Origin and uses of ipecac

Abstract

Ipecac is one of the oldest medicinals known to man. The plant from which it is obtained, Cephaelis ipecacuanha (Brot.) A. Rich., is native to Brazil and was used by South American Indians long before the beginning of recorded history. Dr. Adrien Helvetius of Paris is credited with the introduction of ipecac to Europe. He used it so successfully in his treatment of dysentery that Louis XIV, in 1682, offered him public honors and a large gift of money in exchange for his secret. The early Brazilians appear to have applied the term "ipecacuanha" to a number of roots having common emetic properties. The real botanical source of the drug was discovered when the Portuguese scientist Bernardino Gomez collected some authentic ipecac plants. These plants were described in 1803 by another Portuguese, Felix de Avellar Brotero, who named them Callicocca ipecacuanha.