sb. Also 7–8 jallap, jallop, jollop. [= F. jalap, ad. Sp. jalapa, in full purga de Jalapa, from Jalapa formerly Xalapa, a city of Mexico, in Aztec Xalapan, lit. ‘sand by the water’ f. xalli sand + atl water + pan upon. (Skeat in Trans. Philol. Soc. (1889), 142.) Aztec names in -an, with accent on penult, uniformly lost the n in Spanish.]
1. A purgative drug obtained from the tuberous roots of Exogonium (Ipomœa) Purga and some other convolvulaceous plants; the active principle is the resin contained in the tubers (resin of jalap).
1675. Grew, Disc. Tastes, v. § 6. Jalap hath a special property of irritating the Glandulous Parts of the Mouth, and Throat.
1681. trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks., Vocab., Jalap, a purging drug.
1782. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Odes to R. A’s, iii. Wks. 1812, I. 19. The Lad, who would a Pothecary shine, Should powder claws of crabs, and jalap, fine.
1866. Treas. Bot., 626/1. Although the best jalap is obtained from Exogonium purga, yet many species of Ipomœa supply it, though of an inferior quality.
1880. J. W. Legg, Bile, 175. Next to Colocynth as a cholagogue Röhrig sets jalap.
2. The Mexican climbing plant Exogonium Purga, with salver-shaped purplish flowers; also applied to some allied plants yielding a similar drug.
False or Garden J., Mirabilis Jalapa; E. Indian J., Ipomæa Turpethum; Male J., Jalap Tops, I. orizabensis (I. batatoides); Mechoacan J., I. Jalapa; Wild J., Convolvulus panduratus. (Miller, Plant-n.)
1698. G. Thomas, Pensilvania, 19. Poke-Root, called in England Jallop.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., Night-shade, a Plant which the Learned Father Plumier … calls Jalap.
1809. Med. Jrnl., XXI. 394. Houstoun … had travelled into that part of Spanish America where jalap grows spontaneously.
1860. Tylor, Anahuac, xii. 317. In the neighbouring forests grows the ‘purga de Jalapa,’ which we have shortened into jalap.
1876. Harley, Mat. Med. (ed. 6), 501. Jalap is now grown in the open air in botanical gardens in the south of England, and on the continent.
3. attrib., as jalap plant, root, tuber; jalap-stalks, jalap-wood (see quot. 1865–72).
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 626. Macerate the jalap root in the spirit for four days.
1865–72. Watts, Dict. Chem., III. 436. Spurious, woody or fusiform jalap, jalap-wood, or jalap-stalks,… the root of Convolvulus orizabensis, is sometimes mixed with genuine jalap.
1866. Treas. Bot., 484/1. E[xogonium] Purga … furnishes the true Jalap tubers of commerce.
Hence Jalap v. trans., to dose or purge with jalap.
1768. Foote, Devil on 2 Sticks, III. Wks. 1799, II. 277. Yesterday … we bled the west ward, and jalloped the north.
1854. Surtees, Handley Cross (1898), II. 275. Captain Doleful again had recourse to the jalaped Tent [wine].
