132 
PHARMA COGNOSY. 
KRAMERIA (Rhatany). 
The root of various species of Krameria (Fam. Legu- 
minosse), shrubs indigenous to South America, Mexico 
and the West Indies. There are three principal com- 
mercial varieties: (1) Peruvian Rhatany, which is 
yielded by Krameria triandra and obtained from plants 
growing in Peru and Bolivia; (2) Savanilla Rhatany, 
which is derived from more or less disputed species of 
Krameria growing in the United States of Colombia, 
British Guiana and Brazil, and (3) Para Rhatany 
which is supposed to be derived from Krameria 
argentea growing in Brazil. 
Description. — Peruvian Rhatany. — Consisting of a 
more or less cylindrical crown 50 mm. long and 15 to 
20 mm. in diameter, and numerous cylindrical, some- 
what tapering, branching roots 10 to 40 cm. long and 
1 to 7 mm. thick; externally brownish red; crown 
with rugged and scaly bark ; roots smooth or slightly 
wrinkled longitudinally; fracture of bark slightly 
fibrous, of wood, tough and splintery; internally red- 
dish, bark 1 to 2 mm. thick, somewhat easily separable 
from the lighter colored, slightly radiate wood ; odor 
slight; wood nearly tasteless, bark astringent. 
Savanilla Rhatany. — Crown more or less cylindrical 
or spherical, rough, knotty ; externally dark reddish 
brown, with numerous transverse fissures at more or 
less regular intervals; periderm not scaly ; bark about 
twice as thick as that of Peruvian rhatany. 
Para Rhatany closely resembles the Savanilla variety. 
Constituents. — Tannin from 8 to 20 per cent., 
starch and calcium oxalate. 
The tincture of Savanilla rhatany forms a clear 
solution with water, which gives with alcoholic lead 
acetate test-solution a purplish precipitate and a color- 
less filtrate ; the tincture of Peruvian rhatany forms a 
