his 

 .Pharmacopoeia of India (1868) thinks that Ayapana may have "fallen into 

 unmerited neglect." Amongst the earliest references to it in India are those by 

 Dr. Ainslie, who first in his Materia Medica of Hindoostan, dated 1813, states 

 that the "native practitioners believe it to possess medicinal qualities, owing 

 to its pleasant sub-aromatic, but peculiar smell." It would thus appear as if its use 

 by practitioners were sometimes prompted by the characteristic odour of the plant. 

 To this is added, " An infusion of the leaves is a pleasant diet drink, and when 

 fresh and bruised they are one of the best and safest applications I know of for 

 cleaning the face of a spreading ulcer." In a later edition (1826) Dr. Ainslie 

 mentions Ayapana as being of great repute in Mauritius, especially as an alter- 

 ative and antiscorbutic, adding, however, that "as an internal remedy it has 

 hitherto much disappointed European physicians." He was informed that the 

 dried leaves were imported from Bourbon to France, where they were " used 

 as a substitute for the tea of China." It has since been recorded by Bouton, 

 who wrote on the medicinal plants of Mauritius, that Ayapana holds a high 

 place amongst the medicinal plants of that island, (a statement which many 

 people will corroborate at the present day), being there "in daily use in the 

 form of infusion, in dyspepsia and other affections of the bowels and lungs." 

 In the cholera epidemics in Mauritius, in 1854-56, Ayapana "was extensively 

 used for restoring the warmth of the surface, the languid circulation, &c." 

 Dr. Lindley in his Flora Medica says the plant is considered in Brazil to be 

 "a sudorific and alexipharmic, being also used as an antidote against the bite 

 of venomous snakes and insects." Warming, in Pharmacopoeia of India says, 

 " The whole plant is aromatic, with a slightly bitter, sub-astringent taste. The 

 exaggerated ideas of its virtues formerly entertained are now exploded ; but there 

 is reason to believe that it is a good stimulant, tonic, and diaphoretic." Dr. 

 Dymock states, in Materia Medica of Western India, that Ayapana may be com- 



