On rottlera tinctoria roxb., and its medicinal properties / by Daniel Hanbury.

  • Hanbury, Daniel, 1825-1875.
Date:
[1858]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On rottlera tinctoria roxb., and its medicinal properties / by Daniel Hanbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    {From the Pharmaceutical Journal/or February, 1858.] ON ROTTLERA TINCTORIA ROXB., AND ITS MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. , . .—i BY BANI^L HANBCRY. L 'Tl-/O J The peculiar red powder which is obtained from the capsules of Rottlera tinctoria Roxb.., a tree of the Natural Order Eup/iorbiacece,.has long been used in India on account of its valuable properties as a dye for siik. This substance first claimed my attention in the year 1852, while examining a collection of drugs formed at Aden by my friend James Vaughan, Esq., and I pubKshed a few remarks in the Pharmaceutical Journal for June, 1853,* pointing out its botanical origin and what I then knew of its economic uses. Its application as a remedial agent having recently attracted attention in this country, in consequence of the favourable reports made by several practitioners in India, who have found it eminently successful in the treatment of tcenia, I think it may be not uninteresting if I briefly recapitulate its history, and quote some of the statements that have appeared regarding its medicinal properties and mode of administration. The genus Rottlera, so named in honour of the Rev. Dr. Rottler, an eminent Danish missionary and naturalist, was, as at present restricted, founded by Roxburgh in 1798. Rottlera tinctoria Roxb.f is a tree of from 15 to 20 feet in height; it is com- mon in the hilly districts of India from Burma to the Punjab, and from Ceylon to the hot valleys of the whole of the Himalaya, where it ascends to an elevation of 5000 feet; it is found in the PhUlippine Islands, in China, and in North- Eastern Australia; it appears also to occur in the South of Arabia and in the Somali country, from which regions the dye obtained from it, is carried to Aden for sale. The fruit of the tree is tricoccous and of the size of a pea, covered on the outer surface with miaute, sessile, roundish, semi-transparent glands of a bright red colour. According to Roxburgh the fruit ripens in February and March, at which period it is gathered, and the red, glandular powder is carefully brushed off and preserved for use. Before further describing this substance, I may properly advert to the names by which it and the tree affording it, are known to the natives of India; for some information on which part of the subject, I am indebted to the kindness of Professor H. H. Wilson, of Oxford. The Sanskrit name of Rottlera tinctoria is M^lT Punnaga, a word having several synonyms, among which are Wi? Tunga and ^^^ Kesora;—hence in Bengali we have Punndg, Kesor and Tung, and in Hindustani Punndg. The red powder from the capsules is called in Bengali ^f^IcTl Kdmald, abbreviated to Kdmal. The Sanskrit word c|rfll^ Kapila, signifying tawny or * On Wurrus, a dy& produced by Eottlera tinctoria, Pharm. Joum., vol. xii., p. 589 ^ ^7i\iMrg\i, Plants of the Coast of Coromandel. No. 168.