September 17, 1370.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
221 
GUARANA. 
PauUinia sorbilis, Mart. 
BY M. C. COOKE, M.A. 
Tlie remarkable product called Guarana has not 
been many years known in Europe. The tree whence 
it is obtained belongs to the Order Sapindacece, and 
is abundant in the province of Amazonas, along the 
banks of the Tapajos, Rio Negro, etc., as well as in 
Guiana and Venezuela. The fruit, scarcely as large 
as a walnut, contains five or six seeds, which are 
roasted, then mixed with water, and moulded into a 
cylindrical form resembling a large sausage, then 
finally dried in an oven and offered for sale. Gua¬ 
rana is used extensively in Brazil, Guatemala, Costa 
Rica and other parts of South America, as a nervous 
stimulant and restorative. 
Besides its medicinal properties, this substance 
has a reputation for affording a refreshing beverage 
similar in its effects to tea and coffee. It is grated 
into a powder, very like powdered cacao in appear¬ 
ance. Two spoonfuls of this powder are mixed in a 
tumbler of water, and this drink is regarded as a 
stimulant to the nerves, and, like strong tea or coffee, 
is said to take away the disposition to sleep. 
The active chemical principle is an alkaloid first 
discovered by Dr. Theodore von Martius, and called 
by him Guaranine, but since shown by Dr. Sten- 
house to be identical with Tlieine. Guarana con¬ 
tains more than double as much of this alkaloid as 
good black tea, and five times as much as coffee, the 
proportions being 5‘07 per cent, in Guarana, 2'13 
per cent, in tea, and 0*80 to l - 00 in coffee.* The 
same alkaloid is found to the amount of U25 per 
cent, in mate, or Paraguay tea, the produce of several 
species of Ilex. 
It is rather a singular coincidence that the same 
alkaloid should prevail in all the principal sub¬ 
stances employed hi a a similar manner as beverages 
in different parts of the world,—in the tea of China 
and India, the coffee of Arabia, the cacao of Central 
America, the mate of South America, and the Gua¬ 
rana of Brazil. M. Fournier has found in the last- 
named substance, besides tannate of caffein, the fol¬ 
lowing principles:—gum, starch, an acrid green 
fixed oil, a concrete volatile oil, scarcely soluble in 
water, a peculiar principle not precisely determined, 
and tannic acid, f 
According to the ‘ Technologist,’ there is exported 
annually from the city of Santarem about 16,000 lbs. 
of tliis substance, valued at eightpence or ninepence 
per pound, and on the Rio Negro it has been sold as 
low as one penny per pound. Specimens were ex¬ 
hibited in the Brazilian Court of the International 
Exhibition of 1862, made by the Amazonian Indians, 
who prepare it for then own use, and for conveyance 
to Para, Matto Grosso, and Goyaz. Six different 
preparations made in Vienna from this substance 
were also shown in the Austrian Court. 
When Guarana was first employed in France 
medicinally, it sold at the rate of from four shillings 
to twenty shillings per ounce, but has since gone 
down in price. It is included amongst the non-offi- 
cinal substances of the ‘ United States Dispensatory.’ 
Its effects upon the system are said to be those of 
a tonic, but they do not appear to have been accu¬ 
rately investigated. It is habitually employed by 
the Indians of Brazil, either mixed with articles of 
diet as with cassava or chocolate, or in the form of 
drink, prepared by scraping it, and suspending the 
powder in sweetened water. It is considered by 
them useful in the prevention and cure of bowel 
complaints. Dr. Gavrelle, who was formerly physi¬ 
cian to Dom Pedro in Brazil, called the attention of 
the inofession to it some years since in France. He 
had found it advantageous in the diarrhoea of phthisis, 
sick headache, paralysis, tedious convalescence, and 
generally as a tonic. By Dr. Ritchie, surgeon in the 
British Navy, it is highly recommended in irritation 
of the urinary passages.* Dr. Herve has been in 
the habit of using it daily for five or six years, and 
has never failed to derive advantage from it in idio¬ 
pathic diarrhoea, even in the most obstinate cases.f 
It may be given in substance, in the quantity of 
one or two drachms, scraped into powder, and mixed 
with sweetened water, but the most convenient form 
of administration is that of spirituous extract. Ac¬ 
cording to M. Dechastelus, alcohol is the only agent 
which completely extracts its virtues, ether and 
water effecting tliis object but partially. Of the ex¬ 
tract eight or ten grains may be given during the 
day, in the form of pill. It may also be taken along 
with chocolate as a drink. | 
Another species of PauUinia ( P. cupana ) growing 
on the banks of the Orinoco river, is also said to 
yield a similar substance. Guarana, or Paullinia, 
as it is sometimes called, has never obtained general 
favour in this country. 
THE SOURCE OF MUSCULAR POWER, 
BY BARON LIEBIG. 
Considering muscle as the working apparatus and 
source of power in the animal body, a knowledge of its 
chemical composition acquires great interest; but 
unfortunately we know very much less of tliis than 
of its morphological relations. 
We distinguish in muscle constituents with defi¬ 
nite forms from others that are amorphous; and one- 
seventli part of the dry material of muscle consists 
of soluble substances which do not coagulate when 
heated. These constitute the so-called extractive, 
that is taken up from disintegrated muscle by cold 
water. 
Urea and uric acid do not exist in healthy muscle; 
uric acid has only once been met with by Meissner 
in fowls’ flesh, and in very small amount—a few 
milligrams in nine pounds of flesh. 
The mere fact of the invariable presence of creatin 
or creatinin in the muscular flesh of all the higher 
classes of animals may be regarded as decisive proof 
in favour of the opinion that both these substances 
are necessary for the economy of muscle. 
Some physiologists have regarded them as apper¬ 
taining to excretions, especially because creatinin 
is frequently present in urine. 
Creatin is, in virtue of its chemical characteristics^ 
a substance that is unique; imder the influence ol 
very feeble reactions,—such, for instance, as in a 
fermenting sugar solution, §—it is converted into a 
* Ed. Month. Journ. Med. Sc. N.s. v. p. 4G7. 
d Brit, and For. Med. Chir. JRev., Jan. 1858, p. 192. 
J United States Dispensatory,’ 12th cd. p. 1578. 
§ Pharm. Journ. 3rd ser. Yol. I. p. 142. 
* For an account of Dr. Stenliouse’s researches, see Pharm. 
Journ. 1st ser. Yol. XYI. p. 212. 
f Journ. de Pharm , April 1861, p. 291. 
Third Series, No. 12. 
