SUMBUL, OR YATAMANSI.
Sumbul, the name and therapeutical properties of which are almost unknown to French physicians, appears to have been employed in India from a very remote period. Pietro Della Valle, who travelled through the different countries of Asia, in 1623, 1624 and 1625, mentions that sumbul is a root, and not a stem, although the Arabic word, sumbul, he observes, refers to the whole plant. It appears that the word sumbul is applied in India to a plant and portions of a plant, used as a perfume, as an incense in religious ceremonies, and again, as a medicinal substance. Sir William Jones thought that the true sumbul was a species of valerian, known both to the Hindoos and Brahmins, under the name of yatamansi. But, according to M. Granville, it appears to be an aquatic umbelliferous plant, found in the neighborhood of rivers.
It is erroneously asserted that it grows in Hindostan. It is not found in any part of the Indian territory, occupied by the English. The plant grows in Bootan and the mountains of Nepaul; and although large quantities of the dried plant have been exported, no botanist has yet been able to describe its characteristics from a living specimen. It is said that the native laws forbid the exportation of a living plant, without an order from the sovereign.
Sumbul has been described as a mass of roots and leaves of a greenish color, crumpled and pressed one against the other. This is an error, and arises from the fact of some having been first shown at St. Petersburg, which had been mixed with a{83}strong decoction of this substance of a greenish color. Sumbul appears, on the contrary, under the form of a root, thick, homogeneous, of two, three, and even four inches in diameter, cut in pieces of an inch to an inch and a half long, and whose section presents a fibrous aspect, and a white and yellowish tint. It is brought from the centre of Asia, to Moscow, via Kiatcha. In all the good specimens of sumbul, the epidermis, or external covering, is of a dark shade, approaching to brown; if the color be strongly marked, it indicates that the plant was old. The epidermis is very thin, and much wrinkled. The interior substance is composed of thick, irregular fibres, which may be separated from one another, after the outer covering is detached, and which indicate a porous structure, common to aquatic plants. If, after taking off the outer covering, we make a transverse cut, we shall perceive an external layer, white and marbled, and an internal layer, thicker and yellowish. With a powerful lens we can distinguish transparent points, which look like grains of fecula.
Two very remarkable physical characteristics demand our attention when we examine this root: first, its perfume, resembling the purest musk; then the powerful aroma which it exhales when under mastication. This odor of musk is so marked, that some had thought it owed this quality to its contact with musk, in the transportation of drugs from Asia to Europe; but such an idea is negatived by the fact that sumbul retains this odor, even when very old; that even when the external parts have lost it, it continues in the interior; that this odoriferous principle may be extracted from it by chemical manipulation; and again, that it has received from botanists the name of moschus-wurzel or musk-root. Its aromatic taste is also a distinguishing characteristic. The first impression on the palate is slightly sweet, this is rapidly replaced by a balsamic flavor, and then by a bitter, but not unpleasant taste.—As mastication proceeds, the mouth and throat experience a strong aromatic and pungent taste, and the breath becomes impregnated with the penetrating odor of the{84}substance.—This flavor is still more decided in the alcoholic tincture than in the root.
The chemical analysis of sumbul has occupied several German chemists, Reinsch, Schnitzlein, Frichinger, and Kalthover. According to Reinsch, the root of sumbul contains, besides water, traces of an ethereal oil, two balsamic compounds, (resins) one soluble in ether, the other in alcohol, wax, aromatic spirit, and a bitter substance, soluble in water or alcohol. The solution of this bitter substance, treated with lime, and chloride of sodium, gives a sediment composed of gum, starch and saline materials. The perfume appears to be contained in the balsams, and its intensity is increased by being diluted with water. Finally, sumbul contains an acid, which Reinsch proposes callingsumbulic acid.
Kalthover directed his attention further to its pharmaceutical uses, and obtained an alcoholic tincture of a yellowish color, musky odor, and bitter taste; an ethereal tincture, yellowish, musky, and of a sharp taste; and a substance resembling wax, precipitated after repeated decoctions in water.
It appears then, that we may obtain from sumbul for medical purposes, two tinctures, one alcoholic, the other ethereal, which seem to differ in their principles, and which may be given in drops alone, or combined with other medicines; and a bitter extract, soluble in water, which may be administered in pills. The powdered root may also be given crude, or in pills.—(Union Médicale) in Journal de Pharmacie et de Chimie.
[Sumbul has been used as an anti spasmodic and a nervine; further investigation is needed however to ascertain its true place in the Materia Medica. In the mean time it has been imported by one of our apothecaries, Mr. Delluc, and we may soon hope to learn something more concerning its effects upon the system.]ED.JOURNALOFPHARMACY.
[Sumbul has been used as an anti spasmodic and a nervine; further investigation is needed however to ascertain its true place in the Materia Medica. In the mean time it has been imported by one of our apothecaries, Mr. Delluc, and we may soon hope to learn something more concerning its effects upon the system.]ED.JOURNALOFPHARMACY.