Botanical Origin—The drug under notice is produced by trees belonging to the genus Copaifera, natives of the warmer countries of South America. Some are found in moist forests, others exclusively in dry and elevated situations. They vary in height and size, some being umbrageous forest trees, while others have only the dimension of shrubs; it is from the former alone that the oleo-resin is obtained.
The following are reputed to furnish the drug, but to what extent each contributes is not fully known.
1. Copaifera officinalis L. (C. Jacquini Desf.), a large tree of the hot coast region of New Granada as far north as Panama, of Venezuela and the island of Trinidad.
2. C. guianensis Desf., a tree of 30 to 40 feet high, very closely related to the preceding, native of Surinam, Cayenne, also of the Rio Negro between Manaos and Barcellos (Spruce). According to Bentham it seems to be the same species as the C. bijuga of Hayne.[878]
3. C. coriacea Mart. (C. cordifolia Hayne), a large tree found in the caatingas or dry woods of the Brazilian provinces of Bahia and Piauhy.
4. C. Langsdorffii Desf.[879] (C. nitida Hayne, C. Sellowii Hayne,? C. Jussieui Hayne), a polymorphous species, varying in the form and size of leaflets, and also in dimensions, being either a shrub, a small bushy tree, or a large tree of 60 feet high. Bentham admits, besides the type, three varieties:—β. glabra (C. glabra Vogel), γ. grandifolia, δ. laxa (C. laxa Hayne). The tree grows on dry campos, caatingas and other places in the provinces of S. Paulo, Minas Geraes, Goyaz, Mato Grosso, Bahia and Ceará; it is therefore distributed over a vast area. According to Gardner,[880] the Brazilian traveller, it yields an abundance of balsam.
In addition to these species, must be mentioned a tree described by Hayne and commonly cited under the name of Copaifera multijuga, as a special source of the drug shipped from Pará.[881] As its name implies, it is remarkable for the number of leaflets (6 to 10 pairs) on each leaf. But it is only known from some leaves in the herbarium of Martius which Bentham, who has examined them, informs us are unlike those of any Copaifera known to him, though certainly the leaflets are dotted with oil-vessels as in some species. In the absence of flowers and fruits, there is no sufficient evidence to prove that it belongs even to the genus Copaifera. It is not mentioned by Martius in his Systema Materiæ Medicæ Brasiliensis (1843) as a source of the drug.
History—Among the early notices of Brazil is a treatise by a Portuguese friar who had resided in that country from 1570 to 1600. The manuscript found its way to England, was translated, and was published by Purchas[882] in 1625. Its author notices many of the natural productions of the country, and among others Cupayba which he describes as a large tree from whose trunk, when wounded by a deep incision, there flows in abundance a clear oil much esteemed as a medicine.
Balsam. Copæ. yvæ is already enumerated in the 6th edition of the Pharmacopœa of Amsterdam, a.d. 1636.[883]
Father Cristoval d’Acuña,[884] who ascended the Amazon from Pará, arriving at Quito in 1638, mentions that the country affords very large Cassia fistula, excellent sarsaparilla, and the oils of Andirova (Carapa guianensis Aublet, Meliaceæ), and Copaiba, as good as balsam for curing wounds.