September 3, 1870.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
187 
M’BOUNDOU OR ICAJA, AN ORDEAL POISON 
USED AT THE GABOON. 
BY MM. RABUTEAU AND PEYRE. 
In 1869, one of the authors brought from the Gaboon 
some roots of M’boundou. They had been dug up by 
himself from a humid soil in the vicinity of the river 
Como, about thirty leagues inland. It is only with 
great difficulty that the plant is to he obtained in the 
settlement. The places where it is to he found are kept 
secret with such care by the fetishmen from Europeans, 
and even from the natives, that up to the present time 
only a few specimens have been obtained, which have 
not been sufficient to enable a complete study of its 
toxic properties to be made. 
The roots with which the experiments were made mea¬ 
sured at the crown the largest three centimetres in dia¬ 
meter, the smallest about one. They are sometimes 
found of a larger size. The length varied between fifty 
and seventy centimetres. The rather thick bark is, 
both when fresh and when dry, reddish at the surface 
and of a bright red colour under the epiderm. The wood 
which it covers is greyish-white and very hard. 
The experiments were nearly all made with the bark, 
—some few, however, with the root-wood,—from which 
aqueous and alcoholic extracts were prepared. The bark 
and the wood are both very bitter, their infusions, even 
when very much diluted, possessing still an extreme 
bitterness. Treated with a solution of iodine and iodide 
of potassium, or with phosphomolybdic acid, they gave an 
abundant precipitate. They contain an alkaloid (per¬ 
haps many) which is believed to be the same in the bark 
and in the wood, since the effects observed upon animals 
have appeared identical, the only difference noted being 
that the alcoholic extract has seemed more active than 
the aqueous extract. A difference, though but a slight 
one, has been noticed in the effect of the poison when 
introduced into the stomach from that which follows it 
when introduced under the skin of animals. 
After many experiments made with varied doses of 
the poison upon frogs, rabbits and dogs, it is believed 
that the following is the manner of action of the poison¬ 
ous principle of m’boundou. 
Introduced in a very small quantity under the skin of 
a frog the poison produces only a constraint of the 
movements,—a sort of paralysis,—which prevents it 
from jumping except with difficulty. The same effect 
was observed when, instead of introducing the extract, 
which is very powerful, under the skin, a little powdered 
root has been substituted for it. When only a small 
quantity of the aqueous extract has been introduced 
under the skin, its effect disappears completely after 
about an hour. 
A dose of three milligrammes of this extract injected 
under the skin of a frog produces at first the constraint 
of movements just noticed, but after ten minutes or 
more it suffers from shocks and tetanic convulsions. 
These convulsions are not produced spontaneously in 
general, but are brought on by touching the animal, or 
simply striking the table upon which it rests. If the 
dose is stronger—one centigramme, for example—the 
convulsions appear more quickly; there is rigidity, but 
it is rarely that the animal can be raised altogether as 
when one is poisoned by strychnine. There is always a 
certain relaxation compared with what is observed in 
the. action of strychnine. Moreover, the frog is not 
rigid after death. This occurs after a period not ex¬ 
ceeding three-quarters of an hour, unless the dose has 
been feeble; in that case the animal, placed in water, 
recovers completely after a few hours. 
If a frog be prepared according to the method of 
M. Claude Bernard, by tying the lower part of the 
trunk and excluding the lumbar nerves, then, by intro¬ 
ducing the extract under the skin, it is ascertained that 
m’boundou acts upon the spinal marrow. It is not a 
muscular poison. 
A dose of ten centigrammes of the extract of m’boun¬ 
dou in aqueous solution injected under the skin of a 
rabbit in two or three different places, in order that the 
absorption should be more rapid, killed the animal in 
twenty minutes. Five or ten minutes after the injec¬ 
tion, upon being touched, it suffered from energetic 
starts and shocks that may be compared to electric 
shocks; at the same time the movements of its limbs, 
especially of its posterior ones, were much impeded. It 
died from asphyxia, but its life might have been pro¬ 
longed by artificial respiration. The same dose injected 
in another rabbit at a single point did not cause death ; 
at the end of two hours the animal had but feeble shocks 
upon being touched, and even these disappeared totally. 
It ate with appetite. This fact proves evidently that 
the elimination of the poison is rapid. 
Fifteen centigrammes of the same extract dissolved in 
thirty or forty grammes of water, and introduced into 
the stomach of a rabbit, caused its death at the end of an 
hour and five minutes. The symptoms, which were the 
same as the preceding, commenced to manifest them¬ 
selves ten minutes after the introduction of the poison. 
With a dose of forty centigrammes the effects were 
startlingly sudden. 
The symptoms observed in dogs were of the same 
kind, appearing generally, according to the dose, at the 
end of five or ten minutes. When their appearance was 
tardy they were easily provoked, as in the case of the 
rabbits, by raising the animal or simply touching it. As 
before, the shocks were powerful, the breath was pant¬ 
ing, the posterior limbs were paralysed. The uncer¬ 
tainty and difficulty of the movements were more appa¬ 
rent when the aqueous solution of the extract was 
introduced into the stomach than when it was injected 
under the skin. A dog which had been made to swallow 
twenty-five centigrammes of extract dissolved in forty 
grammes of water called to mind the bar that the Ga- 
boonese wish those who have taken the ordeal beverage 
to jump over. This animal, sensible to caresses and 
obeying the voice, could not clear steps eighteen centi¬ 
metres high. Every time that it made an effort 
it trembled, and suffered violent tetanic convulsions. 
At the end of an hour it was still convulsed, even under 
the influence of fear; but an hour later, that is, two 
hours after the injection of the poison, there only re¬ 
mained a slight stiffness in its movements, and it ate 
with good appetite. Its ears and muzzle, which had 
been hot before, became cool. 
A dose of forty centigrammes of extract introduced into 
the stomach of a dog caused death in twenty minutes. It 
died of asphyxia, accompanied by convulsions ; its sphinc¬ 
ters relaxed, causing an emission of urine and fecal 
matter. A nasal haemorrhage was observed, which 
haemorrhage has also been noticed among the Gaboon- 
ese. Rigidity did not set in until about three-quar¬ 
ters of an hour afterwards. 
Upon considering these facts, it appears that the 
active principle or principles of m’boundou produce 
effects which present a certain analogy with those pro¬ 
duced by strychnine, but differ considerably from them 
under certain aspects. These effects resemble rather 
those of brucine; but it is remarked that m’boundou did 
not produce that hoarseness of voice in the dog experi¬ 
mented upon which, contrary to what is generally ad¬ 
mitted, the authors have remarked in dogs to whom 
brucine has been given by them. 
M’boundou is an extremely rapid poison, but the ex¬ 
periments tend to show that it is quickly eliminated 
from the system, and that fatal symptoms may be 
allayed by artificial respiration. 
Some researches upon m’boundou were made in 1861 
by MM. Pecholier and Saintpierre.* These experimen¬ 
ters had but a small quantity of root at their disposal; 
they nevertheless observed the greater part of the symp- 
* Journal d'Anatomie et de Physiologic. 
L 3 
