THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
JULY,  1871. 
ON  CUNDURANGO. 
By  Thomas  Antisell,  M.  D. 
In  the  month  of  March  of  this  year,  Mr.  Flores,  Minister  of  Ecuador 
at  Washington,  forwarded  a  box  containing  a  vegetable  medicament 
which  he  had  received  from  his  government  for  presentation  to  the 
State  Department,  and  requested  that  some  analyses  and  experiments 
might  be  made  with  it,  to  test  its  medicinal  value.  The  samples  of  the 
drug  were  stated  to  have  grown  in  the  province  of  Loja,  Ecuador,  and 
extracts  from  the  official  journal  accompanied  the  parcel,  showing 
that  great  medicinal  virtues  were  attributed  to  the  wood  and  bark  of 
the  tree  known  as  Ciinduraiigo.  The  extracts  were  testimonials  from 
Doctors  Caesares  and  Eguigureu  of  that  province,  as  to  its  great  value 
in  cancer,  fungus  h^matodes  and  constitutional  syphilis.  These 
statements  were  supported  by  a  letter  from  Mr.  Rumsey  Wing,  our 
minister  resident  at  Ecuador,  to  Hon.  H.  Fish,  Secretary  of  State, 
testifying  to  the  medicinal  virtues  of  the  plant  as  admitted  by  the 
natives  of  Loja,  in  which  he  mentions  that  a  decoction  of  the  fruit  is 
known  to  be  a  poison,  and  that  the  parts  of  the  plant  used  medicin- 
ally are  the  bark  and  leaves. 
During  the  month  of  April  a  sample  of  the  plant  (small  branches) 
were  received  at  this  Department,  from  Hon.  Mr.  Fish,  with  the  re- 
quest to  have  an  analysis  made  and  reported  to  him  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Ecuador  government.  Meanwhile  the  plant  itself  had  been  tried,  in 
the  form  of  a  decoction,  upon  some  patients  in  this  city  affected  with 
cancer,  and  with  apparent  considerable  relief  to  the  sufferers. 
About  one  pound  and  a  quarter  in  weight  were  received  for  analysis. 
The  sample  consisted  of  stem  and  branches  of  apparently  a  shrub, 
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