January 4,1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS 
521 
THE EFFECT OF MANURES ON THE 
ALKALOIDAL YIELD OF CINCHONAS. 
At the suggestion of Mr. Broughton, the Govern¬ 
ment Quinologist at the Ootacamund Plantation, the 
Government of India sanctioned some experiments 
being made until certain artificial manures, to ascertain 
if their application to cinchona-trees would increase 
the alkaloidal yield, and the results have recently 
been made the subject of a letter from the Revenue 
Department of Madras.* 
For this purpose 12 cwt. of amnionic sulphate 
and 9 cwt. of Peruvian guano, both of good quality, 
were ordered from England. These manures were 
applied to trees of Cinchona succirubra and C. offi¬ 
cinalis in quantities of 4 oz. to 1 lb. 
Some fine three-year-old plants of C. succiritbraweve 
treated in November, 1869, in plots of fifty each, with 
1 lb. of amnionic sulphate and the same quantity 
of guano, but no perceptible increase in luxuriance 
or rapidity of growth was noticed up to the month 
of January, 1872. At that time bark from manured 
and non-manured succirubra plants was submitted 
o analysis with the following percentage results 
Manured. Unmanurcd. 
Total alkaloids.7'25 4-89 
Quinine.245 P7S 
Cinchonidine and Cinchonine 4 ■ 80 3 • 11 
This showing a gain by manuring of 2*36 of alka¬ 
loids, O’67 consisting of quinine. 
Trunk bark of trees manured with 1 lb. of 
guano gave the following results as against trees not 
so treated:— 
Manured. Unmanured. 
Total alkaloids. 5*29 4‘76 
Quinine.0’91 1'04 
Cinchonidine.4'38 3 - 72 
This showed but an increase of 0'53 of total alka¬ 
loids, and the manured bark contained 0T3 less of 
quinine, owing possibly to the exciting action of the 
guano hastening the change through which, as 
C. succirubra grows older, it loses its alkaloidal 
yield. 
From the results of these experiments Mr. 
Broughton does not recommend that C. succirubra 
should be manured, as the cost of manure would 
outweigh the small increased richness in the bark. 
The C. officinalis has always been noted for its 
extreme sensitiveness to situation, sun-light and 
character of soil, and therefore Mr. Broughton was 
the more anxious to test the effect of manures on this 
species. Trees were therefore placed under the 
same conditions with regard to time of manuring ; 
and the bark of trees treated with 1 lb. of guano, 
though differing in no respect while growing, gave 
the following results compared with the bark of un¬ 
manured trees— 
Manured. Unmanured, 
Total alkaloids .... 651 3‘98 
Pure quinine * . . . . 441 240 
Cinchonidine and cinchonine 240 1*58 
Thus by this treatment showing a gain of 2*53, of 
which increase 2 - 01 was quinine. With other trees 
of the same species, treated with f lb. amnionic sul¬ 
phate, the results were as follows— 
Proceedings of the Madras Government Revenue De¬ 
partment, April 10th, 1872, No. 93. 
Third Series, No. 132. 
Manured. Unmanured. 
Total alkaloids . . . . 5 ’76 4‘54 
Pure quinine.341 2 - 54 
Cinchonidine and cinchonine 2 - G5 2 00 
Thus showing an increase of 122, of which (P57 
was quinine. 
During the period between 1867 and 1872, trees 
of C. officinalis were treated with about four barrow- 
loads of farmyard manure each. In February, 1872, 
bark from trees so manured was analysed— 
Manured. Unmanured. 
Total alkaloids . ... 7*49 4’68 
Pure quinine. 745 2 - 40 
Cinchonidine and cinchonine 0‘34 2 - 28 
This analysis gives in favour of manuring 2‘81 of 
total alkaloids; but the most remarkable fact is 
that it has favoured the production of quinine over 
cinchonidine and cinchonine, the total increase of 
quinine being no less than 4 - 75. 
On these results Mr. Broughton remarks that 
stable or farmyard manure has somewhat of an ad¬ 
vantage over the more artificial manures. The 
effect of these manures is only seen in analysis, 
as, during growth, no greater luxuriance is noticed 
in manured trees than in trees not so treated. These 
results appear to bear out Mr. Broughton’s hypo¬ 
thesis, “ that the alkaloids in the bark of the trees 
are not specially active constituents in the processes 
connected with the life and growth of the plant; and 
this supposition is supported by the circumstance 
that the increased amount of alkaloid produced by 
the manure caused no change in the appearance and 
rate of growth of the tree.” 
Mr. Broughton thinks these experiments to be so 
important that he has made application for further 
supplies of manure, and proposes that, if stable 
manure cannot be obtained in sufficient quantity, 
guano should be the manure used. 
STRIATED IPECACUANHAS.* 
BY M. PLANCHON. 
It is known that writers on materia medica desig¬ 
nate under the name of “striated ipecacuanha” 
emetic roots which are distinguished from other sorts 
of ipecacuanha by the longitudinal striie that mark 
their surface. This kind appeared to be perfectly 
characterized and its history cleared up, when some 
years since there appeared a memoir by M. Yoglf 
upon the ipecacuanhas in the pharmacological collec¬ 
tion at Vienna. While comparing the species de¬ 
scribed in that memoir with those in the collection 
of M. Guibourt, it appeared to me that the same 
name had been attributed to different species. A 
striated ipecacuanha which I met with about the 
same time at the Pharmacie Centrale of M. Dorvault 
confirmed me in the opinion that this question was 
worthy of investigation, and I engaged several of our 
students successively to deal with it in their in¬ 
augural theses. M. Georges Durand, J in examining 
the structure of various kinds of ipecacuanhas, 
pointed, out that the striated ipecacuanha of A T ogl did 
not correspond in its anatomical characters to those 
of the sort so named in the Guibourt collection. M. 
* Translated from the Journ. de Pliarm. et de Chimie [4] 
xv]. p. 404. . 
•f Vogl, ‘ Zeitsclirift des oesterr. Apothekcrvereins ; W lggers 
and Htisemann, ‘ Jahresb. d. Pharmacognosie,’ 1807, P-64. 
J ‘ Etude des differentes racines d’ Ipecacuanha du Com¬ 
merce’ (Theses de l’Ecolo de Pharmacie de Paris, 1870). 
