424 
LECTURES ON TIIE BRITISH PHARMACOPCEIA. 
British Pharmacopoeia. Nectandra has also been introduced into the recently- 
issued United States Pharmacopoeia. Sulphate of Beberia is the sulphate of 
the alkaloid biberine , or bebeerine , obtained from Bebeeru bark, which is im¬ 
ported from British Guiana. The plant from which this bark is derived is the 
Nectandra Rodicei of Schomburgk, and commonly termed the Greenlieart tree. 
It belongs to the Natural Order Lauraceae. 
The bark is in large, flat, heavy pieces, from one to two feet long, from two 
to six inches broad, and about a quarter of an inch thick. It is nearly smooth 
externally, and of a greyish-brown colour. Internally its colour is dark cinna¬ 
mon-brown. It has no odour ; but its taste is strongly and persistently bitter, 
combined with great astringency. 
As far back as 1834 it was recommended as a substitute for cinchona by Dr. 
Rodie, w T ho discovered an alkaloid both in it and the fruit. It attracted very 
little attention however till 1843, when Dr. Douglas Maclagan, of Edinburgh, 
published a number of observations confirming Dr. Rodie’s discoveries, and 
highly recommending it for its antiperiodic properties. Other medical practi¬ 
tioners subsequently testified to its antiperiodic virtues, and it was thought 
by some that it would form a valuable substitute for cinchona bark. The more 
recent experiments of M. Becquerel in France with the sulphate of beberia, as 
well as those of Drs. Pepper and Dailey in North America, and recently of Dr. 
Garrod in this country, do not confirm the favourable results first obtained, but 
show that although occasionally successful, it cannot be relied on as a substitute 
for sulphate of quinia. With such testimony before us, we do not regard the 
introduction of sulphate of beberia into the British Pharmacopoeia as a valuable 
one. The dose of the sulphate of beberia is from one to three grains as a tonic, 
and from /zre to twenty grains as a febrifuge.'*' 
Bela, Bael. —This is an entirely new article in a British Pharmacopoeia. 
The plant which yields it is the JEgle Marmelos , DC., belonging to the Natural 
Order Aurantiacese. The officinal part is the half-ripe fruit dried, which is ob¬ 
tained from the East Indies, and chiefly from Malabar and Coromandel. A full 
account of the plant and its reputed properties was published some years since 
in the Pharmaceutical Journal.f The recently issued United States Pharma¬ 
copoeia takes no notice of Bael. 
The officinal half-ripe fruit is about the size of Mogadore Colocynth fruit, or 
a small shaddock. It has a hard woody rind, about two lines thick, and of a 
greyish or reddish-brown colour. The dried pulp has a brownish-orange or 
orange-red colour, and contains numerous seeds ; it has no odour, but a muci¬ 
laginous, slightly astringent taste. The fruit is but rarely imported entire, but 
generally in dried, more or less twisted slices ; or in fragments consisting of pieces 
of the rind and adherent pulp and seeds. 
This half-ripe fruit is regarded in India as a most valuable and efficacious 
remedy in dysentery, and all affections of the bowels accompanied by relaxation, 
and also in cases of irritation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and 
bowels. It is also said to relieve diarrhoea and dysentery without producing a 
subsequent constipation. The active or astringent principle is a kind of tannin. 
We have no very well recorded cases in this country of dysentery and diarrhoea 
in which Bael has been proved to be efficacious ; and the experience of Dr. 
Garrod does not tend to show that it is at all preferable to other mild astringents 
in such diseases ; hence, considering the number of astringents besides it in the 
British Pharmacopoeia, we can find no satisfactory reason for its introduction. 
Belladonna. —We notice this article of the Materia Medica because, for the 
first time in a British Pharmacopoeia, the fresh branches together with the 
* Pliann. Journ., vol. iii. p. 177; vol. iv. p. 281; vol. v. p. 228. 
f Pliarai. Journ., vol. x. p. 165. 
