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452 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
from Saniarem
region, whither it was conveyed
and the Mauhes by the long and dangerous navigation
of the it Tapajoz, was worth six or eight times
as much. The usual form of the sticks was long
in Martius's time
oval or nearly cylindrical ; but
(1820) guarana was "in panes ellipticos vel
globosos formatum," and old residents at Santarem
had seen it made up into figures of birds, alligators,
and other animals. The intense bitterness of the
fresh seed is almost dissipated by roasting, and a
slight aroma is acquired. The essential ingredient
of guarana, as we learn from the investigations of
Von Martius and his brother Theodore, is a principle
which they have called guaranine, almost
identical in its elements with theine and caffeine,
and possessing nearly the same properties.
Guarana is prepared for drinking by merely
grating about a tablespoonful into a tumbler of
water and adding an equal quantity of sugar.
It
has a slight but peculiar and rather pleasant taste,
and it affects the system in much the same way
as tea. I was told that at Cuyaba the thirsty
miners used to resort to the tabernas, in the
intervals of their toil, and call for a glass of guarana,
just as they would for one of lemonade, or of agoa
cloce. The brothers Martius strongly advocated the
introduction of guarana into the European pharma-
copoeias, and pointed
out the maladies wherein its
use seemed indicated. In South America I have
frequently seen it of late years exhibited in nervous
affections, and it has even come to be regarded as a
specific against the jaqueca (i.e. hemicrania) which
is the fashionable ailment of a Peruvian lady. It
has had the reputation of a remedy for diarrhoea,