Coetue root.—The root of Aplotaxis auriculata occasionally appears in the drug market. It has been used as medicine in the East, and also as incense, from the earliest times till the present day. The root is of a dirty-white colour, in pieces 2-4 in. long and about 1 in. thick. It has a strong odour, partly like orris root, and slightly urinous. (See Eleeampane.) Coto.—The bark of an unknown tree growing on the banks of the river Mapiri, in Bolivia, has been largely imported into Germany, and more sparingly into this country, of late years, as a remedy for diarrhoea. It has a pungent, aromatic flavour, is of a reddish-brown colour, and some times becomes covered with an efflorescence of whitish crystals. Its active properties appear to bs due to a white crystalline substance, called ootoin. Another variety, called Paracoto bark, is in thicker pieces, whose inner surface is rough, with longitudinal ridges. Its action is weaker, but similar in character. It contains paracotoin, and other crystalline bodies. True coto bark is much rarer in commerce than is paracoto.
oil obtained from the seeds of Croton Tiglium(Tiglium officinals) is administered as a powerful oathartio, and applied as a rubefacient. (See Oile.) Cubebs (Fe., Cubebes ; GER., Cubeben).—The fruit of Piper Cubeba (Cubeba officinalis) is very widely used in the treatment of gonorrhoea. The plant, a member of the pepper family, and a woody climber, is a native of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra. It is cultivated in many parts of Java, both in special gardens, and on the coffee estates; the fruit is sold to the Chinese, and carried by them to Batavia. It is also extensively grown in the Larapong district of Sumatra. The culti vation is very simple ; on the coffee plantations, the seed is sown under the &claps and other shade trees, and left to climb as it will. The fruit is gathered when full-grown, but before it has ripened, and is then dried. It has a strong aromatic and slightly acrid-bitter flavour, and a pleasant aromatio odour. By dealers, the drug is judged acoordiug to the oiliness and odour of the crushed berries ; the presence of pale smooth rips berries, of dry appearance, lowers the quality. The best prepara tions of the drug are the berries deprived of their soluble (in water) constituents, dried and powdered, an alcoholic extract, or the separated resinous constituents. The drug is chiefly imported from Netherlands India, via Singapore, and is reshipped thence to British India, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. In 1872, the imports at Singapore were 3062 cwt. ; and the exports were :—to the United States, 1244 cwt.; United Kingdom, 1180 cwt. ; British ladle, 104 cwt.
The wholesale price is about 30s.-40s. a cwt. The great similarity of the fruits of other species of Piper renders their confusion with the true drug an easy matter ; they are principally P. crassipes (C. crassipes), of Sumatra ; P. Lowong, (C. Lowong) of Java; P. ribesioides (C. Wallichii); P. caninum (C. canine), throughout the Malay Archipelago. The confusion extends to Llurus Cubeba, of S. China.
Cumin, or Cummin (Fa., Cumin ; GER, Mutter- [&t.] hiimmel).—The fruit of CL{11117VIM num is extensively used in veterinary medioiue. The plant has been introduced into Europe, and ripens its fruit as far north as S. Norway, but beyond Sicily and Malta it is unproductive ; it is a native of the Upper Nile, and flourishes also in Morocco, Turkey, Arabia, India, and China. The seeds have a powerful aromatic flavour and odour. Their market value is now 20s.-50s. a cwt. ; in the 13th-15th cent., when they were commonly used as a spice, the price was about 2d. a lb. Cumin is still an occasional ingredient of curry-powders. The quantity exported from Mogador, in 1878, was 50 cwt., value 60/. ; of this, 13 serous came to Great Britain, and the remaining 12 went to Portugal. Bagdad, in the same year, exported 177 cwt., valued at 300/., to India and Europe. The seeds of Carum nigrum, which have the same flavour, are largely used in Indian curry-powder.
Curari, Woorari, or Wourali.—This name is applied to a powerful arrow-poison, prepared in British Guiana, from Strychnos toxifera, and other plants. In other districts of S. America, it is obtained from S. Castelnzana, &c. All the S. American species of Strychnos appear to possess similar properties to S. toxifera, which are exactly the opposite to those exhibited by the species of Strychnos found in India and the East generally. Curari has been imported into London in small gourds about the size of an orange, and has a bitter taste like aloes, which it resembles in appear ance. It is much more rapidly poisonous when injected into the blood than when swallowed.
Dill (Fn., Aneth ; GER., Dill).—From the seeds of Anethum (Peueedanum) graveolens is distilled the well-known stomachic and carminative " dill-water." The plant is a native of the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins, is widely distributed as a weed as far north as Trondhjem, and is common in gardens, being extensively cultivated in many parts of India. The drug has a pleasant aromatic flavour and odour. The fruits of A. Sowa are sometimes sold in the London drug market for dill. They are narrower, more convex, and of a paler colour.