_Indian Barberry Bark._
=Botanical Origin=—This drug is allowed in the _Pharmacopœia of India_
to be taken indifferently from three Indian species of _Berberis_[153]
which are the following:—
1. _Berberis aristata_ DC., a variable species occurring in the
temperate regions of the Himalaya at 6000 to 10,000 feet elevation,
also found in the Nilgiri mountains and Ceylon.[154]
2. _B. Lycium_, Royle, an erect, rigid shrub found in dry, hot
situations of the western part of the Himalaya range at 3000 to 9000
feet above the sea-level.
[153] For remarks on the Indian species of _Berberis_, see Hooker
and Thomson’s _Flora Indica_ (1855), also Hooker’s _Flora of British
India_, i. (1872) 108.
[154] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 25.
3. _B. asiatica_ Roxb.—This species has a wider distribution than the
last, being found in the dry valleys of Bhutan and Nepal whence it
stretches westward along the Himalaya to Garhwal, and occurs again in
Afghanistan.
=History=—The medical practitioners of ancient Greece and Italy made
use of a substance called _Lycium_, (λύκιον) of which the best kind
was brought from India. It was regarded as a remedy of great value in
restraining inflammatory and other discharges; but of all the uses to
which it was applied the most important was the treatment of various
forms of ophthalmic inflammation.
Lycium is mentioned by Dioscorides, Pliny, Celsus, Galen, and
Scribonius Largus; by such later Greek writers as Paulus Ægineta,
Ætius, and Oribasius, as well as by the Arabian physicians.
The author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea who probably lived in
the 1st century, enumerates λύκιον as one of the exports of Barbarike
at the mouth of the Indus, and also names it along with Bdellium and
Costus among the commodities brought to Barygaza:—and further, lycium
is mentioned among the Indian drugs on which duty was levied at the
Roman custom-house of Alexandria about A.D. 176-180.[155]
An interesting proof of the esteem in which it was held is afforded
by some singular little vases or jars of which a few specimens are
preserved in collections of Greek antiquities.[156] These vases were
made to contain lycium, and in them it was probably sold; for an
inscription on the vessel not only gives the name of the drug but also
that of a person who, we may presume, was either the seller or the
inventor of the composition. Thus we have the _Lycium_ of _Jason_, of
_Musæus_, and of _Heracleus_. The vases bearing the name of Jason were
found at Tarentum, and there is reason to believe that that marked
_Heracleus_ was from the same locality. Whether it was so or not, we
know that a certain Heraclides of Tarentum is mentioned by Celsus[157]
on account of his method of treating certain diseases of the eye; and
that Galen gives formulæ for ophthalmic medicines[158] on the authority
of the same person.
Innumerable conjectures were put forth during at least three centuries
as to the origin and nature of lycium, and especially of that highly
esteemed kind that was brought from India.
In the year 1833, Royle[159] communicated to the Linnean Society of
London a paper proving that the Indian Lycium of the ancients was
identical with an extract prepared from the wood or root of several
species of _Berberis_ growing in Northern India, and that this extract,
well known in the bazaars as _Rusot_ or _Rasot_, was in common use
among the natives in various forms of eye disease.[160] This substance
attracted considerable notice in India, and though its efficacy _per
se_[161] seemed questionable, it was administered with benefit as a
tonic and febrifuge.[162] But the _rusot_ of the natives being often
badly prepared or adulterated, the bark of the root has of late been
used in its place, and in consequence of its acknowledged efficacy has
been admitted to the _Pharmacopœia of India_.
[155] Vincent, _Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian
Ocean_, ii. (1807) 390, 410, 734.
[156] Figures of these vessels were published by Dr. J. Y. Simpson in
an interesting paper entitled _Notes on some ancient Greek medical
vases for containing Lycium_, of which we have made free use.—See
(_Edinb.)_ _Monthly Journal of Med. Science_, xvi. (1853) 24, also
_Pharm. Journ._ xiii. (1854) 413.
[157] Lib. vii. c. 7.—See also Cælius Aurelianus, _De morbis chronicis_
(Haller’s ed.) lib. i. c. 4, lib. iii. c. 8.
[158] Cataplasmata lippientium quibus usus est Heraclides
Tarentinus—Galen, _De Comp. Med. sec. locos_, lib. iv. (p. 153 in
Venice edit. of 1625).
[159] On the _Lycium_ of Dioscorides.—_Linn. Trans._ xvii. (1837) 83.
[160] It is interesting to find that two of the names for _lycium_
given by Ibn Baytar in the 13th century are precisely those under which
_rusot_ is met with in the Indian bazaars at the present day.
[161] The natives apply it in combination with alum and opium.
[162] O’Shaughnessy, _Bengal Dispensatory_ (1842) 203-205.
=Description.=—In _B. asiatica_ (the only species we have examined) the
roots which are thick and woody, and internally of a bright yellow, are
covered with a thin, brittle bark. The bark has a light-brown corky
layer, beneath which it appears of a darker and greenish yellow hue,
and composed of coarse fibres running longitudinally. The inner surface
has a glistening appearance by reason of fine longitudinal striæ. The
bark is inodorous and very bitter.
=Chemical Composition.=—Solly[163] pointed out in 1843 that the
root-bark of the Ceylon barberry [_B. aristata_] contains the same
yellow colouring matter as the barberry of Europe. L. W. Stewart[164]
extracted _Berberine_ in abundance from the barberry of theNilgiri
Hills and Northern India, and presented specimens of it to one of us in
1865.
The root-bark of _Berberis vulgaris_ L. was found by Polex (1836) to
contain another alkaloid named _Oxyacanthine_, which forms with acids
colourless crystallizable salts of bitter taste.[165]
=Uses.=—The root-bark of the Indian barberries administered as a
tincture has been found extremely useful in India in the treatment of
fevers of all types. It has also been given with advantage in diarrhœa
and dyspepsia, and as a tonic for general debility. In the collection
of the Chinese customs at Paris, in 1878, the root-barks of _Berberis
Lycium_ and _B. chinensis_, from the province of Shensi, were likewise
exhibited (No. 1,823) as a tonic.
[163] _Journ. of R. Asiat. Soc._ vii. (1843) 74.
[164] _Pharm. Journ._ vii. (1866) 303.
[165] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xvii. (1866) 197.