Be Candolle, Syst. Nat. i. 515. Cl. 22. Ord. 10. Dioecia Dodecandria. Nat. ord. Menispermeae. G. 1826. Male. Calyx two-leaved. Petals four or six exterior, eight interior. Stamens sixteen.

Female. Corolla similar to that of the male. Stamens eight, sterile. Gem/ens two or three. Berries one-seeded. Sp. 4. C. palmatum. Palmated Menispermum. Cocculus palmatus.

De Cand. torn. 1. p. 522. Berry, Asiatic Res. 10. p. 385. t. 5.

Woodville's Med. Bot. vol. v. p. 22. Willd. iv. p. 825. Officinal. Calumba, Lond. Colombo Radix, Edin. Colomba

Radix, Dub. Calumba root.

Syn. Co'ombe (F.), Kolumbowurzel (G.), Colomba (I.), Kalumb (Mozambique , Columboo vayr Tam. .

The London College has now properly referred this root to the Coccuhis palmatus of De Candelle, the Menispermum palmatum of Willdenow.

This species of Cocculus is a native of the eastern part of Southern Africa, growing in great abundance in the forests of Mozambique, between Oibo and Mozambo. The roots are dug up by the natives in the month of March, and transported to Tranquebar, where it is a staple article of export with the Portuguese.1 An entire root was taken to Madras by Mons. Fortin, in 1805, and a plant raised from it there by Dr. Anderson, from a drawing of which it was ascertained to belong to the natural order Menispermeae; but as it was a male plant only, the genus and species were undetermined until they were fixed by De Candolle. In 1825, both male and female plants were obtained by Captain Fitzwilliam Owen, from Oibo, and carried to the Mauritius, Bombay, and the Seychilles Archipelago. Dr. Berry drew up the following character of the male plant, which has been adopted by De Candolle; but the female plant is yet undescribed. The root is perennial, ramose, and bears fusiform tubers.

1 The root was formerly erroneously supposed to be named from the principal town in the island of Ceylon, which was regarded as its place of export.

The stems are annual, withering at the end of seven months; voluble, simple, round, hairy, about the thickness of a goose-quill, bearing distant, alternate, five-lobed, five-nerved leaves, with entire acuminate lobes; and supported on round hairy petioles, shorter than the leaves. The male flowers are in axillary, solitary, compound racemes, hairy, and shorter than the leaves: bearing partial, alternate peduncles, with sessile flowers; and lanceolate, ciliated, deciduous bractes. The calyx is hexaphyllous, with three exterior leaflets, and three interior, equal, oblong, obtuse, and glabrous. The corolla consists of six minute, oblong, wedge-shaped, concave, fleshy, obtuse petals. The stamens are six, a little longer than the corolla; the anthers four-lobed and four-celled : there is no plstillum. The roots are dug up in March; but the offsets only are taken; each offset being a sessile tuber. In the female plant, the racemes are solitary, axillary, patent, and shorter than those of the male. The calyx and petals resemble those of the male. The pistils are three, free, of which two are abortive: they are ovate, acuminate, glanduloso-pilose, and contain one ovule.

The style is short; the stigmas patent; the fruit drupaceous; the seed subreniform, black, striated.

The dried root is brought to this country packed in bags, and sometimes in cases. It is in transverse sections, generally about one third of an inch in thickness, and one or two inches in diameter. The bark is thick, and easily detached, internally bright yellow, and covered with a wrinkled olive-brown cuticle. The interior part of the root is of a pale brownish colour, and has a spongy texture, with darker converging rays, which are the remains of sap-vessels. The pieces are frequently much perforated, evidently by worms, and not, as has been supposed, by stringing to facilitate its drying. Those pieces which have the fewest worm-holes, the brightest colour, and are solid and heavy, are the best. It is said that the root of white bryony, tinged yellow with the tincture of calumba, has been fraudulently substituted for this root.

Qualities.-Calumba root has a very slight aromatic odour, and a bitter taste. It breaks with a starchy fracture, and is easily pulverized. Water at 212° takes up one third of its weight; and the infusion has all the sensible qualities of the root. These are also extracted by alcohol, but proof spirit is its best menstruum. The infusion is not altered by solutions of sulphate of iron, nitrate of silver, muriate of mercury, and tartanzed antimony; but a copious precipitate is produced by the infusion of galls and yellow cinchona bark, by acetate and superacetate of lead, oxymuriate of mercury, and lime-water. Hence calumba root was erroneously supposed to contain cinchonia. M. Planche found it to contain a large proportion of a peculiar animal substance; a yellow, bitter, resinous matter; and one third of its weight of starch.1 By repeated distillation, he also obtained a volatile oil; and, from the residue malate of lime and sulphate of lime. By treating calumba root with alcohol of 0.835, then reducing the tincture by distillation to one third, allowing the residue to stand until crystals form in it, and afterwards purifying these, Mr. Witt-stock of Berlin procured a new salt, to which he gave the name of colombin, and which he supposes to be the active principle of calumba root.

It is inodorous, extremely bitter, neither acid nor alkaline, forms in quadrilateral, transparent acicular crystals, scarcely soluble in water or in cold alcohol. The acetic acid is its proper menstruum2: but it is also taken up by alkaline solutions.

Medical properties and uses.-Calumba root is a useful antiseptic and tonic.3 It was first brought into notice by Fr. Rede, in 1685. It is frequently employed with much advantage in diarrhoeas arising from a redundant secretion of bile, and in bilious remittent fever, and cholera, in which it generally checks the vomiting. It also allays the nausea and vomiting which accompany pregnancy; and, according to Percival, it is equally serviceable in stopping the severe diarrhoea and vomiting which sometimes attend dentition.4 Den-man found it more useful than the cinchona in the low stage of puerperal fever.5 As a tonic, unaccompanied with astrin-gency, and possessing little stimulus, it has been recommended in phthisis and hectic fever, to allay irritability, and strengthen the digestive organs; and in dyspepsia. It may be given combined with aromatics, orange-peel, opiates, and alkaline, or neutral salts, as circumstances require. We have found the powder, in combination with rhubarb and sulphate of potassa, exceedingly serviceable in mesenteric fever.

The dose of the powdered root is from grs. xv. to 3ss., repeated three or four times a day.

Officinal preparations. - Infusum Calumbae, L. E. Infusum Columbae, D. Tinctura Calumbae, L. E. D.

1 Iodine produces a blue in the infusion of calumba, which distinguishes the true from a false calumba, sometimes found in the market.

2 Joum. de Pharmacie, Fevrier, 1831, p. 77.

3 The Africans of Mozambique esteem it as a remedy for venereal affections, and the Chinese employ it as an aphrodisiac.

4 Medical and Experimental Essays, vol. ii. 5 Introd. to Midwifery, ii. 524.