Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Crassulaceæ
Ovules numerous, on 3-5 parietal placentas. Berry finally bright intensely dark-blue.
Use.:—The shoots and the bark of the roots are made into a decoction and used as a febrifuge by the Nepalese (Watt).
"It appears to have no active effects, unless it be taken in large quantity in the form of decoction. The natives take it in doses large enough to make them sick, and so indirectly to cure the fever."
481. Ribes orientate Poir. h.f.b.l, ii. 410.
Syn.:—R. Villosum, Wall. Roxb.
Vern.:—Nanghe; Phulanch (Chenab); Askûta (Laduk.); Gwáldakh, Kaghak (Kaghan) (N.-W. P.); Yange (Spiti).
Habitat:—Kashmir and Baltistan.
A shrub 6ft. high, polygamo-dioecious, unarmed, sticky, glandular and minutely hairy. Leaves round-reniform, crenate, obscurely 3-5-lobed, 1-l¼in. diam. Bracts 1/5in.. long, linear, often exceeding the pedicels. Racemes erect somewhat dense in flowers, lax and pendant in fruit. Flowers small, greenish. Calyx-tube hardly produced above the fruit. Berries glandular-pubescent, 1/5in. diam; roundish yellow or reddish.
Use:—The berries taken one or two at a time, are considered by the natives an excellent purgative (Aitchison.)
N. 0. CRASSULACEÆ.
482. Bryophyllum calycinum, Salisb. H.F.B.L, ii. 413.
Syn.:—Cotyledon rhizophylla, Roxb. 388.
Vern.:—Kop-pátá (B.); Zakhm-haiyat-ká-pattá (Duk.); Malai- kalli, runá-kalli (Tam.); Sima-jamudu (Tel.); Elamarunna, elamarunga, murikuti (Mal.); Lonua-hadakana-Jidâ (Kan.); Ghaimári, aranmaran, Ahirâvan-Mahirâvan (Bomb.)
Habitat :—Throughout the tropical plains of India, universal in Lower Bengal.
A perennial, succulent, glabrous herb. Stem erect, hollow, l-4 ft. Leaves usually simple, rarely compound, with 3 leaflets, opposite-stalked, fleshy, ovate or oblong, 3-6 in., crenate, obtuse. Flowers pendulous, cylindric, 2in. long, in a large terminal panicle. Calyx tubular, inflated, green, tinged with red and spotted with white, 4-toothed. Corolla tubular, twice as long as the Calyx; tube cylindric, green, lobes 4, tinged with red,. acute, spreading. Stamens 8, in 2 series, inserted about the middle of the Corolla-tube. Carpels 4. Follicles 4, many-seeded, enclosed within the dry persistent Calyx and Corolla. (Collett).
Sutlej Valley; Simla; throughout India. An introduced plant, spread throughout all tropical regions. Often much cultivated in gardens in Bombay and in the Dekkan. In Ceylon, says Trimen, it is a common plant on bare rocky places throughout the low and lower montane country. Believed to be a native of Tropical Africa.
Use :—The leaves slightly toasted are used by the natives as an application to wounds, bruises, boils, and bites of venomous insects. In the Concan the juice of the leaves is administered in ¼ to ½ tolá doses, with double the quantity of ghi; in dysentery. I have seen decidedly beneficial effects follow their application to contused wounds, swellings, and discolorations were prevented, and union of the cut parts took place much more rapidly than it does with the ordinary treatment by water dressing (Dymock).
Used in the form of poultice and powder for sloughing ulcers, it is a disinfectant (Surg. Barren, in Watt's Dictionary, Vol. I.)
483. Kalanchoe spathulata, D C, h.f.b.i.,ii. 414.
Syn. :—K. Varians, Wall.
Vern. : — Tatára, rungru, haiza-ka-patta (Pb. and H.) ; Hâtho Kâne (Nepial) ; Pátkuári, bakal patta (Kumaon).
Habitat : — Tropical Himalaya, from Bhotan to Kashmir.
An erect, stout, perennial herb. Stems 4ft. high. Leaves glabrous, spathulate-oblong, crenate, upper distant and becoming very narrow, sometimes 3-foliate, with the petiole often 3-4 by ½in., frequently sessile ; lower commonly 3-4, sometimes 10in., long, besides the petiole. Lowest bracts linear, narrow, trifoliate, upper few, scattered, linear, ¼-½in. long. Corymb flattish or more rarely elongate. Flowers clear, yellow; the Corolla-tube glabrous. Calyx in fruit often as much as ⅜in. wide, 4-partite, elongate. Corolla, with a flask-shape tube and spreading 4-fid limb, much exceeding the Calyx, persistent. Stamens 8, in two series, adnate to the Corolla-tube, hypogynous scales 4, linear. Carpels 4, adnate to the base of the Corolla-tube, attenuated into long styles ; ovules very many. Follicles 4, seeds very many, oblong, ellipsoid, with 8-15 longitudinal ribs.
Part used: — The leaf.
Use : — It is poisonous to goats, and the leaves are, at Lahore, reckoned a specific for cholera. In Kangra, they are burned and applied to abscesses. (Stewart).
484. Kalanchoe laciniata, DC, h.f.b.l, ii. 415.
Syn. : — Cotyledon lanciniata, Roxb. 388 ; K. teretifolia, Haw.
Sans. :— Hemságara (Sea of Gold).
Vern. : — Tukhmhyát, Parna-bij (Bomb.) ; Mala-kullie (Tam.).
Habitat : — Tropical regions of the Deccan Peninsula, in Bengal, at Patna and Dacca.
A suffruticose, fleshy plant. Leaves opposite, pinnatifid-laciniate, the lobes thick, entire, sub-serrate or dentate. Cymes panicled. Calyx 4-partite, sepals lanceolate, acuminate, spreading. Corolla hypocrateriform ; tube cylindrical ; limb spreading, 4-partite. Carpels 4 ; styles filiform.
There are 3 varieties.
Uses:- The succulent leaves are valued as an application to wounds and sores ; they allay irritation and promote cicatrization. In the Concan, the juice of the leaves is given in bilious diarrhœa and lithiasis. (Dymock).
I can myself speak of their good effects in cleaning ulcers and allaying inflammation (Ainslie). The juice is used externally in bruises and burns, also to cure superficial ulcers. As a styptic it is used on fresh cuts and abrasions (Thornton in Watt's Dictionary).
Malic acid from Crassulaceœ.— The acid was prepared chiefly from Echeveria secunda glauca and Sedum purpurescens (Bryophyllum calycinum yields more, namely, about 0.23 per cent, of the leaves, but is less easily obtainable) by extraction with boiling water, precipitation of the lead salt and decomposition of this with hydrogen sulphide. The residue left on evaporation of the aqueous solution, when dried at 110° until constant in weight, has the composition C8H8G8; it represents an anhydride of the acid, for the salts prepared from it are derived from a dibasic acid, C4H6O5 . The calcium hydrogen salt is usually amorphous, but was once obtained in regular octahedra with 6 H2O; the corresponding salt of ordinary malic acid crystallises in rhombic octahedra. The barium salt is anhydrous, whereas ordinary barium malate crystallises with 1 H2 O. The silver salt is anhydrous, whereas ordinary silver malate contains 5 H2O. The lead salt crystallises with 3 H2O. No ammonium hydrogen salt could be prepared, whereas ordinary malic acid forms a well crystallised salt of this composition. The dimethylic salt was prepared from the anhydride and methylic alcohol by Anschiitz's method ; it distils at 162° under 25m m. pressure : after this has passed over, a second product was obtained, to which reference will be made later.— J. Ch. S. 1898 A.I., p. 513 et seq.
N. 0. DROSERACEÆ.
485. Drosera peltata, Sm. h.f.b.l, i. 424.
Vern. :-Mukha-jali (H.); Chitra (Pb.)
Habitat: — Throughout India.
A perennial herb. Stem erect, leafy, 3-12in. high, simple or corymbose upward. Leaves alternate, long-petioled, lunate-peltate. Racemes subterminal. Pedicels ⅓-½in. long. Flowers white, sepals ovate, glabrous, erose or fimbriate. Styles 3, fim briate. Seeds obovoid. Testa prominently reticuluted.
Part used : — The leaf.
Use : —The leaves of this curious and insectivorous plant, bruised and mixed with salt, are used as a blister in Kumaon. This same practice prevails, however, in Kanáwar, without the use of salt. All the members of this family have a bitter, acrid and caustic flavor. If placed in milk they rapidly curdle it (Watt).
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