[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886) › c10.12950 # Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.12950 Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.12950 - **Language:** English ### [c10.12950](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.12950) SALEB, SALEP, s. This name is applied to the tubers of various species of orchis found in Europe and Asia, which from ancient times have had a great reputation as being restorative and highly nutritious. This reputation seems originally to have rested on the 'doctrine of signatures,' but was due partly no doubt to the fact that the mucilage of saleb has the property of forming, even with the addition of 40 parts of water, a thick jelly. Good modern authorities quite disbelieve in the virtues ascribed to saleb, though a decoction of it, spiced and sweetened, makes an agreeable drink for invalids. Saleb is identified correctly by Ibn Baithar with the Satyrium of Dioscorides and Galen. The full name in Ar. (analogous to the Greek orchis) is Khuṣi-al-tha'lab, i.e. 'testiculus vulpis'; but it is commonly known in India as sa'lab miṣri, i.e. Salep of Egypt, or popularly salep-misry. In Upper India saleb is derived from various species of Eulophia, found in Kashmir and the Lower Himālaya. Saloop, which is, or used to be, supplied hot in winter mornings by itinerant vendors in the streets of London, is, we believe, a representative of Saleb; but we do not know from what it is prepared. In 1889 a correspondent to Notes & Queries (7 ser. vii. 35) stated that "within the last twenty years saloop vendors might have been seen plying their trade in the streets of London. The term saloop was also applied to an infusion of the sassafras bark or wood. In Pereira's Materia Medica, published in 1850, it is stated that 'sassafras tea, flavoured with milk and sugar, is sold at daybreak in the streets of London under the name of saloop.' Saloop in balls is still sold in London, and comes mostly from Smyrna." - [Previous: c10.12949](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.12949) - [Next: c10.12951](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.12951) - [Up: c10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.12950](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.12950) · Pramāṇa