Rhubarb

Rhubarb, the general name now applied to the genus Rheum, perennial herbaceous plants belonging to the order Polygonaceas and mostly natives of Central Asia. They have thick rhizomes, large sheathing petioles to their broad radical leaves, and much-branched panicles of small white, green, or pink trimerons flowers. The name is variously derived from the Greek rheo, "I flow,"-or more probably from Rha, an ancient name .for the Volga, on whose banks R. Rhaponticum still grows. The ancient Greeks recognised two sorts, the Asiatic or Rha ponticum, and the Scythian or Rha barbarum. R. palmatum, first found wild by Colonel Prejevalsky, in the extreme north-west of China, in 1872-73, is the true source of the drug known as Turkey Rhubarb, because formerly imported via Anatolia. It is now brought to Europe via Kiakhta and through Russia. The rhizome, when dry, is covered with a yellow powder, appears mottled red and yellow when broken, has a bitter astringent taste, and is gritty from crystals of acid oxalate of calcium. Our imports are about 350,000 lbs. annually. R. Rhaponticum, a native of Russia, cultivated in England since 1573, is now grown on an enormous scale, especially near London, for the sake of its pleasantly acidulous leaf-stalks, which are used in tarts, jam, etc., or in the manufacture of "champagne." This species and R. officinale, from South-East Thibet, are grown at Bodicott, near Banbury, for medicinal purposes. There are several preparations of rhubarb root in the Pharmacopoeia, the drug being extensively employed as an astringent and bitter stomachic, and in larger doses as a purgative. The compound rhubarb pill in five-grain doses is often given as an aperient, and the compound rhubarb powder (Gregory's powder) is frequently administered to children.