Syn. Copaiva Balsam. Dub.

Origin

Copaiba is the juice of Copaifera officinalis, G. multijuga, and other species of the same genus, handsome trees, growing in the W. indies, Brazil, Venezuela, and other parts of South America. it is obtained by making incisions into the stem, from which it flows out copiously, thin, transparent, and colourless. in a short time it becomes more consistent, and acquires a yellowish hue, and in this condition is imported.

Properties and Composition. Copaiba is a clear liquid, of a consistence varying with its age, but usually approaching that of olive oil, a pale-yellowish colour, a peculiar not disagreeable odour, and a hot, bitterish, nauseous taste. it is usually somewhat lighter than water, inflammable, insoluble in water, but readily dissolved by strong alcohol, ether, the fixed and volatile oils, and alkaline solutions. it consists essentially of a peculiar volatile oil, and two resins, one of which, constituting much the larger portion, has acid properties, and forms compounds with salifiable bases.

When magnesia is mixed with copaiba in certain proportions, which vary with the quantity of the volatile oil, the mixture gradually concretes; the earth uniting with the resinous acid, to form a solid insoluble compound, which absorbs the oil. The alkalies, on the contrary, form soluble compounds with the resin of the copaiba, which, when dissolved in water, have the property of holding the volatile oil in solution. Hence the solubility of copaiba in the solutions of the alkalies.

The proportion of the volatile oil varies greatly; being in certain varieties in all probability originally greater than in others, and afterwards diminishing with the age and degree of exposure. Thus, while recent copaiba has yielded 80 per cent. of the oil, older specimens have been found to contain but little more than 30 per cent., and the proportion is indefinitely diminished by time, until the juice becomes concrete. On the average, it may perhaps be stated at about 40 per cent. The diminution of the oil is owing partly to its volatilization, partly to its oxidation, and conversion into a resin, which appears to be identical with the non-acid resinous constituent of the juice. The volatile oil is the active principle of copaiba.

Effects on the System

Copaiba is locally and generally stimulant, with a tendency to act on the bowels, and to increase the secretions, especially that of the kidneys. it ranks, therefore, with the stimulating diuretics. in its influence on the system, as well as in its chemical nature, it is closely allied to the turpentines.

In moderate doses, it produces a sensation of warmth in the throat and stomach, not unfrequently operates as a laxative, and, after a short time, shows signs of having been absorbed, by imparting its odour to the urine and the breath. The urine is in general sensibly increased in quantity, acquires frequently a darker colour, and sometimes becomes coagulable by nitric acid, in consequence of the elimination of an albuminoid substance. But, according to Dr. G. Owen Rees, this substance differs from ordinary albumen in not subsiding after coagulation. if continued long, or given largely, the copaiba is apt to disturb the bowels, to excite the circulation, and produce an obvious irritation of the urinary passages, evinced by a disposition to frequent micturition, and uneasy sensation of burning or pain in passing urine. Occasionally, also, a roseolous or papulous eruption is produced on the skin, with or without itching and tingling. From still larger quantities, or, in irritable constitutions, even from the ordinary remedial doses, a universal irritative effect is produced, with a frequent pulse, hot skin, often headache, furred tongue, anorexia, and sometimes nausea and vomiting, with or without purging and abdominal pains, constituting a complete febrile condition, which subsides in a day or two on the omission of the medicine, and the adoption of an antiphlogistic regimen. The irritation of the urinary organs sometimes amounts to complete strangury, with scalding and cutting pains, bloody and scanty urine, etc. Occasionally the renal irritation is so great that the kidneys almost cease to secrete.

Therapeutic Application

Copaiba has been known as a medicine since about the middle of the seventeenth century, though its greatest popularity dates from a much more recent period. it is chiefly employed for its stimulant and alterative influence on the mucous membranes, upon which it appears to operate by direct contact. Thus, in the stomach and bowels, it is of course in contact with the alimentary mucous membrane; and, after absorption, its volatile oil, escaping by the lungs and kidneys, acts on the bronchial membrane in the former case, and upon that of the urinary passages in the latter, as it passes out with the urine.

In reference to the urinary organs, though it undoubtedly stimulates the kidneys, and increases the secretion by its moderate influence, and has sometimes been employed, on this account, in dropsies, its use at present is confined almost exclusively to cases in which the mucous membrane is affected. Gonorrhoea is the disease in which copaiba is most employed. in this complaint, it may be given either in the early stage, before the symptoms have become highly inflammatory, or in the latter stages, after the inflammation has subsided. Given freely in the former condition of the disease, it will sometimes put a speedy end to it; but at some hazard of increasing the inflammation, if it should not succeed. it has, indeed, been accused of inducing attacks of swelled testicle; and it is certain that such attacks not unfrequently come on under its use; but they occur also under other circumstances, and it is very difficult to determine what agency, in any particular instance, the medicine may have had in the production of the complaint. When high inflammation already exists, it appears to me that copaiba is wholly contraindicated; and, though it may not always aggravate the disease, and may even sometimes prove useful, the risk, upon the whole, is much greater than any probable benefit. it is to the advanced stage, then, that the remedy is peculiarly applicable; and here it may be employed without hesitation; due care being taken so to regulate the dose as not to bring on strangury, or throw the stomach and bowels, or the general system into disorder. When the medicine is disposed to run off by the bowels, the tendency may be corrected by a little opium. To be successful, it should be given in the largest quantities compatible with the cautions just inculcated.