Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
Feb. 
''islJ's!™'}  Substitute  for  Chiretta.  73 
tensely  bitter ;  and  that  of  the  spurious  drug,  although  bitter,  far  less 
intensely  so  than  that  of  the  official  drug.  An  infusion  of  true  ChirettE 
has  also  a  somewhat  greenish  tint,  while  that  of  the  spurious  drug  has 
a  distinctly  yellowish-brown  color. 
The  question  of  the  botanical  source  of  the  spurious  drug  now  arises. 
It  is  well  known  that  in  the  Indian  bazaars  several  plants  are  known  by 
the  name  of  Chiretta,  besides  the  true  drug,  and  are  used  for  the  same 
purposes  as  it.  Thus,  Royle,  many  years  since,  in  his  Illustrations 
of  the  Botany  of  the  Himalayan  Mountains,"  page  277,  stated  that 
Ophelia  angustifoUa^  Don,  is  so  used  in  Northern  India,  where  it  is 
called  Puharee  (hill)  Chiretta^  to  distinguish  it  from  the  true  or  Dukhunee 
(Southern)  Chiretta  ;  and  he  adds  that  Exaciun  tetragonum  is  also  called 
Qoda  (that  is,  purple)  Chiretta. 
At  least  three  other  species  of  Ophelia^  namely,  O,  elegans^  Wight.^ 
O.  densifolia^  Grisebach,  and  O.  multiflora^  Dalzell  ;  two  other  species 
of  Exacum^  as  E.  hicolor^  Roxb.,  and  E,  pedunculatuin^  Linn.,  may  be 
also  enumerated  ;  as  well  as  Slevogtia  orientalis^  Grisebach,  which  is 
known  as  Chota  Chiretta  (small  Chiretta),  as  being  employed  in  India 
like  true  Chiretta. 
The  above  mentioned  plants  are  all  derived  from  the  same  natural 
order,  Gentianaceae,  as  that  yielding  the  true  Chiretta  ;  but  besides 
these,  as  mentioned  by  Royle,  Waring,  and  other  writers,  another 
powerful  Indian  bitter — that  is,  Creyat  or  Kariydt^  derived  h-omAndro~ 
graphis  [Justicia)  paniculata^  Wall.,  of  the  natural  order,  Acanthaceic, 
is  also  often  confounded  in  Southern  India  with  the  true  Chiretta. 
It  is  somewhat  surprising,  considering  the  number  of  substitutes  for 
the  true  Chiretta  which  are  thus  known  in  India,  that  some  of  them 
should  not  have  found  their  way,  accidentally  or  intentionally,  into  the 
English  market ;  but  no  English  writer  of  repute  on  the  Materia  Medica 
has  hitherto  noticed  any  such  substitution.  Even  Fllickiger  and  Han- 
bury,  in  their  recently-published  "  Pharmacographia,"  say,  page  393  : 
"We  have  recently  examined  the  Chiretta  found  in  the  English  mar- 
ket, but  have  never  met  with  any  other  than  the  legitimate  sort." 
Moreover,  beyond  the  case  of  false-packing  described  by  Mr.  E.  A. 
Webb,  in  the  "  Pharmaceutical  Journal,"  vol  i,  third  series,  page  367^ 
in  which  the  roots  of  Ruhia  cordifoUa^  Linn.  (^Munjeet)^  had  been  en- 
closed in  bundles  of  Chiretta,  I  know  of  no  published  case  of  adulter- 
ation or  substitution  of  true  Chiretta  in  this  country. 
The  botanical  source  of  the  present  substitute  of  Chiretta  is,  there- 
