350 Notes on the Drugs called Mishme Teeta and Pacha Pat. [April 



stances to dyspeptics and convalescents, who have generally expressed 

 satisfaction from its effects, at least, as freauently as from other medi- 

 cines of its class. A tea-spoonful may be taken three times a day. In 

 substance it rests well on the stomach in doses of ten or twenty grains. 

 It is, however, difficult to reduce to powder, on account of the tenacity 

 of its fibres." 



I shall now advert to another vegetable substance which, although 

 most extensively used by the natives of this country, has hitherto con- 

 tinued one of the problems in our Indian Materia Medica. The drug, 

 to which I allude, is called in Bengalee as well as in Hindee, Pacha 

 Pat, and is found in every bazar almost throughout Hindustan. My 

 esteemed friend Baboo Radhakant Deb informs me, that " there exists 

 no Sanscrita name for this leaf, which is largely imported by Mogul 

 merchants ; that it is used as an ingredient in tobacco for smoking, and 

 for scenting the hair of women, and that the essential oil is in common 

 use for imparting the peculiar fragrance of the leaf to clothes among 

 the superior classes of natives." I believe that the people of the penin- 

 sula are peculiarly fond of this perfume, as are also the Roman Catholic 

 inhabitants of this country generally. 



Having ascertained, on my return from Europe two years ago, that a 

 large quantity of what appeared to be the same drug as that commonly 

 sold in the bazars under the name of Pucha Pat had been imported 

 from Penang, I requested Mr. George Porter, late of that island, and 

 formerly in charge of the botanical establishment there, to favour me 

 with an account of the article, and also, if possible, with some growing 

 plants of it. In February last year (1834), I had the pleasure to receive 

 from him several plants, which I have succeeded in multiplying by cut- 

 tings, and which appear to thrive remarkably well in this garden. Mr. 

 Porter has furnished me with the following memorandum : *< The 

 Pucha Pat grows perfectly wild at Penang, and on the opposite shore 

 of the Malay Peninsula, in Wellesley province. The Arabs use and 

 export it more than any other nation. Their annual pilgrim ship takes 

 up an immense quantity of the leaf. They use it principally for stuffing 

 matrasses and pillows, and assert, that it is very efficacious in prevent- 

 ing contagion and prolonging life. It requires no sort of preparation, 

 being simply gathered and dried in the sun ; too much drying, how- 

 ever, is hurtful, in as much as it renders the leaf liable to crumble to 

 dust in packing and stowing on board. In Penang it sells at the rate 

 of a dollar and a quarter, to a dollar and a half, per pekul. In Bengal, 

 some which was sent from thence several years ago, sold at 11 rupees 

 8 annas per maund. At times the price is much higher. The last 

 investment sold so low as six rupees only per maund. It has not been 

 seen in flower." So far Mr. Porter's memorandum. 



