Source

 Known as Soap bark

Panama wood
 Obtained from Quillaja saponaria
Rosaceae
 Derived from a chilean word
Quillean = to wash
 It is called Cullay & used for washing
silk and wool by the natives of Peru &
Chili
 Collection & Description
 Stripped from trees ,freed from outer dark
brownish portion & dried
 Shape flat strips
 Surface
Outer reddish/blackish brown patches of
rhytidoma brownish white in colour
reticulated
Inner yellowish white , smooth
 Odourless but powder is strenutatory
 Taste acrid , unpleasant
 Fracture splintery
with large calcium oxalate crystals
 Microscopy
 T.S is traversed by tangential & radial lines
which gives a chequered appearance
 Tangential lines - bands of phloem
parenchyma & sieve tubes
 Radial lines - medullary rays
 Dark portions in between them are groups of
phloem fibers
 Outer surface rhytidoma
 Phloem parenchyma is in vertical rows with
calcium oxalate
 Very occasionally sclereids occur among
fibers adjacent to them
 Constituents

 Saponin glycosides
Quillajic acid
Sapotoxin

 Sucrose
 Starch
 Calcium oxalate
 Uses
 Stimulant
 Expectorant
 Emulsifying agent for
tars & volatile oils