Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
June, 1879. 
Note  on  Liberian  Drugs. 
FURTHER  NOTES  ON  LIBERIAN  DRUGS. 
By  E.  M.  Holmes,  F.L.S., 
Curator  of  the  Museum  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society. 
During  the  last  few  months  further  specimens  of  the  plants  used  in 
medicine  in  Liberia  have  been  forwarded  to  this  Museum  from  Dr. 
Roberts  through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  T.  Christy.  Several  of  these 
specimens  I  have  been  able,  by  the  assistance  kindly  afforded  me  at 
Kew  and  the  British  Museum,  to  identify, and  appear  to  me  to  be  worthy 
of  placing  on  record,  although  probably  none  of  them  are  possessed  of 
very  powerful  properties. 
It  may  be  here  noticed  as  a  curious  fact  that  the  majority  of  the  rem- 
edies hitherto  enumerated  are  equally  well  known  in  the  West  Indies, 
although  not  always  used  for  the  same  purposes  in  Liberia. 
Erysipelas  plant. — This  plant  is  evidently  Tiaridium  indicum,  Lehm. 
(Heliotropium  indicum,  L.^a  native  also  of  tropical  Asia  and  America, 
and  is  one  of  the  plants  whose  medicinal  use  seems  common  wherever 
it  grows. 
According  to  Dr.  Roberts  the  plant  is  used  in  Liberia  in  the  follow- 
ing manner  :  The  inflamed  part  is  fomented  with  an  infusion  of  the 
leaves,  and  some  of  the  fresh  leaves  are  steamed  or  bruised  into  a  pulp, 
and  are  applied  to  the  part  or  bound  round  it.  This  is  repeated  twice 
a  day  and  is  said  soon  to  reduce  the  inflammation  and  heat. 
In  the  Mauritius  the  leaves,  bruised  and  mixed  with  common  salt 
and  applied  in  the  form  of  a  poultice,  are  said  to  have  a  diuretic  effect. 
In  Bouton's  "PI.  Med.  de  Maurice,"  p.  101,  a  case  is  related  of  a 
soldier  who,  on  account  of  badly  ulcerated  wounds,  was  to  have  had 
his  leg  amputated,  but  who  was  cured  by  the  external  use  of  this  plant 
in  the  form  of  a  poultice  and  fomentation,  the  juice  of  the  plant  being 
at  the  same  time  administered  internally.  Ainslie,  in  his  Materia 
Medica,  speaks  of  the  plant  being  used  by  the  native  practitioners  of 
India  as  an  application  to  gum  boils  and  to  repel  pimples  on  the  face, 
also  in  certain  forms  of  ophthalmia.  In  Cochin  China  it  is  used  for 
similar  purposes,  and  in  Jamaica,  where  it  is  called  clary,  it  is  used  for 
cleansing  and  healing  wounds  and  ulcers.  Martius  also  speaks  highly 
of  its  medicinal  properties. 
"  Dysentery  plant." — This  plant  is  also  called  "  Kackeis."  It  is  a 
rubiaceous  plant,  Oldenlandia  globosa,  Hiern   apparently  somewhat  sim- 
