210  Crystalline  Principle  from  Jambosa  Root.  j 
I  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1884. 
2C15H2204  +  H20  =  CJOJO.  +  2C5H802- 
Attempts  to  produce  derivatives  of  this  body  were  unsuccessful.  From 
these  results  the  author  infers  that  laserpitin  is  chemically  different 
from  peucedanin,  ostruthin  and  athamantin,  bitter  principles  which 
have  been  found  in  other  umbelliferous  plants. — Jour.  Chem.  Soc,  1884. 
THE  CHEMICAL  COMPOSITION  AND  PROPERTIES  OF 
A  CRYSTALLINE  PRINCIPLE  OBTAINED 
FROM  JAMBOSA  ROOT.1 
By  A.  W.  Gerhard,  F.C.S., 
Teacher  of  Pharmacy  to  University  College. 
The  roots  from  which  the  principle  under  notice  was  extracted  were 
handed  to  me  in  the  summer  of  1883  by  Dr.  Murrell,  who  received 
them  from  Messrs.  Parke,  Davis  &  Co.,  with  the  following  information: 
"  The  plant  yielding  these  roots  is  probably  the  Myrtus  Jambosa,  L. 
{Jambosa  vulgaris,  DC),  cultivated  on  St.  Maurice.  The  fruit  has  the 
circumference  of  a  medium  sized  pear,  a  smell  reminding  of  roses." 
In  the  same  communication  the  plant  is  also  mentioned  as  the  "  Myrtus 
Jambosa  Malacensis,  Spr.  Is  at  home  in  India  and  Otaheiti.  The 
fruit  is  known  as  the  rose  apple,  is  frequently  eaten,  and  the  decoction 
of  the  bark  used  as  an  astringent  in  dysentery,  gonorrhoea  and  leucor- 
rhcea." 
Since  I  received  the  root  it  has  been  figured  in  the  Therapeutic 
Gazette,  and  examined  and  reported  on  by  Dr.  A.  B.  Lyons,  who  throws 
some  doubt  on  a  statement  that  it  is  the  root  of  Eugenia  Jambosa,  and 
gives  his  opinion  that  the  root  and  stem  in  general  aspects  resemble 
plants  of  the  order  Piperacece.  Dr.  Lyons  also  names  his  drug 
"  Jambu  assu,"  stating  that  it  is  indigenous  to  Brazil ;  but  that  name 
is  applied  in  Chernoviz's  "  Medical  Formulary  of  Brazil "  to  Spilanthes 
oleracea,  the  plants  of  which  genus  are  mostly  smooth  annual  branch- 
ing weeds,  and  would  scarcely  produce  roots  10  to  15  millimetres  in 
diameter,  the  size  of  jambosa  roots.  It  may  turn  out  that  the  name 
" jambosa"  is  a  generic  one,  used  in  the  Brazils  for  drugs  of  the  same 
character  ;  hence  its  application  to  both  the  plants  mentioned.  I  have 
been  enabled,  through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  E.  M.  Holmes,  to  examine 
i  Read  at  an  Evening  Meeting  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society,  March  5, 
1884. 
