=Botanical Origin=—_Toddalia aculeata_ Pers., a ramous prickly
bush,[438] often climbing over the highest trees, common in the
southern parts of the Indian peninsula as the Coromandel Coast, South
Concans, and Canara, also found in Ceylon, Mauritius, the Indian
Archipelago and Southern China.
=History=—The pungent aromatic properties which pervade the plant,
but especially the fresh root-bark, are well known to the natives of
India and have been utilized in their medical practice. They have also
attracted the attention of Europeans, and the root of the plant is now
recognized in the _Pharmacopœia of India_.
It is from this and other species of _Toddalia_, or from the allied
genus _Zanthoxylum_,[439] that a drug is derived which under the name
of _Lopez Root_ had once some celebrity in Europe. This drug which was
more precisely termed _Radix Indica Lopeziana_ or _Root of Juan Lopez
Pigneiro_, was first made known by the Italian physician Redi,[440]
who described it in 1671 from specimens obtained by Pigneiro at the
mouth of the river Zambesi in Eastern Africa,—the very locality in
which in our times _Toddalia lanceolata_ Lam. has been collected by
Dr. Kirk.[441] It was actually introduced into European medicine by
Gaubius[442] in 1771 as a remedy for diarrhœa, and acquired so much
reputation that it was admitted to the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia of 1792.
The root appears to have been sometimes imported from Goa, but its
place of growth and botanical origin were entirely unknown, and it was
always extremely rare and costly.[443] It has long been obsolete in all
countries except Holland, where until recently it was to be met with in
the shops. The _Pharmacopœia Neerlandica_ of 1851 says of it “_Origo
botanica perquam dubia—Patria Malacca?_”
[438] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, part 18.
[439] The root of a _Zanthoxylum_ sent to us from Java by Mr. Binnendyk
of the Buitenzorg Botanical Garden has exactly the aspect of that of
_Toddalia_. The root of _Z. Bungei_ which we have examined in the fresh
state is also completely similar. It is covered with a soft, corky,
yellow bark having a very bitter taste with a strong pungency like that
of pellitory.
[440] _Esperienze intorno a diverse cote naturali_, Firenze, 1671. 121.
[441] Oliver, _Flor. of Trop. Africa_, i. (1868) 307.
[442] _Adversaria_, Leidae, p. 78.
[443] Our friend Dr. de Vry informs us that he remembers the price in
Holland in 1828 being equivalent to about 24_s._ the ounce!
=Description=—The specimen of the root of _Toddalia aculeata_ which
we have examined was collected for us by Dr. G. Bidie of Madras whose
statements regarding the stimulant and tonic action of the drug may
be found in the _Pharmacopœia of India_, p. 442. It is a dense woody
root in cylindrical, flexuous pieces, which have evidently been of
considerable length and are from ½ to 1½ inches in diameter, covered
with bark ⅒ to ¹/₁₂ of an inch in thickness. The bark has a soft,
dull yellowish, suberous coat, wrinkled longitudinally, beneath which
is a very thin layer of a bright yellow colour, and still lower and
constituting two-thirds or more of the whole, is the firm, brown middle
cortical layer and liber, which is the part chiefly possessing the
characteristic pungency and bitterness of the drug. The yellow corky
coat is however not devoid of bitterness. The wood is hard, of a pale
yellow, and without taste and smell. The pores of the wood, which
are rather large, are arranged in concentric order and traversed by
numerous narrow medullary rays.
In a letter which Frappier[444] wrote to Guibourt from the island of
Réunion where _Toddalia aculeata_ is very common, he states that the
roots of the plant are of enormous length (_longueur incroyable_) and
rather difficult to get out of the basaltic rock into the fissures of
which they penetrate. Mr. J. Horne of the Botanical Garden, Mauritius,
has sent us a specimen of the root of this plant, the bark of which is
of a dusky brown, with the suberous layer but little developed.
=Microscopic Structure=—We have examined the root for which we are
indebted to Dr. Bidie, and may state that its cortical tissue is
remarkable by the number of large cells filled with resin and essential
oil; they are scattered through the whole tissue, the cork excepted.
The parenchymatous cells are loaded with small starch granules or with
crystals of oxalate of calcium. The vessels of younger roots abound in
yellow resin.
=Chemical Composition=—None of the constituents of the Toddalia root
of India have yet been satisfactorily examined. The bark contains an
essential oil, which would be better extracted from fresh than from
dry material. The tissue of the bark is but little coloured by salts
of iron. In the aqueous infusion, tannic acid produces an abundant
precipitate, probably of an indifferent bitter principle rather than of
an alkaloid. We have been unable to detect the presence in the bark of
berberine.
Lopez root was examined in Wittstein’s laboratory by Schnitzer[445]
who found that the bark contains in addition to the usual substances a
large proportion of resin,—a mixture probably of two or three different
bodies. The essential oil afforded by the bark had an odour resembling
cinnamon and melissa.
=Uses=—The drug has been introduced into the _Pharmacopœia of India_
chiefly upon the recommendation of Dr. Bidie of Madras, who considers
it of great value as a stimulating tonic. The bark rasped or shaved
from the woody root is the only part that should be used.
[444] _Journ. de Phar._ v. (1867) 403.
[445] Wittstein’s _Vierteljahresschrift für prakt. Pharm._ xi. (1862)
i.—The drug examined was the Lopez root sold at that period at
Amsterdam.