April 12, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
801 
NOTES ON INDIAN SIMARUBEiE. 
BY ALFRED W. BENNETT, M.A., B.SC., F.L.S., 
Lecturer on Botany, St. Thomas's Hospital. 
The Simarubese are an order of plants of consider¬ 
able interest from a medicinal point of view, in con¬ 
sequence of the intensely bitter properties displayed 
by their bark and some other parts of the plant. 
The best known genus of the order, Quassia, belongs 
to the New World ; but in Tropical Asia there are 
also a considerable number of species sharing in the 
same medicinal properties; and from the great and 
growing interest taken in the natural productions of 
our Indian possessions, I have thought it might be of 
interest to put together what is known about the 
species that are natives of those countries, which I 
am the better able to do from having had the oppor¬ 
tunity recently of verifying, and in some cases cor¬ 
recting, the diagnoses of previous writers, while pre¬ 
paring a monograph of the order for Dr. Hooker’s 
‘ Flora of British India.’ 
The Simarubese are placed by Bentham and Hooker 
in their “ cohort ” Geraniales of Thalamiflorae ; by 
Lindley in his u alliance ” Rutales of Hypogynous 
Exogens: they are all trees or shrubs, often of a 
very great size, with usually inconspicuous, often 
very crowded and mostly unisexual flowers ; the 
leaves often remarkably large and almost always 
compound ; the fruit consisting, in nearly all the 
genera, of a number of distinct indehiscent drupes or 
samarse, arranged, and often stalked, on a common 
receptacle. The species mostly inhabit the tropical 
and subtropical regions of both hemispheres, espe¬ 
cially South America and Tropical Africa, and num¬ 
ber about 120, arranged in 30 genera. The only 
representative of the order in Europe is the Cncorum 
tricoccum of the South of France ; but it is well 
known in shrubberies, from its Asian representative 
Ailanthus glandulosa , extensively cultivated on ac¬ 
count of its rapid growth, its magnificently large 
pinnate leaves, and as food for a species of silk¬ 
worm, the Bombyx Cynthia. The diagnosis of the 
order may be stated as follows :— 
Order Simarube!®, Rich., DC. 
Trees or shrubs, often with bitter bark. Leaves 
alternate, rarely opposite, pinnate or rarely simple, 
without stipules. Inflorescence axillary, racemose, or 
panicled, rarely spicate; flowers regular, usually uni¬ 
sexual, and generally small. Calyx 3-5-lobed. Pe¬ 
tals 3-5, very rarely 0, valvate or imbricate. Disc 
annular, capsular, or elongated, simple or lobed, 
rarely absent. Stamens equalling or twice as many 
as petals, rarely indefinite, inserted at the base of the 
disc ; filaments free, often scaly at the base ; anthers 
oblong, usually introrse, bilocular, dehiscing longitu¬ 
dinally. Ovary free, 1-6-celled, usually deeply lobed, 
less often entire ; styles 2-5, more or less united or 
free ; stigmas capitate ; ovules usually solitary in 
each cell, rarely more numerous, erect or pendulous. 
Fruit drupaceous, capsular, or frequently samaroid, 
of 1-6 distinct carpels, rarely syncarpous. Seeds 
usually pendulous ; albumen present or absent; em¬ 
bryo straight or curved; radicle superior. 
With regard to the general properties of the Order, 
and especially of those species which are not Indian, 
the following remarks are made by Lindley, Bentley, 
Royle, and others. The species are intensely bitter. 
A plant called “ Paraiba ” in Brazil, Simaruba versi¬ 
color, St. Hil., possesses such excessive bitterness 
Third Series, No. 146. 
hat no insects will attack it. Specimens of it, placed 
among dried plants which were entirely devoured by 
die larvoe of a species of Ptinus, remained untouched. 
The Brazilians use an infusion in brandy as a specific 
against the bite of serpents, and also employ it with 
great success as a cure of maladies occasioned by 
parasitic insects. The wood of Quassia amara , a 
native of Surinam and the adjacent countries, is in- 
;ensely bitter, and was the original Quassia of com¬ 
merce, formerly much used as a febrifuge and tonic, 
and the flowers infused in wine or water, as a sto¬ 
machic. It contains a principle called Quassin. The 
officinal Quassia-wood of the materia medica is now, 
however, yielded entirely by a Jamaican plant of the 
order, Picroena or Picrasma excelsa. It is much 
used as a tonic, febrifuge, and stomachic, and it 
also possesses anthelmintic properties. An infusion 
sweetened with sugar acts as a powerful narcotic 
poison on flies and other insects ; its infusion may 
also be employed to preserve animal matters from 
decay. It is sometimes used by brewers as a substi¬ 
tute for hops, although prohibited under severe pe¬ 
nalties. Quassin, the intensely bitter crystalline 
substance characteristic of the Order, is found here 
also. In Jamaica the plant is known under the 
name of Bitter Ash or Bitter Wood, and the wood 
was at one time used for the manufacture of small 
goblets, known as " bitter- cups.” Simaruba amara 
is a native of South America and the West Indies, 
especially Jamaica, where it is known under the 
name of Mountain Damson. The bark acts as a 
tonic, and has been used in diarrhoea, dysentery, etc., 
and exported to Europe. In Cayenne the decoction, 
which is bitter, purgative, and even emetic, is used 
in fevers and diarrhoea. The timber is described by 
Sir R. Schomburgk as resembling white pine, both 
in colour and quality. The seeds of another species 
of the order, Simaba Cedron, or “Cedron,” are highly 
esteemed throughout Central America, where they 
are used as a febrifuge, and are thought to be a spe¬ 
cific against the bites of venomous snakes and other 
noxious animals. The active principle of this plant 
has been termed Cedrin. Purdie states that the 
tree grows in profusion on the Magdalena, near the 
village of San Pablo. In the Isthmus it is generally 
found on the outskirts of forests in almost every part 
of the country, but in greater abundance in Darien 
and Yeraguas than in Panama. According to Dr. 
Seemann the natives hold it in high esteem, and 
always carry a piece of the seed about with them. 
When a person is bitten, a little mixed with water is 
applied to the wound, and about two grains, scraped 
into brandy, or, in the absence of it, into water, are 
administered internally. By following this treat¬ 
ment, the bites of the most venomous snakes, scor¬ 
pions, centipedes, and other noxious animals have 
been unattended by dangerous consequences. Doses 
of it have also proved highly beneficial in cases of 
intermittent fever. Dr. Royle has no doubt that, 
from the similarity of the climate to that of their 
native country, all the Quassias and Simarubas would 
succeed well in Bengal. Brucea antidysenterica of 
Tropical Africa possesses similar properties to the 
species already named. 
A. and Th. Husemann, in their c Pflanzenstoffe in 
chemischer, physiologischer, und toxicologischer Hin- 
sicht,’ give the following account of the preparation 
and properties of these two substances :—Quassin 
is an indifferent substance, with the composition 
Ci 0 H 12 O 3 , and was discovered by Winckler in 1835 ; 
