THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Jan. i, 1894. 
500 
MEDICINAL PLANTS IX INDIA. 
It in much to be regretted that India poasesses no 
experimental agriculturist of the stamp of Sir John 
Lawes of Rochampton, whose lettern to the Loudon 
Field render our contemporary so popular among the 
more enlightened clasa of British farmers. True we 
have the usual reports from the Government farms, 
but they convey little of interest, and are altogether 
useless to the ryot, while the matter.? dealt with do 
not concern Europeans. What we really require, 
scattered throughout the Empire, are plantations 
devoted to the raising of exotics and such indige- 
nous roots, plants, etc., that would prove of sensible 
value to the community at large. The work on the 
present Government farms should be confined merely 
to the raising of food grains and edible roots, that 
would prove of service in times of scarcity or actual 
famine, and, in conjuction therewith, a system of irri- 
gation that the native could afford to resort to in 
order to save his crop when the rainfall fails. 
What we would, in our present remarks, specially 
direct attention to is the importation of drugs and 
utilisation of our indigenous ones, so as to bring 
remedies for sickness within the reach of the 
poorest. What the introduction of cinchona ha.^ 
done in the way of combating fever and other 
malarious maladies should be energetically followed 
up in other lines, for it is not going too far to 
assert that there is not one single drug, mineral 
or vegetable, in the British pharmacopoeia that 
either has not its prototype in this country, or could 
be grown successfully in one or other of the various 
climatic localities India furnishes ; yet in many 
cases we send the raw material home re-importing 
it at such heavy cost that the prepared drug is sold 
at, frequently, 300 per cent higher than if it were 
manufactured in the country. It is gratifying there- 
fore to notice that this matter is being brought to 
the front, and we only wish we could say being 
taken in hand. Podophi/Uwa pellatum, the various 
descriptions of dandelion, taraxacum, and their aides 
grow so prolifically at an elevation of from 4,000 to 
6,000 feet along the 26th and 28th parallels of 
la'itude, that every household iu India should 
possess their valuable extracts, end though natives, 
as a rule, suffer but little from hepatic diseases, 
the drugs above mentioned would prove an in- 
calculable boon in B iropeau barracks and private 
houses, while the process of extracting the drug 
from the plants is so Simple and inexpensive that 
the cost would be too trifling for consideration. If 
any one will take the trouble to run his eye over 
a list of the remedies usually employed in Indian 
diseases he will not fail to notice how easily they 
are procurable and at what a small outlaj'. We 
affect, or at least the old school of medical practi- 
tioners affect to despise the drugs employed by 
the hakims in remote villages little reflecting that 
the initial knowledge of all medicines employed in 
Europe was obtained from the far East, and that 
they are employed down to this day, though 
clarified and, perhaps, rendered more attractive 
by the bestowal on them of euphonious names. 
Even many of the old women's "simples" of a 
bygone age figure in the present list of remedies, 
faintly disguised by Latinised names. 
The Government of India has lavished large sums 
of money in the introduction of exotics, and though 
such a proceeding may be considered commendable, 
a good deal of this expenditure might have been 
saved had a thorough exploration of the botanical 
resources of the country been undertaken by men 
who would have first considered whether taking the 
diversity of climate into conbideration, the exotica 
they were a)x)Ut to import did not already exist 
within our borders. It nas been asserted that f'in- 
chuna vriiijM grows wild in the eastern mountain 
ranges and, certainly, the plant brought in bears a 
strong resemblance to it ; while we do not believe 
that the bark of the Mishmi Irrlu, or the bhrubfrom 
which it is derived, have ever been thoroughly 
analysed. With the large areas now under cinchona 
it would, of course, be of no great commercial iiu- 
p ortauce were the two febrifuges above alluded to 
turn oat a variety of the Central American one, 
though identification might induce the autboritiei^ 
to pause ere committing thtmsehes to incur the 
cost of introducing some lauded plant. Had ue 
known anything of the botany of Assam, for ia- 
starce. or taken the trouble to sift out the thread- 
bare bazEUir story of the Buddhist pilgrim the c-o8tl> 
expedition of Mr. Fortune to China would not have 
been undertaken. The more jungly clasi*es of our 
fellow-subjects may be said to possens a pliarma- 
copoeia of their own, and one. apparently, quite as 
effectual as ours ; doubtless, were tbc^sc remedies 
examined, many would be found to Ijc kuowu to 
us, under different names, but at the same time 
the probabilities are that a considerable amount 
would turn out novelties, none the less valuable 
though on that account. "Simples" home of these 
may be considered, but, as we have shewn, similar 
herbs and roots, erstwhile collected in England, have 
been deemed of sufficient importance to be iucor- 
E orated in the list of European medicines. It may 
e objected to by some that we possess no suitable 
spot where a/l drugs could be manipulated and pre- 
pared for consumption, but if this objection be ad- 
missible (an assumption in which we by no nieans 
concur) those drugs requiring particular climates 
could, without any undue expense, readily have 
suitable sites found for the puipose; but we know 
of no drug derived from the vegetable kingdom that 
would need anything different than the climate of 
the metropolis in the cold weather. 
Our tea planters, unfortunately, are hardly just 
now in a position to take this matter in band, 
and we must fall back upon settlers and, perhaps, 
the hill jails ; but what is chiefly required is an 
interchange of views and relations of experiences, 
similar to the letters and communications that used 
to appear in the "Journal of the Agri-Horticultural 
Society " some few years since. It may be argoed 
that this matter is solely one for the Government 
to take up, but we cannot see this as, though the 
cultivation of medicinal plants would bring down the 
price of dviigs fully two-thirds, there would still, 
for many years to come, be a steady demand at 
remunerative prices; hence the cultivator would re- 
alise a good income. All Government need be asked 
to do would be, that it should deal with the local 
instead of the foreign producer, provided, of course, 
that the standard of quality were maintained. 
Government would, of course, merely take the raw 
material, working it up in ita owti laboratories and 
perhaps, it would be better if all drugs were treated 
under authoritative supervision, for it is not so very- 
many years ago since an official of the Educational 
Department, iu his own estimation a qualified 
chemist — was placed in charge of the quinine factory 
at Darjeeling, making such a muddle of matters 
that somehow or other a highly deleterious compound 
was turned out. The rearing of exotics or utilisation 
of indigenous herbs need by no means be confined to 
purely medicinal plants, but "might be extended to those 
which come under the denomination of medical 
comforts, for though a considerable quantity of farina 
is obtainable for European consumption, the fictitious 
price at which it is retailed places it far beyond the 
means of even the middle classes t f the native commu- 
nity, and this , surely should not be the case in a 
country like Bengal, at a,uy rate where arrowroot and 
tapioca may be consider-- d weeds. The preparation of 
these two is so very simple that the establishment 
of centres for their manufacture might well engage 
th@ atteatioQ of those rich, well-iuteution^ philaji< 
