_Scammony_; F. _Scammonée_; G. _Scammonium_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Convolvulus Scammonia_ L., a twining plant much
resembling the common _C. arvensis_ of Europe, but differing from it
in being of larger size, and having a stout tap-root. It occurs in
waste bushy places in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, the Greek Islands,
extending northward to the Crimea and Southern Russia, but appears to
be wanting in Northern Africa, Italy, and in all the western parts of
the Mediterranean basin.
[1623] Moodeen Sheriff, _Suppl. to the Pharmacopœia of India_, 1869.
pp. 138. 189.—Consult also _Pharmacopœia of India_, 1868. pp. 148-9.
[1624] Mr. E. A. Webb has pointed out a case of false-packing in which
the roots of _Rubia cordifolia_ L. (_Munjit_) had been enclosed in the
bundles of chiretta.
=History=—The dried milky juice of the scammony plant has been known
as a medicine from very ancient times. Theophrastus in the 3rd century
B.C. was acquainted with it; it was likewise familiar to Dioscorides,
Pliny, Celsus, and Rufus of Ephesus, each of whom has given some
account of the manner in which it was collected. Scammony used then
also to be called _Diagrydion_, from the Greek word δάκρυ, tear. The
mediæval Arabian physicians also knew scammony and the plant from
which it is derived. The drug was used in Britain in the 10th and 11th
centuries, and would appear to be one of the medicines recommended
to King Alfred the Great, by Helias, patriarch of Jerusalem.[1625]
It is repeatedly named in the medical writings in use prior to the
Norman conquest (A.D. 1066), in one of which directions are given for
recognizing the goodness of the drug by the white emulsion it produces
when wetted.
The botanists of the 16th and 17th centuries, as Brunfels, Gesner,
Matthiolus, Dodonæus, and the Bauhins, described and figured the plant
partly under the name of _Scammonia syriaca_. The collecting of the
drug was well described by Russell, an English physician of Aleppo
(1752), whose account[1626] is accompanied by an excellent figure
representing the plant and the means of obtaining its juice.
[1625] Such is the opinion expressed by the Rev. O. Cockayne. The
letter of Helias to Alfred is imperfect, and mentions only balsam,
petroleum, theriaka, and a white stone used as a charm. But from
the reference to these four articles in another part of the MS., in
connection with scammony, ammoniacum, tragacanth, and galbanum, there
is ground for believing that the latter (Syrian and Persian) drugs were
included in the lost part of the patriarch’s letter.—See _Leechdoms,
Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England_, edited by Cockayne (Master
of the Rolls Series), vol. ii. pages xxiv. 289. 175, also 273. 281.
[1626] _Medical Observations and Inquiries_, i. (1757) 12.
Scammony was formerly distinguished by the names _Aleppo_ and _Smyrna_,
the former sort being twice or thrice as costly as the latter; at the
present day Aleppo scammony has quite lost its pre-eminence.
=Localities producing the drug=—Scammony is collected in Asia Minor,
from Brussa and Boli in the north, to Macri and Adalia in the south,
and eastward as far as Angora. But the most productive localities
within this area are the valley of the Mendereh, south of Smyrna:
and the districts of Kirkagach and Demirjik, north of that town. The
neighbourhood of Aleppo likewise affords the drug. A little is obtained
further south in Syria, from the woody hills and valleys about the lake
of Tiberias and Mount Carmel.
=Production=—The scammony plant has a long woody root, which throws off
downwards a few lateral branches, and produces from its knotty summit
numerous twining stems which are persistent and woody at the base. In
plants of three or four years old, the root may be an inch or more in
diameter; in older specimens it sometimes acquires a diameter of three
or four inches. In length, it is from two to three feet, according to
the depth of soil in which it grows. When the root is wounded, there
exudes a milky juice which dries up to a golden-brown, transparent,
gummy-looking substance:—this is _pure scammony_.[1627]
The method followed in collecting scammony for use appears to be
nearly the same in all localities. It has been thus described to us by
two eye-witnesses, both long resident in the East.[1628] Operations
commence by clearing away the bushes among which the plant is commonly
found; the soil around the latter is then removed, so as to leave 4
or 5 inches of the root exposed. This is then cut off in a slanting
direction at 2 to 4 inches below the crown, and a mussel-shell is stuck
into it just beneath the lowest edge, so as to receive the milky-sap
which instantly flows out. The shells are usually left till evening,
when they are collected, and the cut part of the root scraped with
a knife, so as to remove any partially dried drops of juice. These
latter are called by the Smyrna peasants, _kaimak_ or cream, the softer
contents of the shell being called _gala_ or milk.
[1627] Named probably from Σκάυυα, a _trench_ or _pit_, in allusion to
the excavation made around the root.
[1628] The one was the late Mr. S. H. Maltass of Smyrna, whose
interesting paper may be found in _Pharm. Journ._ xiii. (1854) 264; the
other is Mr. Edward T. Rogers, formerly of Caiffa, now (1874) British
Consul at Cairo.
Sometimes the scammony is allowed to dry in the shell, and such must
be regarded as representing the drug in its utmost perfection. But
scammony in shells is not brought into commerce, though a little of it
is reserved by the peasants for their own use.
The contents of the shells and the scraped off drops are next emptied
into a covered copper pot or a leathern bag, carried home, made
homogenous by mixing with a knife, and at once allowed to dry. In this
way a form of scammony is obtained closely approaching that dried in
the shell. But it is a quality of exceptional goodness. Usually the
peasant does not dry off the juice promptly, but allows his daily
gatherings to accumulate; and when he has collected a pound or two, he
places it in the sunshine to soften, and then kneads it, sometimes with
the addition of a little water, into a plastic mass, which he lastly
allows to dry. By this long exposure to heat, and retention in a liquid
state, the scammony juice undergoes fermentation, acquires a strong
cheesy odour and dark colour, and when finally dried, exhibits a more
or less porous or bubbly structure, never observable in shell scammony.
Scammony is very extensively adulterated. The adulteration is often
performed by the peasants, who mix foreign substances into the drug
while it is yet soft; and it is also effected by the dealers, some of
whom purchase it of the peasants in a half-dried state. The substances
used for sophistication are numerous, the commonest and most easily
detected being, according to our experience, carbonate of lime and
flour. Woodashes, earth (not always calcareous), gum arabic, and
tragacanth are also employed; more rarely, wax, yolk of egg, pounded
scammony roots, rosin, or black-lead.
=Description=—The pure juice of the root, simply dried by exposure
to the sun and air, is an amorphous, transparent, brittle substance,
of resinous aspect, a yellowish-brown colour, and glossy fracture.
Scammony possessing these characters is occasionally met with in
the form of flattish irregular masses, about ½ to ¾ of an inch in
thickness, very brittle by reason of internal fissures, yet with but
few air-cavities. In mass, it is of a chesnut-brown, but in small
fragments it is seen to be very pale yellowish-brown and transparent,
with the freshly fractured surface vitreous and shining. When powdered
it is of a very light buff. Rubbed with the moistened finger it forms
a white emulsion. Treated with ether it yields 88 to 90 per cent. of
soluble matter, and a nearly colourless residuum. This scammony, as
well as the pure juice in the shell, is very liable to become mouldy;
but besides this, it throws out, if long kept, a white, mammillated,
crystalline efflorescence, the nature of which we have not been able to
determine. But if scammony is kept quite dry, neither mouldiness nor
efflorescence makes its appearance.
The ordinary fine scammony of commerce, known as _Virgin Scammony_, is
also in large flat pieces or irregular flattened lumps and fragments,
which in mass have a dark grey or blackish hue. Viewed in thin
fragments, it is seen to be translucent and of a yellowish-brown. It
is very easily broken, exhibits a shining fracture, gives an ashy-grey
powder, and has a peculiar cheesy odour. Some of the pieces have a
porous, bubbly structure, indicative of fermentation; the more solid
often show the efflorescence already mentioned. Scammony has not much
taste, but leaves an acrid sensation in the throat.
=Chemical Composition=—Scammony owes its active properties as a
medicine to a resin shown (1860) by Spirgatis to be identical with
that found in the root of the Mexican _Ipomœa orizabensis_, known in
commerce as _Male Jalap_: this resin called _Jalapin_ will be described
in the next article. The other constituents of pure scammony are not
well known. One of them is the substance which, as already stated,
makes its appearance as small masses of cauliflower crystals on the
surface of pure scammony, when the latter is kept in air not perfectly
dry.
Whether the odour observable in commercial scammony is due to a
volatile fatty acid developed by fermentation, is a question still to
be investigated.
=Commerce=—The export of scammony from Smyrna amounted in 1871 to 278
cases, valued at £8320; in 1872 to 185 cases, value £6100. According
to a report of Consul Skene on the trade of Northern Syria,[1629]
737 cases of scammony were exported from the province of Aleppo in
1872,—six-sevenths of the quantity being for England. In 1873 Aleppo
exported by way of Alexandretta to England 46,500 kilogrammes of
scammony root and 900 kilogrammes of the resin, the latter being valued
at 36,000 francs (£1444).
An establishment at Brussa, founded by Della Sudda, of Constantinople,
is stated to export since 1870 a very good scammony resin extracted by
alcohol.[1630]
=Uses=—Employed as an active cathartic, often in combination with
colocynth and calomel.
=Adulteration=—Scammony is very often imported in an adulterated
state, but the adulteration is so clumsily effected, and is so easily
discoverable by simple tests, or even by ocular examination, that
druggists have but little excuse for accepting a bad article.
[1629] Presented to Parliament, July 1873.
[1630] Dragendorff’s _Jahresbericht_, 1876. 158.
We have already named the substances used in the sophistication of
scammony: of these, the most frequent are carbonate of lime and
farinaceous matter. The first may generally be recognized by examining
the fractured surface of the drug with a good lens, when the white
particles of the carbonate will be perceived. If the surface is then
touched (while still _sub lente_) with hydrochloric acid, effervescence
will prove the presence of a carbonate. Other earthly adulterants can
be discovered by incineration, or by examining the residue of the
drug after treatment with ether. Starchy substances, the presence of
which may be surmised by the scammony being difficult to break, are
detectable by the microscope or by solution of iodine, a cold decoction
of scammony not being affected by that reagent. Scammony that is
ponderous, dull and clayey, not easily broken in the fingers, or which
when broken does not exhibit a clean, glossy surface, or which does
not afford at least 80 per cent. of matter soluble in ether, should be
rejected. That which is made up in the form of hard, dark, circular
cakes is widely different from pure scammony.
Scammony may be distinguished from _Resin of Scammony_ by its property
of forming an emulsion when wetted. The resin is also more glossy and
almost entirely soluble in ether.
Radix Scammoniæ.
The frauds commonly practised on the scammony of commerce have given
rise to various schemes for obtaining the drug in a purer form, as well
as at a more moderate price.[1631]
So far back as 1839, the Edinburgh College prescribed a _Resina
Scammonii_, which was prepared by exhausting scammony with a spirit of
wine, distilling off the spirit, and washing the residue with water.
Such an extract was manufactured by the late Mr. Maltass of Smyrna, and
occasionally shipped to London.
In consequence of a suggestion made by Mr. Clark, manufacturer of
liquorice at Sochia near Scala Nuova, south of Smyrna, a patent was
taken out (1856) by Prof. A. W. Williamson of London, for preparing
this resin directly from the dried root by means of alcohol. The same
chemist shortly afterwards devised an improved process, which consists
in boiling the roots first with water and then with dilute acid, so
as to deprive them of all matters soluble in those menstrua, and
afterwards extracting the resin by alcohol.
Resin of Scammony, obtained either from scammony or from the dried
root, is ordered in the _British Pharmacopœia_ of 1867, and is
manufactured by a few houses. It is a brown, translucent, brittle
substance of resinous fracture, entirely soluble in ether, and not
forming an emulsion when wetted with water.
Scammony root is occasionally brought into the London market, sometimes
in rather large quantity,[1632] but it is not generally kept by
druggists, nor do we find it quoted in price-currents. Its collection
is even opposed in some parts of Turkey by the local authorities.[1633]
[1631] Scammony was quoted in a London price current, April 1874, at
8_s._ to 36_s._ per lb., Resin of Scammony at 14_s._ per lb.
[1632] Thus 100 bales were offered in a drug sale, 3 July 1873.
[1633] Such was the case at Aleppo, as we know by a private letter from
Mr. Consul Skene.—D. H.
The root consists of stout, woody, cylindrical pieces, often spirally
twisted, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, covered with a rough, furrowed,
greyish-brown bark. They are internally pale brown, tough and resinous,
with a faint odour and taste resembling jalap. A good sample yielded us
5½ per cent. of resin; Kingzett and Farries (1877) showed the root to
be devoid of an alkaloid.