*602 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[February 1, 1673. 
.one cannot help remarking that up to the present 
this drug has not keen fairly tested, in fact not 
tested at all in this country, although it promises 
.enough value to repay amply a careful investigation. 
The root of Aconitum heterophyllum has long been 
.known in India as a valuable febrifuge and tonic, 
.and may be obtained in all the bazaars, although it 
is not uncommon for the inert and insipid Asparagus 
.sarmentosus to be substituted for it. Moodeen 
Sheriff gives the following as the synonyms for this 
root in the languages of India, ‘ At is ’(often written 
Atces) in Hindustani; Atvilea and Vajje-turki, 
Duklianee; Ati-vaclayam, Tamul; and Ati-vasa, 
Telugu. This drug is classed as officinal in the 
.Pharmacopoeia of India, and is thus described:— 
Ovoid tuberous roots, tapering downwards to a 
point, from one to one and a half inches or more in 
length, and from three-eighths to half an inch in 
thickness. The surface, which is covered with a thin 
greyish epidermis, is slightly wrinkled longitudinally, 
and marked here and there with rootlet scars. A 
transverse section shows it to consist of a pure white 
friable amylaceous substance, marked by five or six 
concentrically arranged dots, the terminations of 
threads of woody fibre traversing the root longi¬ 
tudinally, It is inodorous, and of a bitter taste, 
devoid of acridity. Does not contain aconitia. It 
may be readily distinguished from other roots sold 
in the bazaars under the same vernacular name by 
its characteristic bitterness. Tonic and antiperiodic. 
The plant is found in western temperate Himalaya, 
at 8000 to 13,000 feet elevation, from the Indus to 
Kumaon. In all examinations of this root, to ascer¬ 
tain whether genuine or not, the presence of starch, 
.the five or six concentrically arranged dots towards 
The centre, as shown in a transverse fracture, and 
.the bitter taste, devoid of all acridity, should be 
regarded. 
Dr. Balfour, in the Indian ‘ Annals of Medical 
.Science ’ for 1858, states that for two years he had this 
drug in constant use, and found it a most useful febri- 
i'uge, given in doses of half a drachm mixed with a 
little water every four or six hours during the inter¬ 
missions, commencing its use during or towards the 
termination of the sweating stage. Of 66 cases of 
intermittent fever treated by it, of which notes were 
kept, it proved fully successful in 37, and compara¬ 
tively so in 18; in 11 it failed. He directs that 
every root should be broken across, and all which 
.are not pure white, with a short starchy fracture, 
should be discarded. 
Of the value of “ Atis” in India there can be little 
■doubt. Subassistant-Surgeon Henning states that 
so steady and certain is it in its operation, that he 
never thinks of using quinine by any chance, and he 
adds, “ Surely if I can do without quinine in a 
.district where fever of a severe character is very 
prevalent, other medical men could easily do without 
.it also.” Similar testimony is given by Dr. Balfour, 
then civil surgeon at Delhi. “ I think my prisoners 
more healthy than usual this year, partly from the 
.season, partly from the effect of the Atis.”* 
The testimony as to the efficacy of this drug as a 
tfebrifuge is so contradictory that some systematic 
trials should be made. Some have asserted that it 
is quite valueless. The probabilities are greatly in 
favour of the assumption that the genuine drug has 
* Proceedings Agri. Hort. Society of India (1857) vol. ix. 
part iii. p. 271. 
not always been used, but some almost inert substi¬ 
tute. Two kinds are mentioned in the Taleef Shereef, 
a white and a black variety, but both are said to 
partake of the same qualities, bitter, astringent, 
pungent, heating, aiding digestion, and useful in 
dysentery, vomiting and piles. O’Skaughnessy also 
mentions two varieties, one of which he considers 
wholly inert, and refers to the tubers of Asparagus 
sarmentosus. It is probable that of these two kinds, 
one only is the genuine Atis, and the other some 
substitute, or other substance passing under the 
same name. The Pharmacopoeia of India gives no 
note of a second kind, or variety, differing at all from 
the officinal article therein described; but in the 
‘ Supplement ’ Mr. Moodeen Sheriff has called at¬ 
tention to a root found in the bazaars of Southern 
India, under the name of Ati-vasa, which he con¬ 
siders a variety of Aconitum heterophyllum. “ It is 
a small tuberous root, from one to two inches in 
length and circumference, conical or ovoid, with a 
tapering point towards one end ; grey externally, 
and white internally, with more or less white scars 
of rootlets on the surface; inodorous, and bitter in 
taste without any acridity or astringency.”* He 
compared this root with specimens of Atis from Cal¬ 
cutta and other places, and found it to correspond 
with them exactly in the appearance of their sub¬ 
stance internally, and in taste, but it differed from 
some of them in shape and external colour. “ In 
one of the specimens, the epidermis was of a brown 
colour, the roots were smaller and almost oblong, 
and in some of these the tendency to be divided into 
two tubers, as described in some books, was more 
distinctly marked than in the roots of any other 
specimen. In another specimen most of the roots 
were thin and cylindrical, with longitudinal wrinkles 
and with little or no point at either end. All these 
specimens agreed in three characters which were 
invariable, viz., the whiteness of the substance 
internally, the pure bitter taste, and the farinaceous 
nature.” 
Another root found in the bazaars of Southern 
India by Moodeen Sheriff is called Nat-ld-vajje- 
turlci in Duklianee ; Nattu-ati-vadayam in Tamul; 
Nattu-ati-vasa in Telugu. This he describes as “ a 
very small root, and bears more resemblance ex¬ 
ternally to the root of ipecacuanha than any other. 
It is generally about the tliickness of a small quill, 
from half to one and a half inches long, annulated, 
of grey or dark grey colour externally and white in¬ 
ternally, inodorous, and acrid in taste. It is clear 
from this description that it - is not a variety of 
Aconitum heterophyllum, but probably another 
species of Aconitum.”\ 
The roots of one or more species of Aconite of a 
similar character to A. heterophyllum are met with 
in the Bazaars of India under the Arabic name of 
Jadvar, and the Hindustani Nirbisi. Three or four 
well marked varieties may be distinguished, and 
these are enumerated in the Supplement to the 
Indian Pharmacopoeia. Of these are the Jadvar- 
hindi, the Jadvar-Khatai, and the Round Jadvar. 
All these resemble each other in being either bitter 
or sweet without the least acridity, irritation, 
tingling, or any other unnatural sensation; and in 
being more or less brown, both externally and 
internally. The present communication is already 
• Supplement to Pharmacopoeia of India, p. 28. 
■f Supplement to Pharmacopoeia of India, p. 28. 
