Part 15

Other species.—The Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra Willd.), called also smooth buckeye and fetid buckeye, occurs in woods and along river banks from Pennsylvania south to Alabama, and westward to Michigan and the Indian Territory. It is a small tree, native in this country, and found in great abundance in Ohio. It gives off a fetid odor, and has leaves consisting of five ovate leaflets, and small insignificant yellow flowers. The bark and nut of this species are also employed in medicine, having properties similar to those of the horse-chestnut, but it is said that their action is more powerful.

Description of bark.—The horse-chestnut bark of commerce is thin, brownish gray on the outside, and with a few warty protuberances, leafscars, and lichens; the inside of the bark is smooth and whitish, and the whole breaks with a tough, fibrous fracture, showing a brownish color within. The bark has a faint, disagreeable odor, and a rough, bitter, astringent taste.

Collection, prices, and uses.—Horse-chestnut bark is collected in the autumn, and preference is given to the bark from the younger branches. From 1 to 4 cents a pound is the price paid to collectors.

This bark is used for its “tonic, astringent, febrifuge, narcotic, and antiseptic” properties. The nuts are said to have a narcotic action, and when powdered, excite sneezing.

The leaves are an old remedy in the treatment of whooping cough.

CASCARA SAGRADA.

Rhamnus purshiana DC.

Pharmacopœial name.—Rhamnus purshiana.

Other common names.—Chittem-bark, sacred bark (a translation of the Spanish name “cascara sagrada”), bearberry-tree, bearwood, shittimwood, Purshiana bark, Persiana bark.

Habitat and range.—This indigenous tree occurs on the sides and bottoms of canyons from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, extending north into British America.

Description of tree.—The tree furnishing the cascara sagrada of the Pharmacopœia is of small size, usually from 15 to 20 feet in height (fig. 34), the young twigs hairy, and the leaves rather thin. It belongs to the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceæ). The dark green leaves are elliptical in form, from 2 to 6 inches long, and about 1 to 3 inches wide, blunt at the apex or with a short sharp point, finely saw toothed, rounded or slightly heart shaped at the base, somewhat hairy on the lower surface, and rather prominently veined (fig. 35).

The rather small, insignificant greenish flowers are produced in umbels, or clusters, and are followed by black, ovoid, 3-seeded berries, of a somewhat insipid taste (fig. 35).

Another species.—Several species of Rhamnus occur in the cascara district, only one of which, however, may be said to enter into competition with the official cascara, and that is the one which is supposed to have been first introduced in medicine. It is known as wild coffee or coffee-berry (Rhamnus californica Esch.). At the present time, however, it is seldom collected, and then only because it may be mistaken by collectors for the official bark. According to the nineteenth edition of the United States Dispensatory (1907), R. californica “is chiefly distinguished from the official species by its leaves being thin, and when not smooth having a short close pubescence, and the primary veins of the under surface not nearly so numerous, straight, or fine as those of R. purshiana.” Rhamnus purshiana is abundant in the northern part of California and only sparingly found in the southern portion, whereas exactly the opposite is true of R. californica. Professor Rusby (United States Dispensatory, nineteenth edition, 1907) is of the opinion that as a further distinguishing mark in the leaves the channel of the midrib of R. californica is “altogether absent, or shallow, or inconspicuous.”

It is very difficult to distinguish the barks of these two species by their gross characters alone, but a microscopical examination will show structural differences sufficiently distinct to aid in the recognition of the barks. In the powdered state the two species may be distinguished by means of color tests.

Description of bark.—The cascara sagrada of commerce occurs in curved or quilled pieces, the outer surface of which is reddish brown, and usually covered with growths of light-colored or grayish lichen, wrinkled and somewhat fissured. The inner surface of the bark is smooth and marked with very fine lines; at first the inside is yellowish, but with age it turns a dark brown color. The whole breaks with a short, sharp, yellowish fracture, and has a somewhat aromatic odor and an exceedingly bitter taste. The saliva is colored yellow by it, and anything with which the bark comes in contact for any length of time will also be stained yellow. Cascara sagrada is official in the United States Pharmacopœia.

Collection, prices, and uses.—The collecting season for cascara opens about the end of May or early in June and closes about the end of August, just before the rainy season sets in, as bark collected after exposure to wet weather is difficult to cure properly.

After the strips of bark have been removed from the trees, they are generally strung on wires to dry, care being taken not to expose the inner surface to the sun, the object being to retain the yellow color, as the action of the sunlight tends to darken the color, an undesirable result, inasmuch as it lowers the market price. During the drying process the strips curl up, forming quills, and when sufficiently dried these are cut or broken up into smaller pieces.

Several years are generally required after collection to properly age the bark for medicinal purposes, and the United States Pharmacopœia directs that it should not be used until at least one year after it has been gathered. Some crude-drug dealers undertake the “aging” of the bark themselves rather than leave it to collectors.

Many trees are annually destroyed in the collection of cascara sagrada, as they are usually peeled to such an extent that no new bark is formed. It has been estimated that one tree furnishes approximately 10 pounds of bark, and granting a crop of 1,000,000 pounds a year, 100,000 trees are thus annually destroyed, and the world’s consumption is said to be about 2,000,000 pounds a year.

The price at present paid to collectors for cascara sagrada varies from 3 to 4-1/2 cents a pound. On account of the fact that cascara sagrada requires several years’ aging before use, a shortage in the crop is not immediately felt.

Cascara sagrada is a most valuable laxative, differing from other drugs of this character in that it tones up the entire intestinal tract, making long-continued dosing or gradually increasing dosage unnecessary.

COTTON.

Gossypium hirsutum L. (“Gossypium herbaceum L.”)

Species.—According to the United States Pharmacopœia, cotton-root bark is obtained from “Gossypium herbaceum Linne,” or from “other cultivated species of Gossypium.”

For years the name Gossypium herbaceum has been used in botanical and other works as applying to American cotton, whereas it is really a name belonging to an Old World species, known as Levant cotton, cultivated in India and also in southern Europe, and it is stated that the American species evidently received the appellation herbaceum as a result of wrong identification by early American authors, and the assumption that it originated from European seed.

American Upland cotton is the type most commonly cultivated in the South, from Virginia to Oklahoma and Texas, and this with its hundred or more recognized horticultural varieties all belong to one species, namely, Gossypium hirsutum L., and not to G. herbaceum, and as practically all of the supply of cotton-root bark of the United States is obtained in the United States, it can safely be asserted that Gossypium hirsutum L., and not G. herbaceum L., is the principal source of the bark found in the commerce of our country.

Description of plant.—The cotton plant in flower or with the bursting bolls showing the fluffy white fiber is very handsome. It belongs to the mallow family (Malvaceæ), and ranges from about 1 to 4 feet in height, with a woody and somewhat branching stem. The leaves of the American Upland cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, are 5 lobed, the lobes sharply pointed. The flowers when they first open are creamy white, later on turning purple, and the bracts are deeply cleft. The 4 to 5 celled cotton bolls are roundish oval, bluntly pointed at the top, green at first, but turning brown as they mature, bursting open (September to November in the Southern States), and disclosing the fine fiber that surrounds and completely hides the seeds, and which forms the “cotton” of commerce. (Fig. 36.) This cotton is picked from the bolls by hand, and sent to the cotton gins, where the seed is separated from the lint by machines known by that name. The seed, aside from its use for planting, is employed for fertilizing and feeding purposes, and an oil is also expressed therefrom.

Description of bark.—Cottonroot bark is official in the United States Pharmacopœia, and the article of commerce consists of long, thin bands, or quills, flexible, of a brownish yellow color on the outside, showing faint ridges and dots or lines. Sometimes the entire outer corky layer, which is thin, is wanting, or there are brownish orange patches where this thin layer has rubbed off or worn away. The inner surface of the bark has a whitish, silky, shining appearance, marked with fine lines. The long, tough bast fibers separate into papery layers. There is no odor, but a faintly acrid and astringent taste.