IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
NUX—VOMICA
51. The nux-vomica or strychnine tree (Strychnos nux-vomica) is mentioned in the Pen ts`ao lean mu under the name == * =a fan mu-pie (" foreign mu-pie," Momordica cochinchinensis, a cucurbitaceous
plant), with the synonymes A 3- ma ts`ien-tse ("horse-coins," re-
ferring to the coins on a horse's bridle, hence Japanese matin), 1M. k`u i pa tou (" pa-tou [Croton tiglium] with bitter fruits "),1 and
A s] 1E hwo-§i-k`o pa-tu. The latter term, apparently of foreign
origin, has not yet been identified; and such an attempt would also have been futile, as there is an error in the transcription. The correct mode of writing the word which is given in the Co ken lu,2 written in
A.D. 1366, is A *1J hwo-ki-la, and this is obviously a transcription of
Persian kutla or kutula ("nux-vomica"), a name which is also current in India (thus in Hindustani; Bengali kucila) . The second element pa-tu is neither Persian nor Arabic, and, in my opinion, must be explained from Chinese pa-tou (Croton tiglium).
The text of the Co ken lu is as follows: "As regards hwo-§i-la pa-tu, it is a drug growing in the soil of Mohammedan countries. In appearance it is like mu-pie-tse (Momordica cochinchinensis), but smaller. It can cure a hundred and twenty cases; for each case there are special ingredients and guides." This is the earliest Chinese mention of this drug that I am able to trace; and as it is not yet listed in the Cen lei pen ts`ao of 1108, the standard work on materia medica of the Sung period, it is justifiable to conclude that it was introduced into China only in the age of the Mongols, during the fourteenth century. This is further evidenced by the very form of the transcription, which is in harmony with the rules then in vogue for writing foreign words. The Kwan k`ün fan p`u3 cites no other source relative to the subject than the Pen tstao kan mu, which indeed appears to be the first and only
1 This name does not mean, as asserted by STUART (Chinese Materia Medica, p. 425), "bitter-seeded Persian bean." STUART (ibid., p. 132) says that the Arabic name for Croton tiglium is "batoo, which was probably derived from the Chinese name pa tou E v." True it is that the Arabs are acquainted with this plant as an importation from China (L. LECLERC, Traité des simples, Vol. II, p. 95), but only under the name dend. I fail to trace a word batu in any Arabic dictionary or in Ibn al-Baitar.
2 Ch. 7, p. 5 b. See above, p. 386. Ch. 6, p. 7.
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