Naturalis historia 12.8.32

12.8.32

Et macir ex India advehitur, cortex rubens radicis magnae, nomine arboris suae. qualis sit ea incompertum habeo. corticis melle decocti usus in medicina ad dysintericos praecipuus habetur.
Saccaron et Arabia fert, sed laudatius India. est autem mel in harundinibus collectum, cummium modo candidum , dentibus fragile, amplissimum nucis abellanae magnitudine , ad medicinae tantum usum.

CHAP. 16. (8.)—MACIR. Macir, too, is a vegetable substance that is brought from India, being a red bark that grows upon a large root, and bears the name of the tree that produces it; what the nature of this tree is, I have not been able to ascertain. A decoction of this bark, mixed with honey, is greatly employed in medicine, as a specific for dysentery.

CHAP. 17.—SUGAR. Arabia, too, produces sugar; but that of India is the most esteemed. This substance is a kind of honey, which collects in reeds, white, like gum, and brittle to the teeth. The larger pieces are about the size of a filbert; it is only employed, however, in medicine.