Papers on the plant Gynocardia odorata from which the Chaulmoogra oil is obtained / compiled from various sources by Richard C. Lepage.

Date:: 1878

Credit: Papers on the plant Gynocardia odorata from which the Chaulmoogra oil is obtained / compiled from various sources by Richard C. Lepage. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$Extract from /:'/i<iriii(ir(i(/r((i>//i(f.^' A History of the Principal Drugs of Vegetable Origin met with in Great Britain and British India, by FlI'tckigee and HANBTntY. London, Maemillan & Co., 1874. [Pp. 70,71.] Hi.riiiece. Semen Gi/ndCdrdia'. C/KNiliiiuc/raSeed. Botanicat Oi'i(jlii.—Gynocardia odorata, R.Br. (Chaulmoogra, lio.rb. Hydnocarpus, Lindl.) A large tree with a globul;ir fruit of the size of a shaddock, containing numerous seeds im- mersed in pulp. It grows in the forests of the Malayan ])eninsula, and Eastern India as far north as Assam, extend- ing tlience along the base of tlie Himalaya Avestward to Sikkim. History.—The inliabitants of the south-eastern countries of Asia have long been acquainted Avith the seeds of certain trees of the tribe Pangiea3 (ord. Bixina^) as a remedy for maladies of the skin. In China a seed called Ta-fung-tsze is imported from Siam,* where it is known as Lukrabo, and used in a variety of cutaneous complaints. The tree afford- ing it, Avhich is figured in the Pun-tsao (circa a.d. 1596), has not been recognised by botanists, but from the structure of the seed it is obviously closely related to Gynocardia.t The properties of G. odorata were knoAvn to Roxburgh, Avho, Latinising the Indian name of the tree, called it (1814) Chaulmoogra odorata. Of late years the seeds have attracted the notice of Europeans in India, and liaving l)een found useful in certain skin diseases, they ha\ e been admitted a jilace in the Pharmacopoeia of India. * The Commercial Report from Her Majesty's Consul-Geueral in Siaiii for the year 1871, presented to Parliament August 1872, states that 48 ppculs (G400 lb.) of Lukkrabow Seeds were exported from Bangkok to China in 1871. t Hanbury, Notes on Chinese Materia Mediea (18(32), 23. Dr. Porter Smith assumes the Chinese drug to be derived from G. odorata, but, as I have pointed out, the seeds have a much stronger testa than those of that tree.—D. H.$