_Pellitory Root_, _Pellitory of Spain_; F. _Pyrèthre-salivaire_; G.
_Bertramwurzel_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Anacylus Pyrethrum_ DC. (_Anthemis Pyrethrum_ L.),
a low perennial plant with small, much divided leaves, and a radiate
flower resembling a large daisy. It is a native of northern Africa,
especially Algeria, growing on the high plateaux that intervene between
the fertile coast regions and the desert.
=History=—The πύρεθρον of Dioscorides was an umbelliferous plant, the
determination of which must be left to conjecture. The pellitory of
modern times was familiar to the Arabian writers on medicine, one of
whom, Ibn Baytar, describes it very correctly from specimens gathered
by himself near the city of Constantine in Algeria. The plant, says
he, called by the Berbers _sandasab_, is found nowhere but in Western
Africa, from which region it is carried to other countries.[1418]
Pellitory root is a favourite remedy in the East, and has long been
an article of export by way of Egypt to India. An Arabic name for
it is _Aāqarqarhā_ or _Akulkara_[1419], a word which, under slight
variations, is found in the principal languages of India. In Germany,
pellitory was known as early as the 12th century; it is named in the
oldest printed works on materia medica. In the 13th century “pellitory
of _Spain_” (Pelydr ysbain) was a proved “remedy for the toothache”
with the Welsh physicians.[1420]
=Description=—The root as found in the shops is simple, 3 to 4 inches
long by ⅜ to ⁴/₈ of an inch thick, cylindrical, or tapering, sometimes
terminated at top by the bristly remains of leaves, and having only
a few hair-like rootlets. It has a brown, rough, shrivelled surface,
is compact and brittle, the fractured surface being radiate and
destitute of pith. The bark, at most ¹/₂₅ of an inch thick, adheres
closely to the wood, a narrow zone of cambium intervening. The woody
column is traversed by large medullary rays in which, as in the bark,
numerous dark resin-ducts are scattered. The root has a slight aromatic
smell, and a persistent, pungent taste, exciting a singular tingling
sensation, and a remarkable flow of saliva. The drug is very liable to
the attacks of insects.
=Microscopic Structure=—The cortical part of this root is remarkable on
account of its suberous layer, which is partly made up of sclerenchyme
(thick-walled cells). Balsam-ducts (oil-cells) occur as well in
the middle cortical layer as in the medullary rays. Most of the
parenchymatous cells are loaded with lumps of inulin; pellitory in fact
is one of those roots most abounding in that substance.
[1418] Sontheimer’s translation, ii. (1842) 179.
[1419] _Haq’recarcha_; see Steinschneider, in Rohlfs’ Archiv für
Geschichte der Medicin (1879) 342.
[1420] _Meddygon Myddfai_ (see Appendix) 184. 292. 374.
=Chemical Composition=—Pellitory has been analysed by several chemists,
whose labours have shown that its pungent taste is due in great part
to a resin, not yet fully examined. The root also contains a little
volatile oil besides, sugar, gum, and a trace of tannic acid. The
so-called _Pyrethrin_ is a mixed substance.
=Commerce=—The root is collected chiefly in Algeria and is
exported from Oran and to a smaller extent from Algiers. But from
the information we have received from Colonel Playfair, British
Consul-General for Algeria, and from Mr. Wood, British Consul at Tunis,
it appears that the greater part is shipped from Tunis to Leghorn
and Egypt. Mr. Wood was informed that the drug is imported from the
frontier town of Tebessa in Algeria into the regency of Tunis, to the
extent of 500 _cantars_ (50,000 lb.) per annum.
Bombay imported in the year 1871-72, 740 cwt. of this drug, of which
more than half was shipped to other ports of India.[1421]
=Uses=—Chiefly employed as a sialogogue for the relief of toothache,
occasionally in the form of tincture as a stimulant and rubefacient.
=Substitute=—In Germany, Russia and Scandinavia, African pellitory
is replaced by the root of _Anacyclus officinarum_ Hayne, an annual
herb long cultivated in Prussia and Saxony.[1422] Its root of a light
grey is only half as thick as that of _A. Pyrethrum_, and is always
abundantly provided with adherent remains of stalks and leaves. It is
quite as pungent as that of the perennial species.