A fragrant balsamic resin is collected, though in but very small quantity, from Myroxylon peruiferum Linn. f., a noble tree of New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. A fine sample of this substance, accompanied by herbarium and other specimens, was presented to one of us (H.) by Mr. J. Correa de Méllo of Campinas (Brazil); it is a resin having a general resemblance to Balsam of Tolu, but of somewhat deeper and redder tint, and greater hardness. Pressed between two slips of warmed glass, it does not exhibit any crystals.
In a treatise on Brazil written by a Portuguese friar about 1570-1600,[813] mention is made of the “Cabueriba” (Cabure-iba), from which a much-esteemed balsam was obtained by making incisions in the stem, and absorbing the exudation with cotton wool, somewhat in the same way as Balsam of Peru is now collected in Salvador. This tree is Myrocarpus frondosus Allem., now called Cabriuva preta. The genus is closely allied to Myroxylon.
Another fragrant oleo-resin, which has doubtless been confounded with that of a Myroxylon, is obtained in Central America from Liquidambar styraciflua L., either by incision or by boiling the bark.
SEMEN BONDUCELLÆ.
Semen Guilandinæ; Bonduc Seeds, Grey Nicker Seeds or Nuts; F. Graines de Bonduc ou du Cniquier, Pois Quéniques, Pois Guénic.
Botanical Origin—Cæsalpinia Bonducella Roxb. (Guilandina Bonducella L.), a prickly, pubescent, climbing shrub[814] of wide distribution, occurring in Tropical Asia, Africa and America, especially near the sea. The compressed, ovate, spiny legume is 2 to 3 inches long, and contains one or two, occasionally three or four, hard, grey, globular seeds.
The plant is often confounded with C. Bonduc Roxb., a nearly allied but much rarer species, distinguished by being nearly glabrous, having leaflets very unequal at the base, no stipules, erect bracts, and yellow seeds.
History—“Pūti-Karanja” stinking Karanja, in Susruta (I.223, 1) is the plant under notice. The word Bunduk, occurring in the writings of the Arabian and Persian physicians, also in Constantinus Africanus, mostly signifies hazel-nut.[815] One of these authors, Ibn Baytar,[816] who flourished in the 13th century, further distinguished a drug called Bunduk Hindi (Indian hazel-nut), giving a description which indicates it plainly as the seed under notice. Both Bunduk and Bunduk Hindi are enumerated in the list of drugs of Noureddeen Mohammed Abdullah Shirāzy,[817] physician to the Mogul emperor Shah Jehan, a.d. 1628-1661.
The pods of C. Bonducella were figured by Clusius in 1605, under the name of Lobus echinodes, and the plant both by Rheede[818] and Rumphius. Piso and Marcgraf (1648) noticed it in Brazil and gave some account of it with a bad woodcut, under the designation of Inimbóy (now Inimboja), or in Portuguese Silva do Praya.
In recent times, Bonduc seeds have been employed on account of their tonic and antiperiodic properties by numerous European practitioners in the East, and have been included in the Pharmacopœia of India, 1868.