Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Datiscaceæ
N. 0. DATISCACEÆ.
556. Datisca cannabina, Linn, h.f.b.l, ii. 656.
Vern. : — Akalber (H.) ; Bhang jala. Bayr Bunja (Pb.) ; Voftangel, Teherg (Cashmere).
Habitat : — Tropical and sub-tropical western Himalaya, from Kashir to Nepal, Simla. Collett says it may occur in the Sutlej or Giri Valley.
A glabrous herb ; stem erect, robust, 2-6ft., branches flower-bearing, long. Stem-leaves alternate, pinnate 'lower ones the larger), 6-12in.; leaflets 5-11, shortly stalked, lanceolate, 6 by l½in , coarsely toothed, tip long pointed, entire. Leaves of branches alternate, linear-lanceolate, l-3in., toothed or entire ; stipules none. Flowers 1-sexual, regular, male and female on different plants, yellow, small, shortly-stalked, in numerous axillary clusters. Male flowers : — Calyx-tube vein short, limb 5-lobed ; petals none ; stamens sessile, anthers oblong, rather large, filaments very short. Female flowers : — Calyx-tube ovoid, obscurely 3-angled, adnate to the ovary, limb 3-toothed ; petals none ; ovary inferior, 1-celled ; styles ¼-3in. each divided nearly to the base in 2 linear stigmas ; ovules numerous attached to 3 placentas on the cell-wall. Capsule oblong, ⅓in. by less than ⅛in., opening at the top ; seeds numerous, minute Collett) and (C. B. Clarke).
Parts used : — The herb, roots and bark.
Use : — It is bitter and purgative, and is occasionally used if i fevers and in gastric and scrofulous complaints. In Khagan, the bruised root is applied to the head as a sedative. Madden states that under the name, Bujr Bunja, it is used medicinally in Kurnool (Stewart).
It may be administered in doses of from 5 to 15 grains in intermittents (Dymock).
Medicinally, it acts as a sedative in rheumatism (Watt).
Used as an expectorant in catarrh ; also locally to carious teeth (London Exliib. 1862) The bark also contains a bitter principle like quassia (Watt). Datiscin is prepared by extracting the bruised roots with dilute alcohol, distilling off the alcohol, extracting the residue with water, treating the aqueous solution with a small quantity of lead acetate (basic?) and concentrating the nitrate, from which datiscin separates on cooling. It is repeatedly recrystallised from boiling water, when the crystals have but a faintly yellow tint. It is very sparingly soluble in ether, and melts at 190°. Airdried datiscin gave, on analysis, values agreeing with the formula C21H24O11 +2 H2O. and that dried at 130° gave values agreeing with the formula C21H24O11+H2O. Specimens which had been dried at the latter temperature, however, were frequently found to have undergone decomposition.
When datiscin is boiled with dilute sulphuric acid, datiscetin separates from the solution on cooling, and a sugar, which is not glucose, but rhamnose, remains dissolved.
Datiscetin, C15H12O6 , crystallises from alcohol in bright yellow needles, melts at 237° (uncorr.) and dissolves in concentrated sulphuric acid, forming a yellow solution, which subsequently exhibits a beautiful blue fluorescence. When datiscetin is fused with potash, salicylic acid is formed. Datiscetin is converted into picric acid on treatment with concentrated nitric acid, and into nitrosalicylic acid (m. p. 226°), on treatment with dilute nitric acid. -J. Ch. S. 1894 A. I. 142.
N. 0. CACTEÆ
557. Opuntia dillenii, Haw., h.f.b.i., ii. 657.
Syn. : — Cactus indicus, Roxb. 395.
Vern. : — Nág-phanâ. (H. and B.) ; Pheni-mama (B.) ; Chappal-send (Dec.) ; Nâga-dali (Tam.) ; Nága mulla (Mal.) ; Zhorhatheylo (Guz.) ; Phadyâ Nivdung (M.).
Habitat : — A native of South America, quite naturalized, almost a weed in India., in the Konkan, the Dekkan, extending as far north as the Jhelum in the N.-W. Himalaya, "also the Circars, Canara and Madras. "Apparently," says Gamble, Masulipatam was the place where the Cactus was first grown, and the species 0. Dillenii D. C."
A fleshy, perennial, leafless shrub, persistent, jointed. Stem branching, formed of successive joints, which are more or less obovate, mostly flat 1ft. long, bearing at first some minute awl-shaped bodies answering to leaves, which soon fall off, and dense woolly hairs, with tufts of numerous barbed bristles and long, sharp spines also in their axils. Flowers bisexual, regular yellow, tinged with red, open in sunshine and for more than
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