GUARANA (U. S. P.)—GUARANA. History and Preparation

History and Preparation.—This plant is of interest to the medical profession from the fact that the drug known as Guarana is prepared from the seeds. Guarana was introduced into France in the year 1817, by a French officer, and was described in the same year by Gassicourt in the Journal de Pharmacie, the botanical source, however, being then unknown. It was called "guarana," after the tribe of South American Indians (Guaranis), who prepared it, and in 1826, Martius, after identifying the plant, gave it the name of Pauilinia sorbilis, in allusion to the fact that guarana is employed to produce a drink. The preparation of guarana from the cultivated plant is described by Prof. H. H. Rusby (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1888, p. 267), as follows: "When the ripe pods begin to open the seeds are shelled from the husk by hand, washed to remove a phlegmy substance, and subjected for 6 hours to a roasting process whereby a papery shell is loosened, which is removed by placing the seeds in sacks and beating them with clubs. A small amount of water is then added and the seeds kneaded by hand into a mass of the consistence of dough. The mass is then rolled into cylinders, spread out on the upper floors of large buildings erected for that purpose, and subjected to a slow fire, as nearly free from smoke as possible. The temperature is kept equable for several weeks, and the product as known in commerce is then ready for the market." Sometimes, it is said, the moistened magma of the coarsely powdered seed is incorporated with cocoa and tapioca before kneading and rolling, but in Prof. Rusby's experience such is not the case.