GOA POWDER, ARAROBA, or CRYSAROBA. A drug imported in the form of a yellowish or choco late-colored powder. The name Goa powder is derived from the Portuguese colony of Goa, where the drug appears to have been introduced about the year 1852. It was exported from Bahia to Portugal, whence it found its way to the Portu guese colonies in Africa and Asia. The tree which yields it (Andria araroba) is met with in great abundance in certain forests in the Province of Bahia, Brazil, preferring low and humid spots. It is from 80 to 100 feet high, and is furnished with imparippinate leaves, the leaflets of which are oblong, about one and a half inches long and three-quarters of an inch broad, and somewhat truncate at the apex. The flowers are papilio naceous, of purple color, and arranged in panicles. The Goa powder, or araroba, is contained in the trunk, filling crevices in the heart-wood. To ob
tain it the oldest trees are selected as containing the larger quantity, and after being cut down are sawed transversely into logs, which are split longitudinally, and the araroba chipped or scraped off with the axe. During this process the workmen feel a bitter taste in the mouth, and great care has to be taken to prevent injury from the irritating action of the powder on the eyes. In this state, i.e. mixed with fragments of wood, the Goa powder is exported. It is used in the form of an ointment made by rubbing to gether forty grains of the powder, ten drops of acetic acid, and an ounce of lard. It is used in several skin diseases, especially in ringworm and psoriasis; and it owes its efficiency to the chrysophanic acid it contains.