Botanical Origin—Coptis Teeta Wallich, a small herbaceous plant, still but imperfectly known, indigenous to the Mishmi mountains, eastward of Assam. It was first described in 1836 by Wallich.[8]
History—This drug under the name of Mahmira is used in Sind for inflammation of the eyes, a circumstance which enabled Pereira[9] to identify it with a substance bearing a nearly similar designation, mentioned by the early writers on medicine, and previously regarded as the root of Chelidonium majus L.
Thus we find that Paulus Ægineta in the 7th century was acquainted with a knotty root named Μαηιρά.[10] Rhazes, who according to Choulant died in a.d. 923 or 932, mentions Mamiran, and it is also noticed by Avicenna a little later as a drug useful in diseases of the eye. Μαμιρὰϛ likewise occurs in exactly the same way in the writings of Leo, “Philosophus et Medicus.”[11] Ibn Baytar called the drug Mamiran and Uruk, and described it as a small yellow root like turmeric, coming from China. Other writers of the middle ages allude to it under the name of Memeren.
Hajji Mahomed, in the account of Cathay which he gave to Ramusio (circa a.d. 1550) says that the Mambroni chini, by which we understand the root in question, is found in the mountains of Succuir (Suh-cheu) where rhubarb grows, and that it is a wonderful remedy for diseases of the eye.[12] In an official report published at Lahore in 1862,[13] Mamiran-i-chini is said to be brought from China to Yarkand.
The rhizome of Coptis is used by the Chinese under the names Hwang-lien and Chuen-lien.[14] It is enumerated by Cleyer[15] (1682) as “radix pretiosa amara,” and was described in 1778 by Bergius[16] who received it from Canton.
More recently it was the subject of an interesting notice by Guibourt[17] who thought it to be derived from Ophioxylon serpentinum L., an apocyneous plant widely removed from Coptis. Its root was recommended in India by MacIsaac[18] in 1827 and has been subsequently employed with success by many practitioners.
There is a rude figure of the plant in the Chinese herbal Pun-tsao.
Description—Tita, as the drug is called in the Mishmi country, whence it is sent by way of Sudiya on the Bramaputra to Bengal, is a rhizome about the thickness of a quill occurring in pieces an inch or two in length. It often branches at the crown into two or three heads, and bears the remains of leafstalks and thin wiry rootlets, the stumps of which latter give it a rough and spiny appearance. It is nearly cylindrical, often contorted, and of a yellowish-brown colour. The fracture is short, exhibiting a loose structure, with large bright yellow radiating woody bundles. The rhizome is intensely bitter,[19] but not aromatic even when fresh.
It is found in the Indian bazaars in neat little open-work bags formed of narrow strips of rattan, each containing about half an ounce. We have once seen it in bulk in the London market.[20]
Microscopic Structure—Cut transversely the rhizome exhibits an inner cortical tissue, through which sclerenchymatous groups of cells are scattered. The latter are most obvious on account of their bright yellow colour. In the woody central column a somewhat concentric arrangement is found, corresponding to two or three periods of annual growth. The pith, not the medullary rays, begins to be obliterated at an early period. The structure of the drug is, on the whole, very irregular, on account of the branches and numerous rootlets arising from it.