_Chaulmugra Seed._
=Botanical Origin=—_Gynocardia odorata_ R. Br. (_Chaulmoogra_ Roxb.,
_Hydnocarpus_ Lindl.), a large tree[320] with a globular fruit of the
size of a shaddock, containing numerous seeds immersed in pulp. It
grows in the forests of the Malayan peninsula and Eastern India as
far north as Assam, extending thence along the base of the Himalaya
westward to Sikkim.
=History=—The inhabitants of the south-eastern countries of Asia have
long been acquainted with the seeds of certain trees of the tribe
_Pangieæ_ (ord. _Bixineæ_) as a remedy for maladies of the skin. In
China a seed called _Ta-fung-tsze_ is imported from Siam[321] where it
is known as _Lukrabo_ and used in a variety of cutaneous complaints.
The tree affording it, which is figured in the _Pun-tasao_ (_circa_
A.D. 1596) has not been recognised by botanists, but from the structure
of the seed it is obviously closely related to _Gynocardia_.[322]
[319] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xiv. (1860) 210.
[320] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Medic. Plants_, part. 26 (1877).
Also in Christy, _New Commercial Plants_, No. 2 (1878).
[321] The _Commercial Report from H. M. Consul-General in Siam for the
year 1871_, presented to Parliament, Aug. 1872, states that 48 peculs
(6400 lb.) of _Lukrabow seeds_ were exported from Bangkok to China in
1871. Sir Joseph Hooker (_Report on the Royal Gardens at Kew_, 1877,
p. 33) has been informed by Mr. Pierre, the director of the Botanic
Garden at Saigon, Cochin China, that the seeds have proved to derive
from a Hydnocarpus (Gynocardia).—See also our article Semen Ignatii and
_Science Papers_, p. 235.
[322] Hanbury, _Notes on Chinese Mat. Med._ (1862) 23.—_Science
Papers_, 244. Dr. Porter Smith assumes the Chinese drug to be derived
from _G. odorata_, but as I have pointed out, the seeds have a much
stronger testa than those of that tree.—D. H.
The properties of _G. odorata_ were known to Roxburgh who, Latinizing
the Indian name of the tree, called it (1814) _Chaulmoogra odorata_. Of
late years the seeds have attracted the notice of Europeans in India,
and having been found useful in certain skin diseases, they have been
admitted a place in the _Pharmacopœia of India_.
=Description=—The seeds, 1 to 1¼ inches long and about half as much
in diameter, are of irregular ovoid form, and more or less angular or
flattened by mutual pressure; they weigh on an average about 35 grains
each. The testa is thin (about ¹/₅₀ of an inch), brittle, smooth, dull
grey; within there is a brown oily kernel, marked with a darker colour
at its basal end. The weight of the kernel is, on an average, twice
that of the testa. The former encloses in its copious, soft albumen
a pair of large, plain, leafy, heart-shaped cotyledons with a stout
radicle. The taste of the kernel is simply oily.
=Microscopic Structure=—The testa is chiefly formed of cylindrical
thick-walled cells. The albumen exhibits large angular cells containing
fatty oil, masses of albuminous matter and tufted crystals of calcium
oxalate. Starch is not present.
=Chemical Composition=—The kernels afforded us by means of ether 51·5
per cent. of fatty oil, which is almost colourless or somewhat brownish
if the seeds are not fresh. Either extracted or expressed it is of no
peculiar taste. The pressed oil concretes at 17° C.; that extracted
by ether or bisulphide of carbon requires for solidification a lower
temperature. The expressed oil is slightly fluorescent, less so that
extracted by means of bisulphide of carbon. If the oil, either pressed
or extracted, is diluted with the bisulphide, and then concentrated
sulphuric or nitric acid is added, no peculiar coloration is produced.
From the powdered kernels deprived of oil, water removes the usual
constituents, glucose, mucilage and albumin.
=Uses=—The seeds are said to have been advantageously used as an
alternative tonic in scrofula, skin diseases and rheumatism. They
should be freed from the testa, powdered, and given in the dose of 6
grains gradually increased. Reduced to a paste and mixed with Simple
Ointment, they constitute the _Unguentum Gynocardiæ_ of the _Indian
Pharmacopœia_, which, as well as an expressed oil of the seeds may be
employed externally in herpes, tinea, &c.[323]
[323] For particulars see Christy’s pamphlet alluded to above, p. 75.
=Substitute=—It has been suggested that the seeds of _Hydnocarpus
Wightiana_ Bl., a tree of Western India, and of _H. venenata_ Gärtn.,
native of Ceylon, might be tried where those of _Gynocardia_ are not
procurable. The seeds of both species of _Hydnocarpus_ (formerly
confounded together as _H. inebrians_ Vahl) afford a fatty oil which
the natives use in cutaneous diseases.[324]