So far back as 1839, the Edinburgh College prescribed a Resina Scammonii, which was prepared by exhausting scammony with a spirit of wine, distilling off the spirit, and washing the residue with water. Such an extract was manufactured by the late Mr. Maltass of Smyrna, and occasionally shipped to London.
In consequence of a suggestion made by Mr. Clark, manufacturer of liquorice at Sochia near Scala Nuova, south of Smyrna, a patent was taken out (1856) by Prof. A. W. Williamson of London, for preparing this resin directly from the dried root by means of alcohol. The same chemist shortly afterwards devised an improved process, which consists in boiling the roots first with water and then with dilute acid, so as to deprive them of all matters soluble in those menstrua, and afterwards extracting the resin by alcohol.
Resin of Scammony, obtained either from scammony or from the dried root, is ordered in the British Pharmacopœia of 1867, and is manufactured by a few houses. It is a brown, translucent, brittle substance of resinous fracture, entirely soluble in ether, and not forming an emulsion when wetted with water.
Scammony root is occasionally brought into the London market, sometimes in rather large quantity,[1632] but it is not generally kept by druggists, nor do we find it quoted in price-currents. Its collection is even opposed in some parts of Turkey by the local authorities.[1633]
The root consists of stout, woody, cylindrical pieces, often spirally twisted, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, covered with a rough, furrowed, greyish-brown bark. They are internally pale brown, tough and resinous, with a faint odour and taste resembling jalap. A good sample yielded us 5½ per cent. of resin; Kingzett and Farries (1877) showed the root to be devoid of an alkaloid.
RADIX JALAPÆ.
Tuber Jalapæ; Jalap, Vera Cruz Jalap; F. Racine de Jalap; G. Jalape.
Botanical Origin—Ipomœa Purga Hayne (Convolvulus Purga Wenderoth, Exogonium Purga Bentham), a tuberous-rooted plant, throwing out herbaceous, twining stems, clothed with cordate-acuminate sharply auricled leaves, and bearing elegant salver-shaped, deep pink flowers. It grows naturally on the eastern declivities of the Mexican Andes, at an elevation above the sea of 5000 to 8000 feet, especially about Chiconquiaco and the adjacent villages, and also around San Salvador on the eastern slope of the Cofre de Perote. In these localities where rain falls almost daily, and where the diurnal temperature varies from 15° to 24° C. (60° to 75° F.), the plant occurs in shady woods, flourishing in a deep rich vegetable soil.
The jalap grows freely in the south of England, if planted in a sheltered border, but its flowers are produced so late in autumn that they rarely expand, and the tubers, which develope in some abundance, are liable to be destroyed in winter unless protected from frost.
The plant has been introduced on the Neilgherry Hills in the south of India; it succeeds there remarkably well,[1634] and might be extensively propagated if there were any adequate inducement.