_Faba Sancti Ignatii_; _St. Ignatius’ Beans_; F. _Fèves de Saint
Ignace_, _Noix Igasur_; G. _Ignatiusbohnen_.[1602]
[1598] _Jahresbericht der Chemie_, 1875. 856.
[1599] We have seen 1136 packages offered in a single drug sale (30
March 1871).
[1600] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of Bombay for 1871-72_,
pt. ii. 62.
[1601] No later returns are accessible.
[1602] The plant and seeds are known in the Bisaya language by the
names of _pangaguason_, _aguason_, _canlara_, _mananaog_, _dancagay_,
_catalonga_ or _igasur_; in the islands of Bohol and Çebu, where the
seeds are produced, by that of _coyacoy_, and by the Spaniards of the
Philippines as _Pepita de Bisaya_ or _Pepita de Catbalogan_ (Clain,
_Remedios Faciles_, Manila, 1857. p. 610). The name _St. Ignatius’
Bean_ applied to them in Europe, is employed in South America to
designate the seeds of several medicinal _Cucurbitaceæ_, as those of
_Fenillea trilobata_ L., _Hypanthera Guapeva_ Manso and _Anisosperma
Passiflora_ Manso.
=Botanical Origin=—_Strychnos Ignatii_ Bergius[1603] (_S. philippensis_
Blanco, _Ignatiana philippinica_ Loureiro), a large climbing shrub,
growing in Bohol, Samar, and Çebu, islands of the Bisaya group of the
Philippines, and according to Loureiro in Cochin China, where it has
been introduced. The inflorescence and foliage are known to botanists
only from the descriptions given by Loureiro[1604] and Blanco.[1605]
The fruit is spherical, or sometimes ovoid, 4½ inches in diameter by
6¾ long, as shown by Ray and Petiver’s figure. It has a smooth brittle
shell enclosing seeds to the number of about 24. G. Bennett,[1606] who
saw the fruits at Manila sold in the bazaar, says they contain from 1
to 12 seeds, imbedded in a glutinous blackish pulp.[1607] According to
Jagor[1608] the shrub is abundant near Basey, in the south-western part
of the island of Samar, on the straits of San Juanico; its seeds are
met with as a medicine in many houses in the Philippines.
=History=—It is stated by Murray[1609] and later writers that this seed
was introduced into Europe from the Philippines by the Jesuits, who,
on account of its virtues, bestowed upon it the name of Ignatius, the
founder of their order. However this may be, the earliest account of
the drug appears to be that communicated by Camelli, Jesuit missionary
at Manila, to Ray and Petiver, and by them laid before the Royal
Society of London in 1699.[1610] Camelli proclaimed the seed to be the
_Nux Vomica legitima_ of the Arabian physician Serapion, who flourished
in the 9th century; but in our opinion there is no warrant whatever
for supposing it to have been known at so remote a period.[1611]
_Sancti Ignatii_, is much esteemed as a remedy in various disorders,
though he was well aware of its poisonous properties when too freely
administered. In Germany, St. Ignatius’ Bean was made known about the
same period by Bohn of Leipzig.[1612]
The drug is found in the Indian bazaars under a name which is evidently
corrupted from the Spanish _pepita_. It is met with in the drugshops of
China as _Leu-sung-kwo_, i.e. _Luzon fruit_.
=Description=—St. Ignatius’ Beans are about an inch in length; their
form is ovoid, yet by mutual pressure it is rendered very irregular,
and they are 3-, 4-, or 5-sided, bluntly angular, or flattish, with a
conspicuous hilum at one end. In the fresh state, they are covered with
silvery adpressed hairs: portions of a shaggy brown epidermis are here
and there perceptible on those found in commerce, but in the majority
the seed shows the dull grey, granular surface of the albumen itself.
Notwithstanding the different outward appearance, the structure of St.
Ignatius’ Beans accords with that of nux vomica. The radicle however
is longer, thicker, and frequently somewhat bent, and the cotyledons
are more pointed. The horny brownish albumen is translucent, very hard,
and difficult to split. The whole seed swells considerably by prolonged
digestion in warm water, and has then a heavy, earthy smell. The beans
are intensely bitter and highly poisonous.
[1603] _Materia Medica_, Stockholm, 1778. i. 146.—We omit citing the
Linnean _Ignatia amara_, as it has been shown by Bentham that the plant
so named by the younger Linnæus is _Posoqueria longiflora_ Aubl. of the
order _Rubiaceæ_, a native of Guiana.
[1604] _Flora Cochinchinensis_, ed. Willd. i. (1793) 155.
[1605] _Flora de Filipinas_, ed. 2. 1845. 61.
[1606] _London Med. and Phys. Journ._ January 1832.
[1607] The only specimen of the fruit I have seen was in the possession
of my late friend Mr. Morson. It measured exactly 4 inches in diameter,
and when opened (15 January 1872) was found to contain 17 mature,
well-formed seeds, with remnants of dried pulp.—D. H. I have seen
another one in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris.—F. A. F..
[1608] _Reisen in den Philippinen_, Berlin, 1873. 213.
[1609] _Apparatus Medicaminum_, vi. (1792) 26.
[1610] _Phil. Trans._, xxi. (1699) 44. 87; Ray, _Hist. Plant._ iii.
lib. 31. 118.
[1611] The Philippines were unknown to the Europeans of the Middle
Ages. They were discovered by Magellan in 1521, but their conquest by
the Spaniards was not effectually commenced until 1565. Previous to
the Spanish occupation, they were governed by petty chiefs, and were
frequented for the purposes of commerce by Japanese, Chinese, and
Malays.
[1612] Martiny, _Encyklopädie der Rohwaarenkunde_, i. (1843) 576.
=Microscopic Structure=—The hairs of the epidermis are of an analogous
structure, but more simple than in nux vomica. The albumen and
cotyledons agree in structural features with those of the same parts in
nux vomica.
=Chemical Composition=—Strychnine exists to the extent of about 1·5
per cent.; the seeds also contain 0·5 per cent. of brucine. Dried over
sulphuric acid and burnt with soda-lime, it yielded us an average of
1·78 per cent. of nitrogen, which would answer to about 10 per cent. of
albuminoid matter.
=Commerce=—We have no information as to the collection of the drug. The
seeds are met with irregularly in English trade, being sometimes very
abundant, at others scarcely obtainable.
=Uses=—The same as those of nux vomica. When procurable at a moderate
price, the seeds are valued for the manufacture of strychnine.