Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Combretaceæ
soft, close-grained, reddish-brown. Leaves 2-4 by l-2in., elliptic-oblong, narrowed into petiole, l-2in. long, quite entire, dark-green above, reddish-brown beneath, glabrous. Peduncles about l½in., erect, twice-branched, dichotomously in 'cymes. Flowers white. Calyx surrounded at base by bracteoles, connate into a cup, lobes 5 or 6, linear, ½-2/3in. long. Petals bifid, the lobes divided into numerous capillary segments. Stamens numerous, anthers small, filaments slender. Ovary half-inferior, prolonged beyond the calyx into a fleshy cone, one-celled. Ovules six, style slender, stigma 3-lobed. Fruit lin., conicovoid, girt at the base by the reflexed calyx- lobes,
Use : — The bark, mixed with dried ginger or long pepper and rose-water, is said to be a cure for diabetes (Rheede).
N. 0. COMBRETACEÆ.
490, Terminalia Catappa, Linn, h.f.b.i., ii. 444, Roxb. 380.
Sans. :— Ingudi.
Vern. : — Jangli-bâdâm (H. and Bomb.) ; Nattoo-vadamcottay (Tam.) ; Vadam (Tel.) ; Adamarram (Mal.) ; Taru (Kan.) ; Bâdâm (B.) ; Bengali-bâdâm, jangli-bâdâma, hâtbâdâm (Mar.)
Habitat : — Largely planted in all India, wild in the lowlands of Malaya and perhaps of the Transgangetic Peninsula.
A tall, deciduous tree. Branches horizontally- whorled. Stem often buttressed. Attains 80ft. Wood red, with lighter coloured sapwood, hard. Leaves beautifully green, turning red before falling ; clustered at the end of branchlets, glabrous ; petiole and midrib more or less hairy, obovate from a narrow cordate base, 6-10in. long, petiole short, stout and channelled. Flowers white, in slender axillary spikes, shorter than the leaf. Male flowers at the top, hermaphrodites below. Drupe glabrous, ellipsoid, somewhat compressed, keeled all round, 2in. long, pericarp fibrous and fleshy, endocarp hard, oil expressed from the seeds. The seeds are eaten, and so is the luscious and delicious sweet acid pericarp, greedily by children and even grown up persons.
Uses: — The kernels yield upwards of 50 per cent, of a pure bland oil, which may be substituted for almond oil. Kept for a long time, it deposits a large quantity of stearine. The bark is said to be astringent (Ph. Ind.).
The juice of the young leaves is employed in Southern India to prepare an ointment for scabies, leprosy, and other cutaneous diseases, and is also believed to be useful internally for headache and colic (Lisboa).
The seeds yield 63*43 p. c. of oil, which in odour, taste and color closely resemble true almond oil. The oil does not readily become rancid, but becomes thick on standing, and yields an abundant deposit of stearine.— J. Ch. I. for 31st August, 1910, page 1020.
Grimme obtained the following constants : Specific gravity at 15°, 0.9195 ; solidifying point, + 7° ; Dn at 20°, 1.4682 ; acid value, 4.1 ; saponification value, 185.7 ; iodine value, 77. Insoluble acids and unsaponifiable, 93.95 ; unsaponifiable, 1.87. Fatty acids : Melting point, 48.49° ; neutralization value, 198*6 ; iodine value, 73*5 ; mean molecular weight, 282.8.
491. T. belerica, Roxb. h.f.b.l, ii. 445, Roxb. 380.
Sans. : — Vibhitaki,
Vern : — Baherâ, bhairah (H.) ; Bohera (B.) ; Behada (Bomb.) ; Tanrik-kay, Tani, Kattu elupay (Tam.) ; Tani, tandi, toandi (Tel.).
Habitat : — Throughout India, common in the plains and lower hills.
A very large tree, with rusty pubescence on young branchlets and calyx ; attains a height of 60-100ft. ; trunk tall, erect, regularly shaped ; branches spreading, forming a coppery-tinted, bright, broad-massive crown when young, bright-green when old. Youngest off-shoots beautifully crimson. Bark ½in. thick, dark or bluish grey, uneven and tessellated by broad longitudinal furrows, crossed by short, narrow, transverse wrinkles, the old bark exfoliating in dry corky scabs. Wood light grey or yellowish, open and coarse-grained, easily Worked, but not durable. Stem 6-10ft., at times 10-20ft Leaves deciduous, exstipulate, alternate, crowded at the extremities of branches, crenulate, pubescent, broad, elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 3-8in. long, 2-3in. broad ; base often unequal, the lower margin of the leaf tapering as it approaches the petiole and finally merges into the upper margin of the petiole, leaving the petiole slightly-grooved at the ventral aspect. Apex obtuse, retuse, usually, sometimes acuminate, especially in the larger leaves ; margin entire ; main lateral nerves arcuate, prominent, 5-8, often reddish. Petiole roundish, longer than ⅓ length of the leaf. The tree sheds its leaves from January to March. Flowers small ; male and hermaphrodite on solitary, simple spikes, which are sometimes erect, sometimes bent, sometimes drooping ; 3-6in. long, arising from the axils of fresh leaves, just before or about the same times of the year, as tender leaves shoot out. Roxburgh and Brandis condemn the flowers as of a dirty-grey or greenish colour ; but the crimson markings of the Calyx and the soft down, as also the bright yellow anthers, are by no means unattractive, though the odour is offensive. Male flowers usually on the upper part of the spike, sessile. Hermaphrodite flowers chiefly confined to the lower part of the spike on short pedicels. Bracts linear, brown, very early caducous. Calyx deciduous. Corolla absent. Stamens 10. Filaments, 5 short, 5 long, arranged alternately, inserted below the Calyx-segments ; the larger ones twice the length of the Calyx. In the hermaphrodite flowers there is an epigynous disk, brownish, densely hairy. Style slender, filiform, projecting slightly beyond the filaments. Stigma simple, a mere depression at the apex. Ovary tomentose, 1-celled, ovule pendulous from the apex of the cavity. Fruit lin. long, ovoid-ellipsoid or globose, grey-velvety. Nut thick-walled and hard.
Uses : — Sanskrit writers describe beleric myrobalans as astringent and laxative, and useful in cough, hoarseness, eye-diseases, &c. As a constituent of triphalâ, or the three myrobalans, they are used in almost all diseases. The kernel of the fruits is said to be narcotic and astringent, and used as an external application to inflammed parts (Dutt). Mahomedan writers describe it as astringent, tonic, attenuant, and aperient, useful in dyspepsia and bilious headache, also as an astringent application to the eyes (Dymock).
In the Concan, the kernel, with that of the marking nut, is sometimes eaten with betel-nut and leaf in dyspepsia ; the fruit also is used as an astringent, usually in combination with chebulic myrobalans. There is no doubt about the narcotic properties of the kernel. The part used in medicine is the pulp (Dymock).
In the Punjab, it is chiefly employed in dropsy, piles, diarrhœa and leprosy ; also occasionally in fever. When half ripe, it is considered purgative, when fully ripe or dried, astringent. Mixed with honey, it is employed as an application in cases of ophthalmia.
The oil is considered a good application for the hair. The gum is believed to be demulcent and purgative (Watt).
Like other kinds of Terminalia, the Beieric myrobalans afford a yellow fixed oil which is prepared by the poorer classes in the Central Provinces and used as a substitute for ghee and as an application for rheumatism. Bahada seeds yield about 25 per cent, of oil by expression which sells for 8 annas per Seer. Two samples from Akola and Damoh had the following characters : Specific gravity, .9168, .9193 ; melting points 11°, 4° ; acid values, 2.4, 3.9 ; saponification values, 205.8, 205.3; iodine values, 79.0,85.3; Reichert-Meissl values, .76, .78 ; fatty acids and unsaponifiable, 94.2, 93.6 per cent., melting at 39° and 38°.
492. T. Chebula, Retz, h.f.b.i., ii. 446, Roxb. 381.
Sans. : — Haritaki.
Vern. : — Hara, har, harara (H.) ; Haritaki (B.) ; Hilikha (Ass.) ; Silim (Lepch.) ; Karedha (Uriya) ; Hana, Silim-kung (Sikkim) ; Hardâ (Dec.) ; Kadukai-maram (Tam.) ; Karakaia (Tel.) ; Alale (Mysore).
Habitat: — Abundant in Northern India, from Kumaon to Bengal, and southward to the Deccan table-land.
A large or small deciduous tree. Bark ^in. thick, dark- brown, with numerous, generally shallow, vertical cracks. Wood very hard, brownish-grey, with a greenish or yellowish tinge, with an irregular, dark-purple heartwood, close-grained, fairly durable. Branchlets, leaf-buds and young leaves, with soft shining generally rust-coloured hairs. Leaves distant, often sub-opposite, elliptic or ovate ; secondary nerves 6-8 pair, arching, prominent; blade 3-8in. long, petiole ½-lin. long. Two glands or swellings on petiole near top. Flowers bisexual, 1/6in. across, sessile, dull white or yellow, with an offensive smell. Spikes sometimes simple, usually in short panicles, terminal and in the axils of the uppermost leaves. Bracts subulate or lanceolate, longer than buds, deciduous. Limb of Calyx cup-shaped, cleft half way into 5 acute, triangular segments, woolly inside. Fruit more or less distinctly 5-angled, obovoid from a cuneate base, sometimes ovoid or nearly globose, l-l½in. long ; shape and size of fruit varies accordingly.
Mr. Duthie writes : — " In Northern India the tree does not attain to any great size, but large trees, up to 100 feet in height, are often met with south of the Nerbudda."
Uses : — Sanskrit writers describe chebulic myrobalans as laxative, stomachic, tonic and alterative. They are used in fevers, cough, asthma, urinary diseases, piles, intestinal worms, chronic diarrhœa, costiveness, flatulence, vomiting, hiccup, heart-diseases, enlarged spleen and liver, ascites, skin diseases, &c. In combination with embelic and beleric myrobalans, they are extensively used as adjuncts to other medicines in almost all diseases. As an alterative tonic for promoting strength, preventing the effects of age and prolonging life, it is used in a peculiar way. (Dutt).
Mahomedan writers consider the ripe fruit as purgative, removing bile, phlegm and adjust bile. The unripe fruit is most valued on account of its astringent and aperient properties, and is a useful medicine in dysentery and diarrhœa. Ainslie notices their use as an application to aphthæ (Dymock).
" The fruits are used as a medicine for sore-throat, by the Paharias in Sikkim" (Gamble).
Recently M. P. Apery has brought to the notice of the profession in Europe the value of the drug in dysentery, choleraic diarrhœa and chronic diarrhœa. He administers it in pills of 25 centigrammes each, the dose being from four to twelve pills or even more in the twenty-four hours (Pharmacog. Ind.).
It is therefore possible that the therapeutic value of myrobalans may before long form the subject of systematic investigation (Watt).
A fruit, finely powdered, is used as dentifrice. Said to be useful in carious teeth, bleeding and ulcerations of the gums (B. D. Basu).
A fruit, coarsely powdered and smoked in a pipe, affords relief in a fit of asthma. A decoction of the fruit is a good astringent wash. A fine paste, obtained by rubbing the fruit on a rough stone with little water, mixed with the carron oil of the Pharmacopeia and applied to burns and scalds, effects a more rapid cure than when carron oil alone is used (D. R. Thompson in Watt's Dic).
Water in which the fruits are kept for the night is considered a very cooling wash for the eyes. The ashes mixed with butter form a good ointment for sores (Robb, in Watt's Dic).
{{smaller|On removing the astringent pulp of the myrobalans a hard, stony seed remains which weighs 37.5 per cent, of the fruit. The seeds are sent in large quantities from the Central Provinces to Bombay as an oil seed. Within the seed is a kernel which yields to ether 36.7 per cent, of a yellowish, pleasant and edible oil. A sample of the oil had an acid value of 8.9, saponification value of 192.6, iodine value 87.5, and 96.2 per cent, of insoluble fatty acids and unsaponifiabie matter.
Chebulic acid : — This is obtained from the fruits in the following manner :— The dried fruits are powdered, macerated for 10 days at the ordinary temperature with 90 per cent, alcohol, pressed and filtered. The alcohol is completely removed from the extract, and the residue then dissolved in hot water ; cold water is added until no further milkiness appears, and the whole is allowed to settle, and then filtered. To the filtrate, sodium chloride is added until a permanent turbidity appears, and the solution is then shaken out with ethyl acetate, which dissolves chebulic and tannic acids. To remove the latter, the ethylacetate is distilled off, and the residue dissolved in water, and shaken out with ether ; from the aqueous solution crystals of chebulic acid then separate on standing, and may be recrystallised from hot water. The yield is 3.5 per cent.
Chebulic acid, C28H24O19+H2O, begins to melt at about 200°, and is optically active, having [a]D= + 66.94°. The molecular weight of the anhydrous compound was determined by Beckmann's boiling point method in acetone solution. The acid seems to be manobasic and forms an amorphous barium salt. (C28H23O19 ) Ba, which is white when moist, and green when dry, and a grey, amorphous, basic (?) Zinc salt, probably (C28H23O19 )2 Zn+Zn O. These salts appear, in general, to be decomposed by water, even in the cold. With strychnine, an acid salt, C19H22N2O,2C28H24O19, is formed. With benzoic chloride and soda, a yellowish, amorphous benzoyl derivative, C28H20 BL4O19 , melting at 88.5°, is obtained. With phenyl-hydrazine, chebulic acid yields a derivative in the form of a reddish powder, which melts at 142°, and, when dissolved in alcohol and treated with strong aqueous potash, yields a momentarily green, then mulberry-red, and, finally, brownish-red coloration. (Tannic acid, similarly treated, gives a green colour, only gradually changing to red ; gallic acid, an immediate red coloration). When chebulic acid is dissolved in alcohol, and the solution saturated with gaseous hydrogen chloride, some ethyl gallate is formed, and, in addition, a yellow, amorphous acid, somewhat analogous in its properties to tannic acid. Sulphuric acid hydrolyses chebulic acid to gallic acid and other undetermined products.— J. Ch. S. LXIV., pt. I. (1893), p. 212.
493. T. citrina, Roxb. h.f.b.i., ii. 446. Roxb. 382.
Vern. : — Haritaki ; Narra (B.) ; Hilika, Silikka (Assam.) ; Hortaki (Cachar) ; Hariha, Harira (U. P.)
Habitat :— Assam ; East Bengal ; Burma.
A large tree attaining 80ft. Leaves thickly coriaceous, elliptic lanceolate or oblong, subopposite, narrowed into a petiole ½in., blade 3-7in.; when adult glabrous, shining, the interstices of the nerves beneath, with sunk, close, white tomentum ; the petiole usually with two glands at the top or on the base, of the leaf beneath. Bracteoles linear, conspicuous on the young spikes. Spikes terminal and lateral, often panicled. Flowers all hermaphrodite. Calyx- teeth glabrous without, hairy within. Young ovary glabrous. Fruit narrow, lanceolate 2in. long.
Mr. C. B. Clarke remarks that T. citrina has a straighter stem, a brighter foliage and narrower fruits, but ought perhaps hardly to be reckoned a distinct species."
Use : — The medicinal properties are similar to those of the Chebulic myrobalan.
494. T. Arjuna, Bedd. h.f.b.i., ii. 447.
Syn. : — Pentaptera Arjuna, Roxb. 382.
Sans. : — Arjuna ; Kukubha.
Vern. : — Anjan, arjun, kahu (H.) ; Vella marda, Vellai- maruda-maram (Tam.) , Ver maddi (Tel.) ; Sânmadat, arjun, anjan, jamla (Mar.); Sâdado, arjun sâdado (Guz.) ; Maddi, tormatti, holematti, billi matti (Kan.).
Habitat:— Very common in the Sub-Himalayan tracts of the North- West Provinces and Deccan.
A large deciduous tree, with huge, often buttressed, trunk, attaining 60-80 ft. Bark ⅓in. thick, smooth, pinkish grey, the old layers peeling off in thin flakes. Sapwood reddish-white ; heartwood brown, variegated, with darker, coloured streaks, very hard. Glabrous ; only the inflorescence is slightly pubescent. Leaves generally sub-opposite, hard coriaceous, oblong, sometimes spathulate-oblong, often campanulate blade 3-6, petiole ¼in. long. Petiole rarely more than ½in., with two glands near its apex often very short. Flowers bisexual, dull, yellow, in erect terminal panicles. Bracteoles very small. Calyx-teeth nearly glabrous, both within and without. Young ovary very short, covered with crisped brown or rufous hair. Fruit lin. long, with 5-7 narrow angles, ¼in. broad, irregularly marked with ascending lines.
Use : — The Sanskrit writers consider the bark to be tonic, astringent and cooling, and use it in heart diseases, contusions, fractures, ulcers, &c. In fractures and contusions, with excessive ecchymosis, powdered arjun bark is recommended to be taken internally with milk. A decoction of the bark is used as a wash in ulcers and chancres (Dutt).
The bark is astringent and febrifuge, the fruit tonic and deobstruent, the juice of the fresh leaves is a remedy for ear-ache.
The bark useful in bilious affections, and as an antidote to poisons (Baden-Powell's Punj. Prods.) In Kangra, the bark is used to sores, &c. (Stewart).
Regarding the physiological action of this drug, Dr. Lal Mohan Ghoshal writes : —
(1) The drug (Terminalia Arjuna) acts as a cardiac stimulant and tonic, increasing the force of the beats of the heart, but slowing their number, but never completely stopping it. The diastole is more or less prolonged.
(2) The blood pressure is increased due to the contraction of the peripheral arterioles caused by the action of the drug on the vasomotor nerve possibly.
(3) It acts as a powerful hœmostatic ; only drawback for this action is the rise of blood pressure. (4) It helps diapedesis of red blood corpuscles.
(5) It slighty increases the excretion in the amount of phosphates and uric acid, but the increase is not very material to be taken into practical account.
Regarding its Therapeutic action, he says : —
The drug is a very valuable remedy in heart diseases, specially where a combined tonic and stimulant action is necessary. Thus in mitral disease, specially in later stages when the heart is feeble and flaccid, blood pressure low and the heart dilated, the drug may be administered with admirable effect. In aortic diseases the drug has one defect, namely, it increases the blood pressure, and the diastole is rather prolonged, but the force of contraction and the manner is which the aortic valves meet together may be utilised in these forms of aortic regurgitation that are caused merely by dilatation of the aorta, or in which the valves, although healthy, do not come in firm opposition, or in which the regurgitation is caused by weakness of the heart.
In exhausting diseases weakening the heart and increasing the frequency of the pulse the drug is invaluable, for, it does not exert the poisonous action of digitalis if long continued.
The drug may be used as a good local hæmostatic, but generally its use as a hæmostatic is doubtful on account of the rise of the blood pressure. In inflammations locally and generally it may be used by causing the contraction of the peripheral arterioles, and increasing the diapedesis, and at the same time improving the general circulation, the drug will relieve the inflammatory condition of the part. For this reason Chukradutta recommended it for all sorts of inflammatory conditions, and he goes so far as to say that it heals fractures, etc. For this reason it may be commended in pneumonic inflammations of lung, but directly it has no action on respiratory organs.
We have seen that for local inflammations the drug is very efficacious as in the experiments performed on inflamed eyes. There the inflammation soothed in one day although the eases were mild ones. The drug has been suggested to be lethontryptic, but except increasing slight amount of phosphatic and uric acid excretion this action of the drug is doubtful.
Chemical composition : —
An extract from the bark was prepared by heating 500 grms. of pulverised bark with 2 litres of water until only 500 c. c. of the fluid remained ; the whole thing was then pressed through a fine muslin and the fluid part was again filtered through filter when a clear dark-reddish extract was obtained. The extract is sweetish to the taste, reduces Fehling's solution and assumes a dark black colour on treatment with ferric chloride and is acid to litmus. Part of it was treated with benzene in equal parts (being acidulated first with H2S04 4 ) and a deposit separated out in the immiscible layer; the immiscible layer was then separated by means of separating funnel and benzene was allowed to evaporate. The residue left after evaporation was reddish-brown in colour and amorphous powder ; it was insolube in dilute HC1. but partly soluble in alcohol and ether. It does not give any reaction with Iodine, nor does it reduce Fehling's solution, but when heated with dilute HCI, it reduced Fehling's solution also gave ppt, with Phosphotungstic acid. Thus we see that the extract when treated with benzene yielded a substance which is partially soluble in alcohol, and does not give any Iodine reaction, reduces Fehling's solution when heated with dilute HC1 and is pptd. by phosphotungstic acid. From these facts we may conclude that the substance yielded from the treatment of the extract with benzene is glucosidal in nature, the glucosidal body was first made soluble in absolute alcohol, which was then evaporated, and a dry brown powdery residue was left ; it also gave no reaction with Iodine, reduced Fehling's solution when heated with dilute HC1.
The extract was then treated with chloroform in the same way, and a gum- my substance was obtained which either gave Orcin reaction nor reduced Fehling's solution even when heated with dilute hydrochloric acid.
The extract was then further treated with absolute alcohol when a reddish-brown-colouring matter was separated out.
It gave no reaction with petroleum either. Tannic acid was estimated by Allen and Pleteker 4 s method and total tannin (including glucotannic acid, etc.) obtained was 12 per cent.
The bark was then burnt and the ash yielded was 30 per cent., most of which was calcium carbonate, but traces of sodium carbonate and chlorides of the alkali metals was also obtained. Sugar estimated from the original solution was 17 per cent.
Thus we see that the extract from the bark yields—
1. Sugar.
2. Tannin.
3. A colouring matter.
4. A body glucosidal in nature.
5. Carbonates of calcium and sodium and traces of chlorides of alkali metals. (Food and Drugs No. 1 pp. 22 et seq.)
495. T. tomentosa, Bedd. h. f.b.i., ii. 447.
Vern. : — Asan (H.) ; Piasal (B.) ; Ain (Bomb.) ; Kurruppu- maruta-maram (Tam.); Maddi (Tel.) ; Hatana, Matnak (Kol.) ; Ain, madat, yên, sâdada, sâj (Mar.) ; Ain (Guz.) ; Matti, kari-matti, banapu, tore matto-madi, aini (Kan J Sâin (Bijnor) ; Sadar (Bundelkhand).
Habitat : — Very common in Deccan and the Sub-Himalayan tracts of the North- West Provinces, Nepal and Sikkim.
A large deciduous tree, trunk tall, regularly shaped. Bark rough, grey to black, with long, broad, deep longitudinal fissures and short, shallow, transverse cracks, inner substance red when fresh. Sapwood reddish white ; heartwood dark brown, hard, beautifully variegated with streaks of darker colour, showing on a radial section as dark streaks which are generally undulating. Branchlets, inflorescence and young leaves clothed with short rust-coloured pubescence. Leaves coriaceous, hard, elliptic or ovate, sometimes obovate-oblong ; blade 5-9, petiole ¼-½in. long, nearly opposite, the uppermost often alternate ; 1-2 glands near base of midrib ; underside when full-grown, as a rule, soft tomentose, nearly glabrous, secondary nerves. 10-20 pair. Flowers bisexual, dull yellow, in erect terminal panicles, the lower branches in the axils of leaves. Calyx-limb, a shallow cup, hairy within, segments 5, broad, ovate, acute. Fruit l½-2in. long, with 5 coriaceous brown wings, ¾-lin. broad, and marked with numerous horizontal lines running from the axils to the edges, which are thin and irregularly crenulate.
Use : — A docoction of the bark is taken internally in atonic diarrhœa, and locally as an application to weak indolent ulcers. (Ph. Ind.).
496. T. paniculata, Roth, h.f.b.l, ii. 448.
Syn. : — Pentaptera Paniculata, Roxb. 384.
Vern. : — Kinjal (Bomb.) ; Pe-karakai (Tam.); Neemeeri (Tel.) ; Honal, huluvâ, hulve, hunâb (Kan.).
Habitat : —Malabar, lower hills, from Bombay to Cochin ; Nilghiri and Kurg Mountains.
A very large deciduous tree. Bark ¼in. thick, dark-brown, peeling off: in flat flakes. Wood grey, with darker heart-wood, very hard, new growths rusty-tomentose. Leaves 4-7in., subopposite, upper alternate, base cordate, two glands generally present near the base of the midrib beneath. Petiole ¼-½in. long, rusty-pubescent, sessile, close set in large spreading panicles, the front edge ovary growing out into a wing which is ¾-lin. broad.
Use : — The country people use the juice of the fresh flowers rubbed with Parwel root (Cocculus Villosus) as a remedy in cholera, and in poisoning with opium, 4 tolas of the juice with an equal quantity of guava bark juice is given frequently. In parotitis, the juice with ghi and Saindhav (rock salt) is applied. In cholera, about 4 tolas of the juice with an equal quantity of Parwel root is given every hour (Dymock).
497. Calycopteris floribunda, Lam. h.f.b.l ii. 449.
Vern. :— Bandi-murududu (Tel); Bâguli, Ukshi (Mar.); Kokoranj (Hind.) ; Marsada, Baguli (Can.) Habitat :— On hot hills, alt. 500-2,500ft., abundant through- out the Deccan, and from Assam to Singapore.
A large climbing shrub. Bark very thin, light brown, smooth. Wood soft to moderately hard, porous, light, reddish brown. Branches drooping, young shoots rusty-villous. Leaves opposite, ovate, shortly acuminate, entire. Flowers bisexual, in tomentose terminal and axillary panicles, free portion of Calyx infundibuliform, petals 0, stamens 10, inserted in two lines on the inside of the Calyx-tube, the 5 upper alternating with the Calyx-teeth. Fruit 5-ribbed, villous, ¼in. long, surmounted by the enlarged Calyx, the segments of which are ½-lin. long.
Parts used : — The leaves, root, and fruit.
Uses : — The leaves are bitter and astringent, and are chewed by the natives, and the juice swallowed as a remedy for colic. The root ground to a paste with that of Croton oblongi-folium is applied to bites of the phoorsa snake (Echis carinata). In jaundice, the fruit and various spices, of each one part, are made into a compound powder, of which the dose is two mashas. The fruit, with the root of Grewia pilosa, is rubbed into a paste with honey and applied to ulcers (Pharmacographia Indica, Vol. II., p. 15).
498. Anogeissus latifolia, Wall, h. f.b.i., ii. 450, Roxb. 384.
Syn. : — Conocarpus latifolia, D. C.
Sans. : — Dhava.
Vern. : — Dhâoya (H. and B.) ; Dhavadâ ; Dabria (Bomb.); Vallai-naga, vackelie (Tam.) ; Dinduga, dindlu, bejalu, dindal (Kan.) ; Arma, yerma (Gond.). Bâkli, Dhauri ; Dhao (Bundel-khand).
Habitat : — Very common, from the Himalaya to Ceylon, not found in the Transgangetic Peninsula.
A large deciduous tree, attaining 80ft., but usually a small tree. Bark smooth, whitish grey, 1/6in. thick, with shallow irregular depressions caused by exfoliation. Wood grey, hard, shining, smooth, with a small purplish, irregularly shaped, very hard heartwood ; sapwood in young trees and young branches yellow. Leafless during most of the hot season. Leaves broadly elliptic, pubescent when young, glabrous when full grown, blade 1½— 3½, petiole ¼-¾in. long, secondary nerves 8-14 pairs, tertiary nerves prominent beneath. Flower-heads ¼-⅓in. in diam., in on short peduncles, often in axillary racemes. Ripe fruit almost glabrous, nearly orbicular ; sometimes ⅜ (excluding the beak) by ¼in., including the wings, usually smaller, more or less rusty pubescent when young.
Use : — This tree yields a valuable gum, which is worthy of attention (Dymock).
499. Quisqualis indica, Linn., H. F.B.I., II. 459, Roxb. 379.
Vern. : — Rangūn-ki-bel (H.) ; Vilayati-chambeli (Bomb.) ; Irangūn-malli (Tam.) ; Rangunu-malle-chettu (Tel.).
Habitat : — Cultivated throughout India, wild probably in the Transgangetic Peninsula.
A large, climbing, woody shrub. Bark thin, grey, peeling off in small flakes. Wood, soft, porous. Young shoots pubescent or villous. Leaves elliptic or ovate-oblong, acuminate, those on leafy rambling shoots alternate, those on flowering branches opposite, petioles articulate, the portion below the articulation persistent, being hard and woody, hooking the branches on to the supports. Flowers showy, first white, then red or orange, then varnish- coloured, in different stages on one and the same flower stalk. Bracts leafy, ovate-lanceolate, free part of Calyx filiform, 2-3in. long, hairy within and on the outside. Fruit seldom, never, I should say, met with in the Konkan, lin. long, glossy, with 5 deep furrows between the angles. I collected a half-ripe fruit, nearly half an inch long, in the beautiful Government Gardens of Sydney in 1889, March. It is still in my private Herbarium (K. R. K.).
Use : — In the Moluccas, the seeds are supposed to be anthelmintic. Four or five of the seeds are given with honey, as an electuary for the expulsion of entozoa in children (Ph. Ind.).
In Amboyna, the leaves are given in a compound decoction for flatulent distension of the abdomen. In China, the ripe seeds are roasted, and given in diarrhœa and fever (Rumphius).
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