Lasanulaasfirul-murr (Arab.) ; Zabâne-kunjaskhe-talkh (Pers.) ; Kulappalai-virai, veppalei (Tam.); Amkuduviitum (Tel.) ; Kood-saloo, Korchu (Kan). Letonkgyi (Burm.). The seeds are called Kadwá-indarjow (Hind, and Bomb.) ; Tita-indarjab (Beng.) ;
Habitat: — Tropical Himalaya, from the Chenab westwards and throughout the drier forests of India to Travancore.
A small, deciduous tree, glabrous, pubescent or tomentose. Bark ¼in. thick, brown, rough, exfoliating in irregular flakes. Wood white, soft, even-grained. Leaves nearly sessile, 6-12 by l½-5in. elliptic or ovate-oblong, obtusely acuminate, subcoriaceous ; secondary nerves 10-16 pairs, strong, arched ; petiole 0-¼in. Flowers white or cream-coloured, slightly scented, 1-1½in. across, puberulous, in terminal corymbose cymes which are 3-6in diam. J. D. Hooker says, " the flowers are quite inodorous." Calyx deeply 5-partite, lobes small, lanceolate acuminate, with glands inside at their base. Corolla-tube ⅓-½in. long, slender, cylindrical, swollen at the base round the anthers, throat contracted, naked ; lobes as long as the tube, oblong, spreading, everlapping to the left. Anthers subsessile, inserted near the base of the Coralla-tube. Cells rounded at the base. Carpels 2, distinct ; ovules numerous ; style short, filiform ; stigma oblong. Fruit of 2 distinct, divaricate follicles, 8-16 by 1/5-2/5in., spreading and incurved, smooth, usually with white specks. Seeds numerous, ½in. long, narrowly linear-oblong, glabrous. Coma 2in., silky, brownish grey, l½-2in. long.
" Sir D. Brandis remarks that in Peninsula specimens the style is much longer than in those of Northern India, and the anthers are attached to the middle of the corolla tube instead of at the base." (Duthie).
Uses : — Kurchi bark is medicinally used as a tonic and febrifuge ; but it is chiefly esteemed for its antidysenteric properties. That it is always a sure remedy for dysenteric affections, has been borne out by the statements of many medical practitioners, both Native and European. Sub-Assistant-Surgeon A. C. Kastagiri publishes a case in the Indian Medical Gazette, vol. I, p. 352, and says that he treated a child, 15 months old suffering from dysentery, with the decoction
