ON  A  DRUG  CALLED  ROYAL  SALEP. 
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productions  of  the  countries  which  were  traversed  by  it ;  and  as 
senna  grew  in  great  abundance  in  these  regions,  they  might  be- 
come one  of  the  principal  sources  of  our  supply  of  that  important 
drug.  This  senna  resembled  in  its  characters  that  of  ordinary 
East  Indian,  and  was  therefore,  no  doubt,  derived  from  the  same 
or  a  nearly  allied  species  of  Cassia.  Mr.  Bentley  thought  it  was 
of  great  advantage  to  be  able  to  obtain  our  supplies  of  senna 
from  several  districts,  as,  by  so  doing,  we  prevented,  in  a  great 
measure,  its  extensive  adulteration  at  any  particular  one,  as  was 
formerly  the  case,  especially  with  Alexandrian  senna.  He  said 
that  the  latter  kind  of  senna  had  much  improved  of  late  years, 
but  it  was  still,  at  times,  much  adulterated.  The  improvement 
which  had  taken  place  was  entirely  due  to  the  exposure  of  its 
systematic  adulteration  some  years  since  by  the  Pharmaceutical 
Society,  and  this  example  might  be  mentioned  as  one  of  the  many 
successful  results  of  the  Society's  operations  in  checking  the 
adulteration  of  drugs  Trans,  Pharm*  Society,  from  London 
Pharm.  Jour.,  April,  1858. 
NOTE  ON  A  DRUG  CALLED  EOYAL  SALEP. 
By  Daniel  Hanburt. 
Among  some  specimens  of  Materia  Medica  from  Bombay,  for 
which  I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  the  late  Dr.  J.  E.  Stocks, 
is  one  which  was  received  under  the  designation  of  Badshah  Saleb 
or  King  Salep.  The  specimen  being  a  solitary  one,  and  no  in- 
formation respecting  it,  beyond  that  conveyed  by  its  name,  having 
reached  me,  it  remained  almost  unnoticed  until  within  the  last 
few  months,  when  an  original  package,  containing  about  100  lbs. 
of  an  unknown  and  un-named  drug  from  Bombay,  was  offered  for 
sale  in  the  London  market.  Upon  seeing  samples  of  this  drug, 
I  recognized  it  as  Badshah  Saleb  ;  and  having  obtained  from 
this  source  a  more  abundant  supply,  I  have  been  able,  to  some 
extent,  to  investigate  it,  and  the  results  of  that  investigation  I 
will  now  detail. 
In  the  first  place,  the  name  Badshah  Saleb  is  partly  Persian 
and  partly  Arabic, — Badshah  being  the  Persian  for  King,  and 
Saleb  the  Arabic  original  of  our  word  Salep.  The  term  may 
therefore  be  rendered  King  Salep  or  Royal  Salep  ;  and  it  has 
