Supplement to the Edinburgh new dispensatory / By Andrew Duncan.

  • Duncan, Andrew, Jun., 1773-1832.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Supplement to the Edinburgh new dispensatory / By Andrew Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    AxoE.—Aloes is a valuable and useful drug, according to M. Barbier, author of a treatise on Materia Medica, * the most im- portant of the present time.—Ch. and R. This note seéms to have been written for the sole purpose of intro- _ ducing the eulogium of M. Barbier’s work, and, although I cannot go so far as my commentators, I take this opportunity of recom- mending its perusal to the students of pharmacology.—(A. D. Jr.) ~ Auru#a Orricinatis.—The root of the marsh-mallow of com- merce is furnished not only by the Althea officinalis, but also by other Malvaceee, such as the Malva alcea and Alcea rosea, or rather Althea rosea of Cavanilles. M. Adam, apothecary at Metz, refers to the Malva alcea, the marsh-mallow root found in commerce, and which is very white. He says the branches are not forked as those of the marsh-mallow. ‘The root which comes from Germany by the way of Strasburg is much whiter than that of the south, but not as thick. M. Adam considers moist sandy soils as best suited for the marsh-mallow.—Ch. and R. M. Bacon thought that he had discovered a new principle in mallow root, to which he gave the name of Altheine, but M. Plisson, after a careful examination, determined its identity with the Asparagine of Robiquet. t—(A. D. Jr-) Amomum Zr1nc1BER.—M. Planche has obtained from ginger a considerable quantity of starch as pure and as white as that of wheat. Ginger, as analyzed by M. Morin, yielded a resin solu- ble in ether, a subresin insoluble in ether, a volatile oil of a green- ish blue colour, starch, gum, sulphur, and some salts. |—Ch. and R. The plant which yields this valuable spicy root was separated from the genus Amomum by Mr Roscoe, and is now called Zengiber officinale after him by the late Dr Roxburgh in his valuable work, whose completion by his able successor, Dr Wallich, is so anxiously expect- ed by all botanists and pharmacologists. Although the ginger is cultivated in all parts of India, it rarely flowers, and Dr Roxburgh never saw the seeds. The great quantity of starch found in the dried root by M. Planche is conformable to the chemical composition of the scitamineous roots, from several of which starch is extracted in great quantities as a popular aliment, especially from various species of Curcuma, as the rubescens, from the pendulous tubers of which the natives prepare a very beautiful pure starch, which is said to form a large portion of the diet of the inhabitants of Travancore ; the leucorrhiza, a native of Bahar, and the comosa, a native of Bur- ma.||—(A. D. Jr.) * Traite Elémentaire de Matiere Médicale. 2d Edit. Paris, 1824. 3 Tomes, 8vo: ++ Journal de Pharmacie, and Journal de Chimie Medical for 1827. ~ Journal de Pharmacie, June 1823. || Flora Indica; or Descriptions of Indian Plants, by the late William Roxburgh, M. D. F. R. S. E., edited by William Carey, D. D. F. L. S., to which are added De- scriptions of Plants more recently discovered, by Nathaniel Wallich, M. and Ph. D.,