Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/119

Rh very large, 10-12 in long, oblong-lanceolate, acute, sharply serrate, glabrous above, finely pubescent on veins beneath; lateral veins numerous, strong; petioles 1½ in. long, stout, deeply channelled above, pulvinate at base. Flowers very large, 6-7 in. diam, on stout subterminal pedicels. Sepals very fleshy. Petals white, sometimes pale-azure orbicular with a broad base. Stamens persistent, yellow. Carpels 15-20, coherent at the axis. Styles spreading like a star, white; ripe carpels enclosed in the greatly enlarged and thickened sepals which are 1 in. thick and strongly imbricate the whole forming a large green globose pomiform fruit, 5-6 in. diam. Actual fruit 2½ in. diam. Pericarp thin, indehiscent. Seeds numerous, compressed with a hairy margin.

Uses:—The juice of the fruit, mixed with sugar and water, is used as a cooling beverage in fevers, and as a cough mixture. The bark and the leaves are astringent, and are used medicinally. The fruit is slightly laxative, but is apt to induce diarrhœa, if too freely indulged in. .

The fruit gives a lather with water, says Trimen, and is used as a soap.

Mr. T. P. Ghose of Dehra Dun writes in the Indian Forester for August 1914:—

The fresh ripe fruits were taken and the upper layers of calyces were separated from the inner kernels which consisted mostly of pectous matter of a jelly-like consistence. The kernels being rejected, the calyces were crushed and steeped in 90 per cent. alcohol for six months in a drum with occasional shaking. The alcohol was then filtered off and the residue was pressed almost dry, and this alcohol was added to the first and the whole evaporated off under reduced pressure. The alcoholic extract was finally dried at 100° C. for further examination.

The composition of the calyces of the fresh ripe fruits as was follows:—

The aqueous extract was made after having extracted the calyces with alcohol, which thus represents only pectous matters, etc., left in the insoluble tissues after alcoholic extraction. The alcoholic extract examined qualitatively showed the presence of tannin glucose, malic acid and pectous bodies. Malic