The crude Indian arrack, when subjected to distillation until it has a sp. gr. ·920, is employed in India, as proof spirit, in the preparation of official tinctures, and for other pharmaceutical purposes. A very useful stimulating application, known in India as toddy poultice, and intended as a substitute for yeast poultice, is prepared by adding freshly drawn toddy to rice flour, till it has the consistence of a soft poultice, and subjecting this to heat over a gentle fire, stirring constantly till fermentation commences.
The light brown cotton-like substance from the outside of the base of the fronds belonging to the Palmyra palm is employed by the Cyngalese doctors as a styptic for stopping the hæmorrhage of superficial wounds.
AR′ROW-ROOT. The common name of maran′ta arundina′cea (Linn.; m. Indi′ca—Tuss.); a plant of the nat. ord. Marantaceæ (Lindl.; Cannaceæ—Endl.). It was originally brought from the island of Dominica to Barbadoes, by Col. James Walker. It has since been extensively cultivated in the West Indies.
Tubers yield true ARROW-ROOT; when fresh and good they contain about 26% of starch, of which 23% may be obtained as arrow-root, and the rest by boiling.
Arrow-root. Syn. Maran′ta, Am′ylum Maran′tæ, Fæc′ula M., L.; Racine Fléchière, Pivot, Fr.; Pfeilwurz, P.-satzmehl, Ger. The starch or fecula obtained from the rhizoma or tubers of maran′ta arundina′cea (Linn.; see above), and which forms the true ‘arrow-root’ of commerce.
Prep. The fecula is extracted from the tubers when they are about 10 or 12 months old, by a process similar to that by which the farina is obtained from potatoes. In Bermuda the tubers, after being washed, are deprived of their paper-like scales and every discoloured and defective part by hand; they are then again washed and drained, and next subjected to the action of a wheel-rasp, the starch being washed from the comminuted tubers with rain-water; the milky liquid is passed through a hair sieve, or a coarse cloth, and allowed to deposit its fecula. This is then allowed to drain, after which it is again carefully washed with clean water, again drained, and, after being thoroughly dried in the air or sun, is at once packed for market. (Cogswell.) In St. Vincent (on the Hopewell Estate), a
cylindrical crushing-mill, tinned-copper washing machines, and German-silver palettes and shovels are employed; whilst the drying is effected in extensive sheds, under white gauze, to exclude insects. In Jamaica the washed tubers are generally pulped in deep wooden mortars; machinery being seldom employed in any part of the process.
Prop., &c. A light, dull, dead-white, tasteless, inodorous powder or small pulverulent masses, feeling firm to the fingers, and crackling when pressed or rubbed; viewed by a pocket lens it appears to consist of glistening particles, which are shown by a microscope to be convex, irregular, ovoid or truncated granules, most of them, according to Mr Jackson, being ·0010 of an inch in length, and ·0008 of an inch in breadth; mixed with others varying from about double to only half that size. In its action with boiling water, and its general properties it resembles the other starches; than which, however, it is freer from any peculiar taste and flavour; and thus agrees better with the delicate stomachs of invalids and infants than the ordinary farinas.
West Indian Arrowroot (Maranta Arundinacæa). Scale 1-1000th of an inch.