On the use of Bofareira (f Ricinus Communis’' of Botanists') as a
means adopted by the natives of the Cape De Verd Islands to excite
Lactation. By J. O. M’William, M. I)., F. R. S., R. N., Surgeon
to the Honourable the Board of Customs.
While engaged in an official investigation into the nature and history
of a yellow fever epidemy, prevailing in the Island of Boa Vista, in the
Cape de Verds, during the year 1846, my attention was called to a
remedy commonly had recourse to there, and in the other islands of the
group, to accelerate and increase the flow of milk from the breasts of
child-bearing women, in cases where that secretion was tardy in appear-
ing, or deficient in quantity when it did appear.
I also learnt that on occasions of emergency, this remedy could be
successfully applied to a still more important use, namely, to produce
milk in the breasts of women who are not childbearing, or who even
have not given birth to, or suckled, a child for many years.
The leaves of a plant, called in the language of the country, Bofareira,
but which, in reality, is the “Ricinus communis ” of botanists, and, oc-
casionally, the leaves of the li Jathropha curcas,” both belonging to the
natural family euphorbiacia, are the means by which these interesting if
not extraordinary results are produced.
The Bofareira grows in most, if not all, the Cape de Verd Islands.
That used by the natives for the purposes I have mentioned is called
by them white bofareira, to distinguish it from what appears to be noth-
ing more than a variety of the same species, the red bofareira. The
white or that which possesses galactagogue qualities, is recognized by
the natives by the light green colour of the stem of the leaf, whilst the
leaf stem of the red is of a purplish red hue The latter plant is care-
fully avoided, as it it is said to be a powerful irritant, ahd, if applied, as
it occasionally has been, by mistake, for the white, it produces an imme-
diate and often immoderate flow of the menses.
In cases of childbirth, when the appearance of the milk is delayed (a
circumstance of not unfrequent occurrence in those islands,) a decoction
is made by boiling well a handful of the white Bofareira in six or eight
pints of spring water. The breasts are bathed with this decoction for
fifteen or twenty minutes. Part of the boiled leaves are then thinly
spread over the breasts, and allowed to remain until all moisture has
been removed from them by evaporation, and probably in some mea-
sure by absorption. This operation of fomenting with the decoction
and applying the leaves, is repeated at short intervals until the milk
flows upon suction by the child which it usually does in the course of
a few hours.
On occasions where milk is required to be produced in the breasts of
women who have not given birth to, or suckled, a child for years, the
mode of treatment adopted is as follows;’:—
Two or three handfuls of the leaves of the Ricinus are taken and
treated as before. The decoction is poured, while yet boiling, into a
large vessel, over which the woman sits so as to receive the vapour over
her thighs and generative organs, cloths being tucked around her so as
to prevent the escape of the steam. In this position, she remains ten
or twelve minutes, or until the decoction cooling a little, she is enabled
to bathe the parts with it, which she does for fifteen or twenty minutes
more. The breasts are then similarly bathed, and gently rubbed with
the hands ; and the leaves are afterwards applied to them in the manner
already described. These several operations are repeated three times
during the first day. On the second day, the woman has her breasts
bathed, the leaves applied, and the rubbing repeated three or four times.
On the third day, the sitting over the steam, the rubbing, and the appli-
cation of the leaves to, with the fomentation of, the breasts are again had
recourse to. A. child is now put to the nipple, and, in the majority of
instances, it finds an abundant supply of milk.
In the event of milk not being secreted on the third day, the same
treatment is continued for another day, and if then there still be a want of
success, the case is abandoned, as the person is supposed not to be sus-
ceptable to the influence of the Bofareira.
Women with well-developed breasts are most easily affected by the
Bofareira. When the breasts are small and shrivelled, the plant then
is said to act more on the uterine system, bringing on the menses, if
their period be distant, or causing their immoderate flow if their ad-
vent be near.
Exposure to cold is carefully avoided by persons who are being
brought under the influence of the Bofareira. These scrupulously ab-
stain from wetting with cold water either the hands or the feet.
Maria, a dark mulatto women, with wooly hair, thirty years of age,
tall, stout, and well-formed; menstruating regularly ; the mother of
three children, the youngest of whom was three years old and had been
weaned when under the age of one year, was brought before me by Dr.
Almeida, of Boa Vista, on the morning of the 30th of June, 1846, for
the purpose of being submitted to the action of the Bofareira. She
stated, that when her child was weaned, every trace of milk disappear-
frora her breasts in the course of a few days. 1 could not detect any
signs of pregnancy. The breasts were like those of negro women in
general who have borne children, pendulous and flabby. No sign of
milk was given out from them upon careful examination of the nipple.
The baths, fomentations, the application of the leaves, friction, suc-
tion, &c., were adopted in the manner and order I have already describ-
ed. On the second day there was a slight oozing of a serous-looking
milk from the nipples, with slight increase of size in the areolar portion
of the breast. On the third day, the milk increased in quantity, and
less watery. On the morning of the fourth day there was an evident
enlargement of the lower part of the mamma, and milk flowed abun-
dantly upon the application of a child to the nipple.
The use of the Bofareira in cases of childbirth, to accelerate the
flow of milk, is common, but comparatively rare as the means of pro->
curing a wet-nurse. Some instances of the latter kind occurred, in
consequence of the death of mothers with children at the breast during
the progress of the Boa Vista epidemy of 1845-46, which decimated a
population consisting almost wholly of blacks, with a few Europeans—
Portugese and English—and a small proportion of mixed negro and
European blood.
Generally, however, this use of the Bofareira is seldom called for.
Death in childbirth, or prolonged illness after parturition, sometimes re-
quires a kind relative or charitable neighbor, who, for the safety of
the offspring, places herself under the influence of the bofareira.
The son of a wealthy landed proprietor of San Nicolao, (well known
to my friend, Mr. George Miller, of that Island,) a remarkably hale and
robust-looking man, was wet-nursed by a woman who gave him milk
produced by the Bofareira. The nurse in this instance had borne two
children in early life. Her husband died shortly after the birth of her
second child ; she lived in a state of virtuous widowhood, and it was
many years after the death of her husband that she so (generously sub-
mitted herself to the Bofareira, and nursed the infant in question.
Consul-General Rendall, of the Cape de Verds, informs me that a
lady, a native of Boa Vista, now residing at San Antonio, and the wife
of one of the foreign consuls, had a daughter in 1843.	“ Having very
little milk,” says Mr. Consul Rendall, “ she caused an old female ser-
vant to be prepared with the bofareira, and to act as wet-nurse, which
she did in the most satisfactory manner, having plenty of good milk, al-
though she had not had a child for ten years previously. The child is
now (March, 1847) a healthy one, and well grown. In short,” con-
tinues Mr. Randall, “ women who use the Bofareira are in two or three
days in order sufficient to nurse the child of a queen.”
I have not been able to ascertain, from personal observation, or from
any very accurate information, what effect the Bofareira has upon vir-
gins, or upon those who, although they\ have not borne children, are
nevertheless not virgins. As regards the latter class, however, an intel-
ligent native midwife assured my most able and observant friend, Mr.
George Miller, of San Nicolao, that the effect of the administration of
the Bofareira is much the same upon them as upon child-bearing
women.
In some cases, but rarely, the decoction of the Bofareira is taken in-
ternally, with the view of assisting the action of its external applica-
tion.
I regret not having been informed of the alleged difference in the ac-
tion of the white and red Bofareiras, while I was at the Cape de Verds,
that I might have examined the latter plant upon the spot.
The seeds of each plant were, however, kindly forwarded to me by
Mr. George Miller, and Sir William Hooker most readily and obligingly
examined them. Sir William, in a note to me, says, “ What you mark
as red Bofareira, and as white Bofareira, are both, not only of the genus
‘ Ricinus,’ but also of one and the same species—viz., Ricinus commu-
nis, the common palma Christi, or castor oil plant. In our gardens, as
well as abroad, the plants vary, and your two plants vary a little in the
form and size of the seed, and especially in the color, but they are one
and the same species.”
It is thus evident that the white and red Bofareiras, if they differ at
all, can only be varieties of the same species. It is known, however,
that certain varieties of other plants, as thyme, mint, &c., do yield dif-
ferent properties, and such may be the case with the Bofareiras.
I have thus stated all the facts that have come to my knowledge re-
garding this galactagogue of the Cape de Verds, which I consider to be
well worthy of a fair trial in this country. Should its action in our
more temperate regions be similar to that which it exerts within the
tropics, an interesting field of inquiry will be opened, as regards its
hygienic, medicinal, medico-legal, and other relations,
These, however, are points, the consideration of which had better be
reserved until it has been determined, by experiment, how far the Bofa-
reira can be successfully introduced into the practice of this country.
[Note.—Dr. Tyler Smith, to whom I showed my paper before my
visit to Edinburgh, has written to inform me that he has in several cases
tried the Bofareira in the manner described by me; and he assures me
that the effects of the plant grown in this country fully bear out the
facts I have detailed respecting the use of this plant in the Cape de
Verd Islands.j—London Lancet.