June 1,1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
969 
REMARKS ON PLANTS FURNISHING VARIETIES 
OF IPECACUAN, AND ON THE CULTIVATION OF 
CEPHAELIS IPECACUANHA (RICH.) IN THE 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN OF EDINBURGH. 
by rnoFESsou balfouk.* 
(Concluded from page 949.) 
The people who gather the Poaya (Ipecacuan) are 
called Poyaeros. When gathering the plants, the Poa- 
yero seizes several steins with one hand, while with the 
other he pushes into the ground obliquely a sharp- 
pointed stick called saracoa, by means of which he raises 
up the roots. He then pulls up the plants with their 
loosened roots. The Poayero then separates the roots, 
removes the adhering earth from them, and puts them 
in a bag which he carries suspended at his side. A 
skilled collector can pull up, in the course of a day 15 
kilogrammes (about 30 lb.) of Ipecacuan. In general, 
however, the quantity collected in a day does not amount 
to more than from 3 to 5 kilos, i.e., 6 to 10 lb. 
The Poayero gives the roots to a superintendent, who 
weighs them, and lays them out to dry. The more rapid 
the drying so much the better. Hence, the process is 
best carried on in full sunshine. In favourable weather 
the roots are dried in the course of two or three days. 
The process goes on more rapidly when the roots are 
protected from the night dew. When properly dried, 
the roots break easily with a resinoid fracture. The 
gathering of the Ipecacuan goes on during the year, but 
in general it is intermitted during the rainy season. 
The flowering of the plant takes place in the months 
of February and March. The plants by being pulled 
up are often prevented from producing seed ; they, how¬ 
ever, propagate readily by buds from the creeping rhi¬ 
zome. The parts of the roots from which the buds 
spring are shown in the plate illustrating Mr. M‘Nab’s 
paper (Trans. Bot. Soc. vol. x. plate iv.) 
When the Poayero pulls up the roots, he breaks them 
at certain points, and from these ruptured parts young 
plants proceed, and thus the total destruction of the 
plant is prevented. In Matto Grosso, Weddell says that 
the Poayeros take some pains to protect the part of the 
roots left in the soil, and fill up the holes wdien the plants 
have been pulled. In this way it is probable that in the 
course of throe to four years the ground which has been 
robbed of plants may recover itself. 
Dr. Gunning, however, in writing to Dr. Christison, 
from Rio Janeiro, says, that in that distract, the plant is 
extensively destroyed by the operations of the Ipecacuan 
gatherer, and that in the course of time it becomes scarce, 
and altogether disappears in the searched localities. 
Hence the necessity for planting Ipecacuan in places 
where it can be protected, the collection of the roots 
being put under proper superintendence. 
Weddell thinks that the burning of the forests in 
Brazil rather tends to propagate the plant. Before 
burning, the soil is encumbered with a great amount of 
vegetable debris, which accumulates to such an extent 
as to prevent the seed of the Ipecacuan from falling 
into congenial soil, and to choke any plants which may 
bo in a growing state. The burning of the forests acts 
in removing this debris. 
When the roots arc properly dried, they are broken 
into small fragments. From 1835-37, Weddell says 
that in the neighbourhood of Villa Maria (in Upper 
Paraguay) 150,000 kilos, of Ipecacuan were gathered, 
and there were from 1200 to 1500 collectors in the 
forests. Men, women, children, free people, and slaves, 
went into the depths of the Paraguayan forests, and 
spent some months in collecting the roots. At that time, 
the price of 14s kilos was 50 to 60 francs at Villa Maria, 
* Read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, May 
11th, 1871 
and 78 to 90 at Rio Janeiro. This state of matters, how¬ 
ever, soon ceased, and the Poayeros took to the usual 
plan of collecting. 
The first figures of Ipecacuan were given by Piso 
and by Marcgrave, but evidently from the same drawing. 
It was not, however, such as to enable botanists to de¬ 
termine the plant. 
Ray believed that Ipecacuan was furnished by a 
species, of Paris ; Morison, Plukenet, and Linmeus re¬ 
ferred it to Lonicera. At that time, all annular emetic 
roots were called Ipecacuan. The drug of commerce 
was heterogeneous, and was supplied from various 
sources. The specimens were long distinguished by the 
colour; and we had brown, grey, black, and white Ipe¬ 
cacuan. In 1764, Mutis, Director of the Botanical Ex¬ 
pedition to Santa Fe do Bogota, in New Granada, sent 
to Linmeus specimens of the plant which furnish the 
Ipecacuan root of that country. In 1781, Linnams the 
younger described the plant under the name of Psyclio- 
tria emetica. In 1800, Bernardo Gomez, a Portuguese, 
gave an accurate scientific description of the Ipecacuan 
plant; and on the 3rd of February, 1801, his country¬ 
man, Felix Avellat Brotero, Professor of Botany in the 
University of Coimbra, republished his description, with¬ 
out acknowledgment, in the Transactions of the Lin- 
nean Society (vol. vi. p. 137), and called the plant 
Callicocca Ipecacuanha. The genus was described as having 
an ascending, somewhat shrubby, creeping stem, with 
ovate-lanceolate leaves, somewhat pubescent on the 
lower surface, a terminal pedunculate capitulum of 
flowers, a four-leaved involucre, with subcordate leaflets, 
and a 5-cleft corolla. He considered this the plant of 
Piso, and gave a full description of it, with an excellent 
figure. It was found in Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio Ja¬ 
neiro, San Paulo, Marian, and other parts of Brazil. 
Achille Richard agreed with Brotero in regard to the 
plant which yielded the true annulated Ipecacuan. It 
was, however, referred by him to the genus Cephaelis 
of Swartz, as given in his ‘ Prodromus Florae In dice 
Occidentalism The plant is placed in the Natural 
Order Pubiacew, Suborder Cinchoncec, or, according to 
Lindley, the Order Cinchonacecc-. 
The following are some of the genera of the Cinchona - 
cscc which contain plants used as Ipecacuan:— 
A. Fruit with 1-4 seeded loculaments. 
Cephaelis , Psychotria, Pichardsouia, Borrena. 
B. Fruit with many-seeded loculaments. 
Manettia. 
Besides these, we also find plants known by the 
name Ipecacuanha in other Natural Orders, as already 
mentioned. 
Let us notice some of these plants. 
Cephaelis .—Calyx-tube obovate, limb very short, 5- 
toothed; corolla somewhat funnel-shaped, with five 
small, rather obtuse lobe3; anthers included. Stylo 
usually long,* with an exserted bifid stigma. Berry 
obovate-oblong, crowned with the remains of the calyx, 
bilocular, two-seeded. Shrubs or herbs, with oval, acute, 
petiolate leaves; stipules, 2-toothed and partite. Capi- 
tula terminal or axillary, with 2-8 bracts. 
C. Ipecacuanha. — Stem ascending and afterwards 
erect, somewhat pubescent at the apex, leaves oblong- 
ovate, rough above, with slender pubescence below, 
stipules cleft in a setaceous manner. Capitula terminal, 
stalked, erect, and afterwards pendulous. Root creeping, 
annulate, brown or grey in colour. It is known as Ipe¬ 
cacuan in Europe, and as one of the Poayas in Brazil 
annulated Brazilian or Lisbon Ipecacuan of commerce. 
One character is omitted in the description, viz., the 
clusters of oblong, somewhat ovate glands, which are 
found on the inside of the stipules at their base. 1 here 
are stomata and hairs on the epidermis, lho stomata are 
deeply situated, and are surrounded by a series of epi- 
* Martius says style equals length of corolla tube in 
Cephaelis. 
