ON THE MALAMBO, OR MATIAS BARE. 265 
ART. LX1II. — ON THE MALAMBO, OR MATIAS BARK. 
By Alexander Ure, Esq. 
Surgeon to the Western Ophthalmic Institution, &c. 
A quantity of the bark of a tree, said to have come from 
Colombia, in South America, was sometime since placed in 
my hands by Hugh Houston, Esq., that gentleman having 
received it from Dr. Mackay, who communicated two papers 
respecting it, under the name of Matias Bark, to the British 
Association. He there mentions his having procured from 
it, by distillation, two oils, one lighter than water, of specific 
gravity 0.949 ; the other denser, of specific gravity 1.028. 
He further obtained a brown extractive substance of an in- 
tensely bitter taste. Dr. Mackay remarked, that it had been 
successfully administered in intermittent fever, in conva- 
lescence from continued fever, in hemicrania, dyspepsia, and 
in a variety of chronic ailments, where tonics and stimulants 
were indicated ; and that as an adjunct to diuretic remedies, 
it had been found eminently useful. 
The so-called Matias bark is from three to four lines thick ; 
brittle, though somewhat fibrous ; emitting, when fresh 
bruised, an aromatic hue, not unlike that of acorus calamus. 
It is of a brown hue, covered with an ash-coloured tuber- 
culous epiderm. It possesses a bitter pungent taste. With 
water it forms an agreeable bitter infusion; with alcohol a 
powerful bitter tincture. Ether extracts from it volatile oil 
and resin. Heated along with hydrate of potash, free am- 
monia is disengaged, indicating the presence of an azotized 
principle. It is without astringency. 
It appears to coincide, as suggested to me by M. Guibourt, 
both in regard to physical and sensible qualities, with 
Malambo, the Indian name for the bark of a tree which grows 
vol; ix. — no. iv. 24 
