Sumbul

July 11th, 2008

Botanical Name: Ferula sumbul (HOOK, F.)
Family: N.O. Umbelliferae

Common Names: Sumbul, Musk-root, Jatamansi.
Synonyms: Euryangium Musk Root. Jatamansi. Ouchi. Ofnokgi. Sumbul Radix. Racine de Sumbul. Sumbulwurzel. Moschuswurzel.
Parts Used: Root and rhizome.
Habitat: Turkestan, Russia, Northern India.

Description: The plant reaches a height of 8 feet, and has a solid, cylindrical, slender stem which gives rise to about twelve branches. The root-leaves are 2 1/2 feet long, triangular in outline, while the stem-leaves rapidly decrease in size until they are mere sheathing bracts. The pieces of root, as met with in commerce, are from 1 to 3 inches in diameter and 3/4 to 1 inch in thickness. They are covered on the outside with a duskybrown, papery, transversely-wrinkled cork, sometimes fibrous; within they are spongy, coarsely fibrous, dry, and dirty yellowishbrown, with white patches and spots of resin. The odour is strong and musk-like, the taste bitter and aromatic.

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The plant that produces the sumbul-root of commerce, is an herbaceous perennial, with an erect, milk-bearing stem, and is a native of central Asia. The leaves are mostly radical, large, and ternately decompound, with the ultimate segments narrow and toothed. The upper stem leaves are reduced merely to the sheathing bases of the petioles. The flowers are small, yellow, and disposed in compound umbels. The terminal umbels are perfect, the lateral, only staminate. They have 5 stamens, 5 petals, and a 2-carpeled pistil. The fruit consists of 2 dry, seed-like carpels, compressed laterally, and each carpel having 3 dorsal ribs, and 2 narrow lateral wings.

Ferula Sumbul, or Musk-root of commerce, reaches our market through Russia. Some specimens are under cultivation in England (see E. M. Holmes, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1897, p. 314, from Pharm. Jour.). Sumbul-root of commerce occurs in pieces or sections, often branched, and from 1/2 inch to 4 inches in thickness, the diameter of the root ranging from 1/2 inch to 3 inches. It is brown externally, the bark, in some instances, scaling off in tough, paper-like pieces, resembling birch bark, and again adhering closely to the root. The lower part of the stem is frequently attached to the root, and usually, in such cases, it is broken into a fibrous mass. The cut parts of the roots are covered with a dirty resinous layer, which exuded while fresh. A fresh section of the root shows a very porous, spongy texture; in many cases the fibrous substances being saturated with resinous matter, especially near the bark. There is much difference in the color, some pieces being almost white internally; these we find to contain a comparatively small proportion of resin, and to be of light weight, when compared with the specimens of a brown color. This latter quality of the root is to be preferred, although it is customary, we believe, to select the former. Choice sumbul has a strong odor of musk, is resinous internally, and is aromatic and bitter to the taste. Its medicinal principles seem to be mostly extracted by strong alcohol, the addition of even a small amount of water being objectionable. An inferior sumbul, having only a faint musky odor, is derived from Ferula suaveolens, Aitchison (see E. M. Holmes, loc. cit.). As demanded by the U. S. P., sumbul is “in transverse segments, varying in diameter from about 2 to 7 Cm (4/5 to 2 4/5 inches), and in length from 15 to 30 Mm. (3/5 to 1 1/5 inches); light, spongy, annulate or longitudinally wrinkled; bark thin, brown., more or less bristly fibrous; the interior whitish, with numerous brownish-yellow resin dots and irregular, easily separated fibres; odor strong, musk-like; taste bitter and balsamic”—(U. S. P.).

Sumbul – a Persian and Arabic word applied to various roots – was discovered in 1869 by the Russian Fedschenko, in the mountains south-east of Samarkand near the small town of Pentschakend on the River Zarafshan, at an elevation of 3,000 to 4,000 feet. A root was sent to the Moscow Botanical Gardens, and in 1872 two were sent from there to Kew, one arriving alive. In 1875 the plant died after flowering. The genus Euryangium (i.e. ‘broad reservoir’) was based by Kauffmann on the large, solitarv dorsal vittae, or oil tubes, which are filled with a quantity of latex – the moisture surounding the stigma – which pours out freely when a section is made, smelling strongly of musk, especially if treated with water, but they almost disappear in ripening, making the plant difficult to classify.

The root has long been used in Persia and India medicinally and as incense in religious ceremonies.

The physicians of Moscow and Petrograd were the first to employ it on the Continent of Europe, and Granville first introduced it to Great Britain and the United States.

The root of Ferula suaveolens, having only a faint, musky odour, is one of the species exported from Persia to Bombay by the Persian Gulf. It is the Sambul Root of commerce which differs from the original drug, being apparently derived from a different species of Ferula than that officially given.

The recognized source in the United States Pharmacopceia is F. Sumbul (Hooker Fil.). False Sumbul is the root of Dorema Ammoniacum; it is of closer texture, denser, and more firm, of a red or yellow tinge and feeble odour.

Constituents: Volatile oil, two balsamic resins, one soluble in alcohol and one in ether; wax, gum, starch, a bitter substance soluble in water and alcohol, a little angelic and valeric acid. The odour seems to be connected with the balsamic resins. The volatile oil has a bitter taste like peppermint, and on dry distillation yields a bluish oil containing umbelliferone. A 1916 analysis shows moisture, starch, pentrosans, crude fibre, protein, dextrin, ash, sucrose, reducing sugar, volatile oil and resins. Alkaioids were not detected. The volatile oil did not show the presence of sulphur. Both betaine and umbelliferon were detected. In the resin, vanillic acid was identified and a phytosterol was present. Among the volatile acids were acetic, butyric, angelic and tiglic acid, and among the nonvolatile oleic, linoleic, tiglic, cerotic, palmitic and stearic.

An examination of sumbul was made about 1843, by Reinsch, who found it to contain wax and a balsam; both are extracted from the root by ether. The balsam has a faint, musky odor, strengthened by soaking in water; it dissolves in sulphuric acid, with the production of a blue color. When the root has been previously extracted by ether, alcohol dissolves from it an aromatic resin and a bitter substance, the latter being soluble in water. P. H. Utech (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1893, p. 465) obtained 6.1 per cent of an aromatic resin, bitter, insoluble in water, soluble in chloroform, ether, carbon disulphide, benzol, etc., almost insoluble in aqueous ammonia. The root also contains about 0.3 per cent of a volatile oil of a musk-like odor. Reinsch and Ricker (1848) obtained about 0.3 per cent of pure angelic acid from the root, but according to E. Schmidt (Archiv der Pharm., 1886, p. 529) it does not preexist in the root, but is a decomposition product of the balsam obtainable by means of petroleum-ether. This solvent yielded to J. H. Hahn 17.25 per cent of fixed oil (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1896, p. 395).

Medicinal Action and Uses: Sumbul is a stimulant and tonic to the nervous system; it has been recommended in low typhus fevers (to allay intestinal irritation), in gastric spasm, hysteria, delirium tremens, diarrhoea, dysentery, leucorrhoea, gleet, chlorosis, asthma, chronic bronchitis, and other maladies accompanied with an asthenic condition. In nervous diseases of a low, depressing character, it has been found very useful. Dr. Murawieff, a Russian physician, considers the balsamic resin as the active part, and has proposed its use, in the form of pills or tincture, in pulmonary diseases. The drug is seldom used in this country, but it certainly deserves further investigation. It was introduced (1835) as a remedy for cholera, but proved useless in that scourge. It is prepared in the form of fluid extract, the dose of which is from 10 to 60 minims, every 2, 3, or 4 hours; a tincture (dried root, ?viii to alcohol, 98 per cent, Oj) may be administered in doses of 1 to 30 drops.

Stimulant and antispasmodic, resembling valerian in its action, and used in various hysterical conditions. It is believed to have a specific action on the pelvic organs, and is widely employed in dysmenorrhoea and allied female disorders. It is also a stimulant to mucous membranes, not only in chronic dysenteries and diarrhoeas, but in chronic bronchitis, especially with asthmatic tendency, and even in pneumonia.

Half an ounce of a tincture produced narcotic symptoms, confusing the head, causing a tendency to snore even when awake, and giving feelings of tingling, etc., with a strong odour of the drug from breath and skin which only passed off after a day or two.

The tincture of 10 per cent Sumbul, with 2 volumes of alcohol and 1 of water, is used as an antispasmodic and nervine. The fluid extract, being superior, superseded the tincture. (Sumbul, in No. 30 powder, 1,000 grams, with a mixture of 4 volumes of alcohol and 1 of water as the menstruum.)

Dosages: B.P., 1/2 to 1 drachm. Of fluid extract, 1/2 to 1 fluid drachm. Of extract ofSumbul or Muskroot, 2 to 5 grains. Solid extract, U.S.P., 4 grains.

Pharmaceutical Preparation.—TONO-SUMBUL CORDIAL. This preparation is a specialty of Wm. R. Warner & Co., of Philadelphia. It is composed of sumbul, phosphate of iron, cinchona, acid phosphates, aromatics, and sherry wine. Tonic and cordial.

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/s/sumbul98.html

http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/kings/ferula-sumb.html