Not less than 800,000 lbs. of A. are annually imported into the British isles. As an article of diet, it is often prepared for invalids and children by merely dissolving it in boiling-water and flavoring with sugar, lemon-juice, wine, etc. It is also often prepared with milk, made into puddings, etc. When most simply prepared, it forms a light meal, which, however, is not very nutritious. See NUTRITION.
A farina somewhat similar to A., and partly known by the distinct name of tous-les motes, is obtained from some species of the allied genus canna (q.v.). But East Indian A. is in part obtained from the tubers of curcuma angustifolia. Other species of curcuma (see Turturgurc), as C. zerumbet, C. leueorleiza, and C. rubescens, also yield a similar farina; the same tubers which, when young, yield a beautiful and pure starch, yielding turmeric when old. In Travancore, this starch is a principal part of the food of the inhabitants. The young tubers of the galangal (q.v.), (alpinia galanga), another plant of the same natural Order (seitairtinea), are another source of this farina.—A farina somewhat resem bling A„ and often 'sold under that name, is obtained from different species of the natural order cycadacca, as from the dwarf fleshy trunks of ramia tenuis, Z. furfuracea,
and Z. puntila, in the West Indies, and from the large seeds of dion edule in the lowlands of Mexieo.—The starch of the cassava, manihot or manioc (see MANroc), is sometimes imported into Europe under the name of Brazilian A. Potato-starch, carefully prepared, is sometimes sold as English A.; and the farina obtained from the roots of the arum maculatum, (see Anum), as Portland A. Otaheite A. is the starch of tucca (q.v.) pinnati fula.—All these, as well as Oswego and Chicago corn-flour—the starch of maize or Indian corn—are so nearly allied to true A. as not to be certainly distinguishable by chemical tests; but the forms of the granules differ, so that they can be distinguished by the microscope.
The name A. is commonly said to have had its origin from the use of the fresh roots by the South American Indians as an application to wounds to counteract the effects of poisoned arrows; and the expressed juico has been recently recommended as an anti dote to poisons, and a cure for the stings and bites of venomous insects and reptiles. But it is not the name is really another form of ara, the Indian name .