Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  } 
Oct.  1,  1873.  J 
On  Pareira  Brava. 
449 
ON  PAREIRA  BRAYA. 
By  Daniel  Hanbury. 
|  ^The  botanical  origin  of  the  various  stems  and  roots  known  as  Pa- 
reira Brava  is  extremely  obscure.  By  most  writers  the  drug  is  re- 
ferred without  question  to  Cissampelos  Pareira  Linn.,  a  climbing 
plant  of  the  order  Menispermacece  growing  in  the  tropical  regions  of 
both  the  Old  and  New  World. 
Some  years  ago  the  difficulty  of  purchasing  Pareira  Brava  of  good 
quality  in  London  induced  me  to  seek  a  supply  in  the  West  Indies. 
I  accordingly  procured,  on  behalf  of  the  firm  of  which  I  was  then  a 
member,  a  quantity  of  the  stems  and  roots  of  Cissampelos  Pareira  L., 
collected  in  Jamaica  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  N.  Wilson,  director 
of  the  Bath  Botanical  Garden  in  that  island.  The  first  importation 
was  accompanied  by  herbarium  specimens  of  the  plant,  the  examina- 
tion of  which  removed  all  doubt  as  to  its  origin.  I  also  obtained  spe- 
cimens of  stems  of  Cissampelos  Pareira  similarly  authenticated,  from 
correspondents  in  Trinidad,  Brazil  and  Ceylon. 
From  these  materials  it  at  once  became  evident  that  the  long  ac- 
cepted statement  that  Pareira  Brava  is  derived  from  Cissampelos  Pa- 
reira Linn,  was  erroneous.*  In  fact  neither  the  stem  nor  the  root  of 
the  plant  at  all  resembles  any  of  the  forms  of  that  drug  I  had  ever 
met  with  in  commerce. 
What  then  is  true  Pareira  Brava  f — To  answer  this  question  we 
must  look  back  to  the  early  history  of  the  drug. 
The  merit  of  having  first  given  some  account  of  Pareira  Brava  is 
usually  conceded  to  the  Dutch  traveller  Piso,  who  in  his  work  Be 
Medicina  Brasiliensi,  published  in  1648,  described  a  plant  called  by 
the  Portuguese  Caapeba,  Cipo  de  Cobras  or  Rerva  de  Nossa  Senhora. 
Piso's  figure  is  scarcely  recognizable,  but  his  description  of  the  fruit 
as  resembling  the  catkins  of  hop  (semen  magnum  coloris  rosacei,  e  cap- 
sulis  lupulo  similibus  prominens)  applies  well  enough  to  a  Cissampelos, 
and  in  fact  C.  glaberrima  St.  Hit.  is  known  under  these  Portuguese 
names  in  Southern  Brazil  at  the  present  time.  My  friend,  Mr.  J. 
Correa  de  Mello,  of  Campinas,  Prov.  S.  Paulo,  has  been  good  enough 
to  send  me  a  specimen  of  this  plant  and  of  its  root ;  and  the  latter  I 
find  to  be  wholly  unlike  any  sort  of  Pareira  Brava. 
That  Piso  does  not  mention  Pareira  Brava  was  indeed  remarked  aa 
*  This  fact  was  first  pointed  out  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  India,  1868,  p.  8» 
note. 
29 
