Botanicon Sinicum: notes on Chinese botany from native and Western sources. Part 3, Botanical investigations into the materia medica of the ancient Chinese / [E. Bretschneider].

  • Emil Bretschneider
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Botanicon Sinicum: notes on Chinese botany from native and Western sources. Part 3, Botanical investigations into the materia medica of the ancient Chinese / [E. Bretschneider]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    133/638 (page 123)
    Li Shi-chen :—The fruit (capsule) of the pai tou klou is globular, as large as that of the klien niu [Pharbitis. See 168]. Its outer skin is thick and of a white colour. The seeds are like the su sha \_v. supra]. To prepare it for medical use the skin is taken off and the seeds are roasted. Ch., XXV, 64 :—Pai tou k‘ou. Rude drawing. The Cardamom plant seems to be intended. Lour., FI. cochin., 4: — Amomum Cardamomum, L. Sinice pe teu keu. Flores albo-lutei. Capsula 3 gona rotunda. Semina cortice laevi, albicante. The Amomum Cardamomum of Linnaeus is the Round or Cluster Cardamom, a native of Cambodja, Siam, Java. The pai tou klou is still much imported into China from Cochin- china, Siam and Malabar. It seems that the Malabar Carda- mom, Elettaria Cardamomum, the seeds of which are very similar in odour and taste to those of the Cluster Cardamom, go also under the name of pai tou klou. The pai tou k‘ou which I obtained from a Tibetan apothecary’s shop at Peking was Malabar Cardamom. The Tibetans call it sukmil [comp, above the Sanscrit name su-ki-mi-lo-si]. Rheede [Malab., XI, p. 10], in describing the Elettaria, says : — In aprico fructus exsiccatur solo, ubi cortex, qui primo crassus, viridisque, extenuatur et ex ruffo albescit. The country Kakulo, mentioned in the above Chinese account as producing the pai tou klou, is unknown to me. I may however observe, that kakula is the Arabic name for Cardamom [Roxbg., FI. ind., 1874, p. 24]. The Round or Cluster Cardamom is also known under the name of ifc [ [ Tung jAo tou klou, probably after the celebrated poet Su Tung-p‘o, who, towards the end of the 11th century, lived for some years in the island of Hai nan