SEMEN IGNATII.
Faba Sancti Ignatii; St. Ignatius’ Beans; F. Fèves de Saint Ignace, Noix Igasur; G. Ignatiusbohnen.[1602]
Botanical Origin—Strychnos Ignatii Bergius[1603] (S. philippensis Blanco, Ignatiana philippinica Loureiro), a large climbing shrub, growing in Bohol, Samar, and Çebu, islands of the Bisaya group of the Philippines, and according to Loureiro in Cochin China, where it has been introduced. The inflorescence and foliage are known to botanists only from the descriptions given by Loureiro[1604] and Blanco.[1605] The fruit is spherical, or sometimes ovoid, 4½ inches in diameter by 6¾ long, as shown by Ray and Petiver’s figure. It has a smooth brittle shell enclosing seeds to the number of about 24. G. Bennett,[1606] who saw the fruits at Manila sold in the bazaar, says they contain from 1 to 12 seeds, imbedded in a glutinous blackish pulp.[1607] According to Jagor[1608] the shrub is abundant near Basey, in the south-western part of the island of Samar, on the straits of San Juanico; its seeds are met with as a medicine in many houses in the Philippines.
History—It is stated by Murray[1609] and later writers that this seed was introduced into Europe from the Philippines by the Jesuits, who, on account of its virtues, bestowed upon it the name of Ignatius, the founder of their order. However this may be, the earliest account of the drug appears to be that communicated by Camelli, Jesuit missionary at Manila, to Ray and Petiver, and by them laid before the Royal Society of London in 1699.[1610] Camelli proclaimed the seed to be the Nux Vomica legitima of the Arabian physician Serapion, who flourished in the 9th century; but in our opinion there is no warrant whatever for supposing it to have been known at so remote a period.[1611] Sancti Ignatii, is much esteemed as a remedy in various disorders, though he was well aware of its poisonous properties when too freely administered. In Germany, St. Ignatius’ Bean was made known about the same period by Bohn of Leipzig.[1612]
The drug is found in the Indian bazaars under a name which is evidently corrupted from the Spanish pepita. It is met with in the drugshops of China as Leu-sung-kwo, i.e. Luzon fruit.
Description—St. Ignatius’ Beans are about an inch in length; their form is ovoid, yet by mutual pressure it is rendered very irregular, and they are 3-, 4-, or 5-sided, bluntly angular, or flattish, with a conspicuous hilum at one end. In the fresh state, they are covered with silvery adpressed hairs: portions of a shaggy brown epidermis are here and there perceptible on those found in commerce, but in the majority the seed shows the dull grey, granular surface of the albumen itself.
Notwithstanding the different outward appearance, the structure of St. Ignatius’ Beans accords with that of nux vomica. The radicle however is longer, thicker, and frequently somewhat bent, and the cotyledons are more pointed. The horny brownish albumen is translucent, very hard, and difficult to split. The whole seed swells considerably by prolonged digestion in warm water, and has then a heavy, earthy smell. The beans are intensely bitter and highly poisonous.
Microscopic Structure—The hairs of the epidermis are of an analogous structure, but more simple than in nux vomica. The albumen and cotyledons agree in structural features with those of the same parts in nux vomica.
Chemical Composition—Strychnine exists to the extent of about 1·5 per cent.; the seeds also contain 0·5 per cent. of brucine. Dried over sulphuric acid and burnt with soda-lime, it yielded us an average of 1·78 per cent. of nitrogen, which would answer to about 10 per cent. of albuminoid matter.
Commerce—We have no information as to the collection of the drug. The seeds are met with irregularly in English trade, being sometimes very abundant, at others scarcely obtainable.