Fruits - Specimen details
| Catalogue Number: 65195 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Image | Plant Name | 32.00 STERCULIACEAE Sterculia scaphigera | Entry Book Number | ||
| Artefact Name | Fruits | Vernacular Name | |||
| Iso Country | Indonesia | TDWG Region | Indonesia | ||
| Parts Held | Fruits | Geography Description | Java | ||
| Uses | FruitsUse: MEDICINES - Digestive System Disorders User: Not defined | TDWG use | MEDICINES - Digestive System Disorders | ||
| Storage | Bottles, boxes etc | Related Items | |||
| Donor | Pharm Soc GB | Donor No | 23 C 4 | ||
| Donor Date | Donor Notes | Paris Exhib (Java Dept) Date: 00/00/1878x0Dx0A | |||
| Collector | Collector No | ||||
| Collection Notes | Collection Date | ||||
| Exhibition | Expedition | ||||
| Number Components | Publication | ||||
| Notes: | Label source: Report by John R Jackson Curator of Museum RBG Kew - At page 6, Vol III, 2nd series of the Pharmaceutical Journal for 1861-62, in the well-known 'Notes on Chinese Materia Medica', by the late Daniel Hanbury, is a notice of the 'Ta-hai-tsze', or 'boa-tam-paijang' the seeds of which were introduced into France many years since as a remedy for diarrhoea and dysentery. Though at the time of their introduction in 1854 they were quoted in the wholesale price list of a large Parisian druggist at ab, out 3 pounds 13 shillings per pound, they were ascertained by careful tests to give no satisfactory results. In the notes above referred to, they are described as the fruits of Erioglossum (/) or Nephelium (?) but from specimens contained in the Kew Museu, m, which were apparently obtained from the first sample brought to Europe, and which have been named Erioglossum edule Bl., they seem upon comparison with authentic herbarium specimens to belong to Sterculia scaphigera, Wall. This plant differs in its fru, its from most species of Sterculia. They are of a thin papery texture and follicular or boat shaped in form with veins or nerves running parallel the whole length. As the fruit ripens this follicle bursts, leaving the solitary erect seed which is attached, to the base exposed to view. This seed is brown and wrinkled, and is accurately described and figured in Mr Hanbury`s notes. It seems that these seeds have been mistaken for entire fruits, the large papery follicle which easily becomes detached not havi, ng been present in the samples described. Whether these seeds which are said to be produced in great abundance, can ever be utilized for any other purpose beside that for which they were first introduced is I think a point worth considering.Their extremel, y mucilaginous or gelatinous nature would seem to indicate some useful application. | ||||