On a new kind of matico : with some remarks on officinal matico / by Professor Bentley.

  • Robert Bentley
Date:
1864
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a new kind of matico : with some remarks on officinal matico / by Professor Bentley. 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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    \^l{eprinted from the PiiAUitACKUTiCAi. JouiiXAL, Januari/, 18Gk] ON A NEAV KIND OF MATICO, WITH SOME REMARKS ON OFFICINAL MATICO. BY PROFESSOR BENTLEY, M.R.C.S. ENG., F.L.S., etc., PKOFESSOE OF MATERIA MEDICA AND BOTANY TO THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, ETC, History'.—Under the name of matico^ maieco, or inatica, the leaves of several plants are employed by the inhabitants of Central and South America, for arrest- ing both external and internal hajmorrhages, and for other purposes. A nearly similar story is told throughout America, as to the discovery of the styptic pro- perty of each kind of matico. It is said, that a Spanish soldier named Matico, when desperately wounded, dragged himself into the shade of tlie plants near him, and in his agony plucked some of their leaves, and applied them acciden- tally to his wound, when to his great surprise and delight, he found in a short time that the bleeding was arrested, and the wound soon healed. From this cir- cumstance Matico has received the Spanish names of “Yerba soldado,” and “ Palo del soldado,” signifying “ Soldier’s herb,” and “ Soldier’s tree.” Three plants have been especially mentioned by authors as having received the name of Matico, or Soldier’s herb, namely, Artanthe elongata, Miq.; Eupatorhun gluthiosum, Kunth ;* * * § and Walteria glomerata^ Presl.f 'i'he latter has not as yet been noticed in Materia Medica works, and I have seen no specimens of it; in- deed, was unacquainted with it until my attention was recently directed to this kind by Dr. Seemann. Specimens of the two other varieties of matico may be seen in the museum of the Pharmaceutical Society, and are now on the table. The first, namely, that which consists of the leaves of Artanthe elongata, !Miq., is the only one that has received any special attention, or the action of which has been tested, beyond its native country. This kind of matico is a native of Peni, where it is very highly extolled as a vulnerary, and for its aphrodisiac and other properties. J It was introduced to the notice of the medical profession in England, as far back as 1839, by Dr. Thomas Jeffreys, of Liverpool,§ and it is noticed in a paper by Mr.* Monsom enti- tled “ Observations on certain Plants of the genus Piper,” which pub- lished, and the plant well figured, in the third volume of the ‘ Pharmaceutical Journal.’ll It was subsequently introduced into the Dublin Pharmacopoeia in 1850, and formulae therein given for the preparation of “ tincture ” and “ infusion * LiiKllcy’s ‘ Medical and Economic Botany,’ p. 227. t Seemann’s ‘ Botany of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald,’ p. 85. 1 ‘ Bharniaceutical Journal,’ vol. ii. p. C60. § ‘ Lancet,’ Jan. 6,1839, p. 667. || ‘I’liarmaceutical Journal,’ vol. iii. pp. 472 and 525.