_Radix Salep_, _Radix Satyrii_; _Salep_; F. _Salep_; G. _Salepknollen_.
=Botanical Origin=—Most, if not all, species of _Orchis_ found in
Europe and Northern Asia are provided with tubers which, when duly
prepared, are capable of furnishing salep. Of those actually so used,
the following are the more important, namely—_Orchis mascula_ L., _O.
Morio_ L., _O. militaris_ L., _O. ustulata_ L., _O. pyramidalis_ L.,
_O. coriophora_ L., and _O. longicruris_ Link. These species which have
the tubers _entire_ are natives of the greater part of Central and
Southern Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus and Asia Minor.[2436]
The following species with _palmate_ or _lobed_ tubers have a
geographical area no less extensive, namely _O. maculata_ L., _O.
saccifera_ Brongn., _O. conopsea_ L., and _O. latifolia_ L. The last
named reaches North-Western India and Tibet; and _O. conopsea_ occurs
in Amurland in the extreme east of Asia.
[2435] _Blue Book for the Colony of the Gold Coast in 1871._
[2436] Tchihatcheff enumerates 36 species of _Orchis_ as occurring in
Asia Minor.—_Asie Mineure_, Bot. ii. 1860.
The salep of the Indian bazaars, known as _Sālib misrī_, for fine
qualities of which the most extravagant prices are paid by wealthy
orientals, is derived from certain species of _Eulophia_, as _E.
campestris_ Lindl., _E. herbacea_ Lindl., and probably others.[2437]
=History=—Under the superstitious influence of the so-called _doctrine
of signatures_,[2438] salep[2439] has had for ages a reputation in
Eastern countries as a stimulant of the generative powers; and many
Europeans who have lived in India, although not prepared to admit the
extravagant virtues ascribed to it by Hindus and Mahommedans, yet
regard it as a valuable nutrient in the sick-room.
The drug was known to Dioscorides and the Arabians, as well as to the
herbalists and physicians of the middle ages, by whom it was mostly
prescribed in the fresh state. Gerarde (1636) has given excellent
figures of the various orchids whose tubers, says he, “_our age useth_.”
Geoffroy[2440] having recognized the salep imported from the Levant
to be the tubers of an orchis, pointed out in 1740 how it might be
prepared from the species indigenous to France.
=Collection=—The tubers are dug up after the plant has flowered, and
the shrivelled ones having been thrown aside, those which are plump are
washed, strung on threads and scalded. By this process their vitality
is destroyed, and the drying is easily effected by exposure to the sun
or to a gentle artificial heat. Though white and juicy when fresh, they
become by drying hard and horny, and lose their bitterish taste and
peculiar odour.
Salep is largely collected near Melassa (Milas) and Mughla (or Moola),
south-east of Smyrna, and also brought there from Mersina, opposite the
north-eastern cape (Andrea) of Cyprus. The drug found in English trade
is mostly imported from Smyrna. That sold in Germany is partly obtained
from plants growing wild in the Taunus mountains, Westerwald, Rhön, the
Odenwald, and in Franconia. Salep is also collected in Greece, and used
in that country and Turkey in the form of decoction, which is sweetened
with honey and taken as an early morning drink.[2441] The salep of
India is produced on the hills of Afghanistan, Beluchistan, Kabul and
Bokhara;[2442] the Neilgherry Hills in the south, and even Ceylon are
said likewise to afford it.
[2437] The Indian species of _Eulophia_ have been reviewed by Lindley
in _Journ. of Linn. Soc._ Bot. iii. (1859) 23.
[2438] See Appendix, Porta.
[2439] _Salep_ is the Arabic for _fox_, and the drug is called in that
language _Khus yatu’s salab_, i.e. _fox’s testicle_; or _Khus yatu’l
kalb_, i.e. _dog’s testicle_. The word _Orchis_, and the old English
names _Dogstones_, _Foxstones_, _Harestones_ and _Goatstones_ have all
been given in allusion to the form of the tubers.
[2440] _Mém. de l’Acad. des Sciences_ for 1740. 99.
[2441] Heldreich, _Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands_, Athen, 1862. 9.
[2442] Powell, _Economic Products of the Punjab_, Roorkee, i. (1868)
261; Stewart, _Punjab Plants_, Lahore, 1869. 236.
=Description=—Levant salep, such as is found in the English market,
consists of tubers half an inch to an inch in length, of ovoid or
oblong form, often pointed at the lower end, and rounded at the
upper where is a depressed scar left by the stem; palmate tubers
are unfrequent. They are generally shrunken and contorted, covered
with a roughly granular skin, pale brown, translucent, very hard and
horny, with but little odour and a slight not unpleasant taste. After
maceration in water for several hours, they regain their original form
and volume. German salep is more translucent and gummy-looking, and has
the aspect of being more trimmed and prepared.
=Microscopic Structure=—The fresh tuber exhibits on transverse
section a few outer rows of thin-walled cells rich in starch. These
are followed by parenchyme of elongated colourless cells likewise
containing starch, and isolated bundles of acicular crystals of oxalate
of calcium. In this parenchyme, there are numerous larger cells filled
with homogenous mucilage. Small vascular bundles are irregularly
scattered throughout the tuber. In _Orchis mascula_ and _O. latifolia_
the starch grains are nearly globular, and about 25 mkm. in diameter.
In dried salep the cell-walls are distorted and the starch grains
agglomerated.
=Chemical Composition=—The most important constituent of salep is a
sort of mucilage, the proportions of which according to Dragendorff
(1865) amounts to 48 per cent.; but it is doubtless subject to great
variation. Salep yields this mucilage to cold water, forming a solution
which is turned blue by iodine, and mixes clearly with neutral
acetate of lead like gum arabic. On addition of ammonia, an abundant
precipitate is formed. Mucilage of salep precipitated by alcohol and
then dried, is coloured violet or blue, if moistened with a solution of
iodine in iodide of potassium. The dry mucilage is readily soluble in
ammoniacal solution of oxide of copper; when boiled with nitric acid,
oxalic, but not mucic acid is produced. In these two respects, the
mucilage of salep agrees with cellulose, rather than with gum arabic.
In the large cells in which it is contained, it does not exhibit
any stratification, so that its formation does not appear due to a
metamorphosis of the cell-wall itself. Mucilage of salep contains some
nitrogen and inorganic matter, of which it is with difficulty deprived
by repeated precipitation by alcohol.
It is to the mucilage just described that salep chiefly owes its power
of forming with even 40 parts of water a thick jelly, which becomes
still thicker on addition of magnesia or borax. The starch however
assists in the formation of this jelly; yet its amount is very small,
or even _nil_ in the tuber bearing the flowering stem, whereas the
young lateral tuber abounds in it. The starch so deposited is evidently
consumed in the subsequent period of vegetation, thus explaining the
fact that tubers are found, the decoction of which is not rendered blue
by iodine. Salep contains also sugar and albumin, and when fresh, a
trace of volatile oil. Dried at 110° C., it yields 2 per cent. of ash,
consisting chiefly of phosphates and chlorides of potassium and calcium
(Dragendorff).
=Commerce=—The shipments of salep from Smyrna are about 5000 okkas (one
okka equal to 283·2 lb. avdp. = 128·5 kilogrammes) annually.
=Uses=—Salep possesses no medicinal powers; but from its property of
forming a jelly with a large proportion of water, it has come to be
regarded as highly nutritious,—a popular notion in which we do not
concur. A decoction flavoured with sugar and spice, or wine, is an
agreeable drink for invalids, but is not much used in England.[2443]
[2443] As powdered salep is difficult to mix with water, many persons
fail in preparing this decoction; but it may be easily managed by first
stirring the salep with a little spirit of wine, then adding the water
_suddenly_ and boiling the mixture. The proportions are powdered salep
1 drachm, spirit 1½ fluid drachms, water ½ a pint.