_Folia Jaborandi_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Pilocarpus pennatifolius_[446] Lemaire, a slightly
branched shrub, attaining about 10 feet in height. It is distributed
through the eastern provinces of Brazil.
_Pilocarpus Selloanus_[447] Engler, occurring in Southern Brazil
and Paraguay, appears to be not considerably different from _P.
pennatifolius_.
=History=—Piso[448] recommended an infusion made with Ipecacuanha and
Jaborandi. Plumier,[449] who also mentioned this, figured under the
name of Jaborandi two plants of the order Piperaceæ. The introduction
of the leaves of _Pilocarpus pennatifolius_ into medical use is due
to Dr. Coutinho of Pernambuco, 1874. The plant has been cultivated in
European greenhouses since about the year 1847; we have repeatedly
seen it flowering at Strassburg. Baillon in 1875 showed the fragments
of Jaborandi as supplied by Coutinho to belong to _P. pennatifolius_,
which had been described in 1852 by Lemaire. Holmes (1875) in examining
the drug as imported from Pernambuco came to the same conclusion.
=Description=—The leaves of the species under examination are
long-stalked, imparipennate, the opposite leaflets in 2 to 5, in
cultivated plants most commonly in 2 pairs, the terminal one longer
stalked, while the others are provided with a petiole attaining 1½
inch in length or remaining much shorter. The whole leaf is frequently
1½ feet long, the leaflets being often as much as 5 inches long by 2
inches wide. The latter are entire oblong, tapering or rounded at the
base, tapering or obtuse or even emarginate at the apex. The leaflets
are coriaceous, with a slightly revolute margin and a prominent midrib
below. In transmitted light they show very numerous pellucid oil-glands.
The taste of the leaves of Pilocarpus is at first bitterish and
aromatic; they subsequently produce a tingling sensation in the mouth
and an abundant flow of saliva.
=Microscopic Structure=[450]—The oil-glands consist of large cells
of the same structure as those occurring generally in the leaves
of Rutaceæ, Aurantiaceæ, Myrtaceæ. In Pilocarpus they are largely
distributed in the tissue covered on both sides of the leaf by the
epidermis; the oil-cells are also abundantly met with in the petiole
and in the bark of the stems and branches.
=Chemical Composition=—The active principle of Jaborandi is the
alkaloid _Pilocarpine_, C₂₃H₃₅N₄O₄ + 4OH₂, discovered in 1875 by
Hardy. It is an amorphous soft mass, but yielding crystallized salts,
among which the hydrochlorate and the nitrate are now more frequently
used than the drug itself. The leaves afford about ½ per cent. of the
nitrate.
[446] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 32 (1878).
[447] Fig. by Engler in _Flora Brasil_. fasc. 65 (1874) tab. 30.
_Pilocarpus pauciflorus_ St. Hilaire (_Flora Brasiliæ meridionalis_, i.
1824. tab. 17) appears also to be very similar.
[448] Lib. iv. cap. 57, 59, and v. cap. 19, p. 310, of the work quoted
in the appendix.
[449] _Description des Plantes de l’Amérique_, 1693. 58. Pl. lxxv. and
lxxvi.
[450] Stiles, _Pharm. J._ vii. (1877) 629; also Lanessan’s French
translation of the _Pharmacographia_, i. (1878) 253.
The occurrence of another peculiar alkaloid in Pilocarpus has been
asserted, but not ultimately proved.
The leaves contain about ½ per cent. of essential oil, the prevailing
constituent of it being a dextrogyrate terpene, C₁₀H₁₆, boiling at
178°, which forms a crystallized compound C₁₀H₁₆ + 2HCl melting at
49°·5 C.
=Uses=—Pilocarpine being a powerful diaphoretic and sialagogue,
the leaves of Jaborandi are used to some extent in pharmaceutical
preparations.
=Other Kinds of Jaborandi=—This name, as above stated, has originally
been given to plants of the order Piperaceæ, some of which are still
known in Brazil under the name Jaborandi. The following may be quoted
as being used at least in that country: _Serronia Jaborandi_[451]
Gaudichaud, _Piper reticulatum_ L. (_Enckea_ Miquel), _Piper
citrifolium_ Lamarck (_Steffensia_ Kunth), _Piper nodulosum_ Link,
_Artanthe mollicoma_ Miq.
_Aubletia trifolia_[452] Richard (_Monniera_ L.) and _Xanthoxylum
elegans_ Engler, belonging to the same order as Pilocarpus itself, are
also sometimes called Jaborandi.
We are not aware that other leaves than those of Pilocarpus are
imported to some extent in Europe under the name of Jaborandi.