■January 18, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
509 
latter are fired into from accident or design with ordi¬ 
nary small-arm bullets, their contents will be violently 
exploded as by detonation, while the gun-cotton under 
the same circumstances would be simply inflamed. 
(Zb be continued.) 
THE MANIOC, OR TAPIOCA PLANT.* 
BY M. PAUL SAGOT. 
Tapioca is obtained from the Manioc, or Cassava, a suf- 
frutescent plant belonging to the Order Euphorbiaceao, 
which has long been cultivated by the indigenous Indians 
of Guiana and intertropical America. It is the Jat r op ha 
Manihot of Linnaeus, and the 31 am hot utilissima, and 
Manihot Aipi of Pohl. By the Indians^ it is known 
■under various names ; the Caribs call it Ktere and can- 
him; the Galibi, Kie ray; the Arrouagouo, caldli. In 
the Antilles, the Spanish colonies, New Granada, Peru, 
amd Para it is called yuca; in Brazil inandiocca and 
maniba and aipi (sweet manioc) ; in Mexico it is called 
•iziim. A great number of varieties have been observed 
under cultivation, each of them permanent, although 
•sometimes closely resembling another variety, and each 
•distinguished by some particular quality. Botanists have 
not yet met with any form of the cultivated manioc in 
n wild state; but in Brazil, Guiana and Venezuela many 
undoubtedly spontaneous species of the genus Manihot 
-exist, and some of them resemble the cultivated varieties 
very closed. The province of Goyaz in Brazil produces 
the largest number of species, and amongst those offering 
the closest points of resemblance are M. pusilla , 31. Jia- 
■ bcllifolia , M. diyitiformis and 31. triphylla. Pohl de- 
• scribes the sweet (non-poisonous) manihot (called Aipi in 
Brazil, M. Aipi, Pohl) as a distinct species from the poi¬ 
sonous manihot ( Yuca brava or Mandioca brava of the 
•Spanish and Portuguese colonies) ; but the author agrees 
with Goudot in thinking that they are only varieties of 
the same species. 
The manioc or cassava plant is propagated by cuttings 
'which grow with extreme facility. The plant ap¬ 
pears at first as a straight stem, furnished with large 
•digitate leaves, with about seven lobes. At the age of 
from six to ten months, and when from one to two 
metres high, it throws off from its summit lateral branches, 
with smaller leaves, and shortly afterwards bear3 flowers. 
"The root then commences to develope several elongated 
-amylaceous tubers, which continue to grow under¬ 
ground as long as the branches yield leaves and flowers. 
At the end of a year and a half or two years the roots are 
ready for collection; but if not wanted may be left in the 
.ground for some time, provided they be watched that they 
•do not rot. On the other hand, they may, if required, be 
.gathered earlier, but the yield is not so good. The stalks, 
which are planted about a metre apart, usually produce 
two or three tubers, varying in size and weighing to¬ 
gether from one to three kilograms. The plant is not 
very choice as to soil, but flourishes most in freshly 
•cleared ground, and prefers well-drained spots, an excess 
•of moisture causing it to rot. Although living for two 
or three years, the plant is not strictly a perennial, since 
it becomes gradually exhausted as the tubers attain 
their full size. The sweet manihot is usually gathered 
■earlier, since the root becomes hard and bad if left to 
develope too much. 
The yield of the manioc root, considering the time it oc¬ 
cupies the ground, when compared with other farinaceous 
roots is not great; but on the other hand, it contains 
leS3 water than any other starchy root;—when mature, 
less than sixty per cent. Its texture is very dense and 
compact. It contains much starch, and its richness in al- 
bumen and other nitrogenized matters is estimated at 
two per cent. In converting the roots into an edible 
* Abstracted from a paper read before the Societe Botanique 
de France, Dec. 18tli, 1871 (Bull, de Soc. Bot. Fr. xviii. 311). 
flour, they are scraped, peeled, and then washed; next 
they are rasped upon a wooden plank armed with small 
iron teeth, and the pulp is left twenty-four hours, by 
w T hieh time a slight fermentation is set up. It is then 
placed in a long, flexible basket, called a couleuvrc , 
usually made of plaited rushes. The couleuvrc is sus¬ 
pended by a handle at its open end, and a heavy 
weight is attached to the other end, by which means the 
sides arc compressed together, and a slightly opaline 
aqueous juice, which is highly poisonous, is caused to 
ooze through the plaits. The pressed meal is then 
taken out and exposed for some time over a fire ; after- 
wards pounded, coarsely sifted and roasted on a brass 
plate over a fire to upwards of 100 Q C., care being taken 
by constant renewals to prevent scorching. Sometimes 
during the roasting it is stirred to and fro with a small 
rake of wood or metal; it is thus formed into small hard 
grains, having the appearance of semolina, which are 
called couac. Alien cassava is to be prepared, the meal 
is more carefully pounded and better sifted. It is then 
spread circularly upon the plate, pressed slightly with a 
pallet knife to cause it to aggregate and turned two or 
three times during the roasting. In both operations there 
is complete cooking and desiccation effected, which enables 
it to be kept an almost indefinite time. The aggregation 
of the meal is caused, not by the addition of water, but 
by the action of heat, softening and agglutinating some 
of the particles of starch. 
M. Sagot considers the manioc to be healthy food, al¬ 
though of small nutritive value. Dr. Scliier estimates 
it to contains 0T8 per cent, of nitrogen, but little phos¬ 
phorus, and a very small quantity of fatty matter. The 
indigenous tribes, who make it the basis of their food, 
supplement it with a good quantity of fish and meat. 
In the preparation of tapioca, the root i3 rasped and 
diluted w r ith water, in yhich it is “well worked up; the 
grosser parts are removed and the finer allowed to. be 
deposited by subsidence in the water. In this form it is 
imported into this country in considerable quantities as 
Brazilian arrow-root. The tapioca is produced by roast¬ 
ing this starch on metal plates, stirring it the wdiile with 
an iron rod ; the starch grains burst, some of the starch 
is converted into dextrin, and the whole agglomerates 
into small irregular masses. 
In Demerara, the manioc juice, deprived by boiling of 
its injurious properties, is used under the name of cas- 
sareep , as a sauce for the table. Besides this, the Indians 
use the root of the manioc to prepare fermented drinks, 
wdiich, however, ■would hardly suit European tastes. 
It is probable, M. Sagot thinks, that the poison 
present in t^ie manioc is an instable organic compound, 
hurtful in itself, but especially dangerous from the fact 
that, under certain conditions, it will engender hydro¬ 
cyanic acid. The leaves when bruised exhale a smell 
of bitter almonds, and the presence of prussic acid in the 
roots has been established. This he considers to explain 
the fact that while the manioc water, especially when 
distilled, is very poisonous, in Guiana and Brazil the 
Indians, after boiling it and removing the scum, use it 
as a beverage. Although wild animals, too, are some¬ 
times poisoned through eating the leaves, sometimes they 
are not; this, he thinks, occurs when, a small quantity 
being eaten, the gastric juice exercises an energetic 
action before hydrocyanic acid can be developed. 
The sweet cassava, or Camauioc, contains so small a 
quantity of acrid principles that the roots are cooked at 
a fire and eaten like potatoes. It is a rapid-growing 
variety, becoming ripe in five or six months, and in two 
or three months more the roots become hard and unfit 
to eat. The bark of the stalk is white, the petioles of 
the leaves are of a fine purple-red colour, and the . luxu¬ 
riant leaves at the foot of the stalk are 7-partite. The 
tubercles are long and of small diameter; when cooked in 
the ashes of a fire they are agreeable to the taste, sweet 
and of a fine consistence. 
