COMPARATIVE  EXAMINATION  OF  IPECACUANHAS,  ETC.  805 
COMPARATIVE  EXAMINATION  OF  THE  IPECACUANHAS 
OF  BRAZIL  AND  NEW  GRENADA  OR  CARTHAGENA. 
By  M.  J.  Lefort. 
The  author  {Jour,  de  Fharm.,  Mars,  1869,)  after  alluding  to 
the  history  of  Brazilian  Ipecacuanha  and  its  botanical  origin, 
remarks  as  follows :  But,  in  certain  parts  of  South  America, 
another  sort  of  Ipecac  is  found,  to  which  we  desire  to  draw  at- 
tention. 
Since  about  twenty  years,  the  growing  success  of  the  cinchona 
trade  of  New  Grenada  on  the  one  part,  and  the  constantly  ad- 
vancing price  of  the  Ipecac  of  Brazil,  occasioned  by  the  scarcity 
of  the  plant  which  furnishes  it,  on  the  other  part,  have  given  the 
idea  to  the  Americans  to  collect  and  send  to  Europe,  under  the 
name  of  New  Grenada  or  Garthagena  Ipecacuanha,  a  variety  of 
Ipecac  which  grows  in  great  abundance  on  the  torrid  banks  of 
the  river  Magdalena. 
This  Ipecac  is  without  doubt  the  variety  designated  by  M. 
Guibourt  under  the  name  Ipecacuanha  annele  majeur  or  Ipeca- 
cuanha gri§  hlane  de  Merat  (Hist,  des  Drogues,  t.  iii.)  This 
savant  presumed  it  to  belong  to  the  genus  Gephselis,  but  a  dif- 
ferent species  from  that  of  Brazil. 
Although  M.  Weddell  did  not  find  Gephgelis  ipecacuanha  be- 
yond the  frontiers  of  Brazil,  it  appears  from  the  inquiries  of  M. 
Triana,  accompanying  the  products  of  New  Grenada  at  the  Uni- 
versal Exposition  at  Paris,  that  it  is  derived,  as  supposed  by  M. 
Guibourt,  from  a  species  of  Cephaelis  not  yet  described  by  bo- 
tanists. 
Save  in  its  color,  which  is  always  greyish,  or  lightly  reddish, 
and  in  the  size  and  length  of  its  roots,  this  kind  of  Ipecac,  by 
the  disposition  of  its  rings,  presents  so  much  resemblance  to  that 
of  Brazil,  as  to  account  for  its  introduction  into  Europe.  Never- 
theless, the  first  parcels  received  in  France  were  not  accepted 
with  much  favor  by  druggists,  partially  because  normal  Ipecac 
was  plenty,  and  because  it  was  deemed  a  false  ipecac  much  in- 
ferior to  the  latter.  But  in  four  or  five  years  this  opinion  was 
changed  by  greater  care  in  collecting  the  root,  and  it  gradually 
acquired  a  true  importance  in  the  market,  until  at  present  its 
commercial  value  is  nearly  equal  to  the  Brazilian, 
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