Lignum nephriticum, the European name for the traditional diuretic derived from Eysenhardtia polystacha and Pterocarpus indicus
In 1570, Francisco Hernández de Toledo, the court physician of King Philip II of Spain, led what is considered the first scientific expedition to the Americas.
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In 1646, Athanasius Kircher, a German Jesuit scholar residing in Rome, published an account of his experiments on lignum nephriticum in his work Ars Magna Lucis et Umbræ.
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In 1915, the source of the wood was rediscovered by the American botanist William Edwin Safford.