3H 
Sumbul  in  England. 
Am.  Jour.  Pbarm. 
June,  1897. 
arabic.  The  insoluble  portion  consisted  very  largely  of  starch,  with 
a  small  quantity  of  cellular  tissue. 
So  far  as  I  know,  the  specimen  is  unique,  and  the  Germans  must 
think  us  very  gullible  when  they  attempt  to  foist  such  an  article 
upon  us  as  scammony. — Pharmaceutical  Journal,  March  20,  1897. 
THE  CULTIVATION  OF  SUMBUL  IN  ENGLAND.1 
By  B.  M.  Holmes. 
The  sumbul  root  of  commerce  has  of  late  years  been  of  very 
inferior  quality  compared  with  the  fragrant  root  imported  twenty- 
five  years  ago  or  more,  and  usually  consists  of  smaller  and  more 
cylindrical  pieces,  with  only  a  very  faint  musky  odor.  The  structure 
is  also  much  firmer,  and  the  resinous  parts  are  usually  blackish  and 
dirty,  in  strong  contrast  to  the  paler  non-resinous  portions.  The 
upper  or  rootstock  portion,  which  is  marked  with  rings  like  the  true 
sumbul,  is  evidently  often  branched,  which  I  have  never  seen  in  the 
true  sumbul,  in  which  the  upper  portion  usually  tapers  to  a  rounded 
fibrous  apex. 
The  sumbul  of  the  present  day  is,  therefore,  probably  derived 
from  a  different  plant  with  a  more  cylindrical  root,  branched  near 
the  apex,  and  having  a  firmer  substance.  It  was  suggested  some 
years  ago  by  Dr.  J.  E.  Aitchison  {Trans.  Linn.  Soc,  ser.  2,  Bot,  p.  69, 
pi.  20-21)  that  it  might  possibly  be  derived  from  Ferula  suaveolens, 
which  has  only  a  faint  musky  odor.  He  states  that  the  root  is 
scented,  and  is  one  of  the  kinds  of  sumbul  exported  from  Persia  to 
Bombay  by  the  Persian  Gulf  (/.  c.}  p.  69). 
It  seems  to  be  desirable,  therefore,  that  the  true  sumbul  should 
be  cultivated  to  meet  a  trade  desideratum.  The  use  of  an  inferior 
drug  will  otherwise  probably  lead  in  time  to  the  entire  disuse  of  the 
drug.  Under  these  circumstances  my  own  experience  in  the  culti- 
vation of  the  true  sumbul  plant  may  prove  interesting  to  some  of 
the  readers  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal. 
Some  years  since,  one  of  our  corresponding  members,  M.  Andrew 
Ferrein,  of  Moscow,  sent  me  some  young  plants  of  Ferula  foetidissima, 
and  with  them  two  young  plants  of  F.  sumbul.  They  arrived  in 
autumn,  packed  in  husks  of  buckwheat,  like  ordinary  bulbs.  The 
fleshy  roots  at  that  period  of  the  year  appear  to  lose  all  the  small 
1  Pharmaceutical  Journal,  April  24,  1897. 
