Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/130

50 cordate, glabrous, thin, acute or acuminate. Petiole l$1⁄2$-3 in., slender, thickened and curved at base. Flowers greenish-yellow, or yellow, large for the order, $3⁄4$ in. diam. Males in clusters of 1-6 on slender branches of a drooping panicle exceeding the leaves. Females in shorter racemes, solitary. Male-flower:—stamens, free, but wrapped in the petals. Female flower:—Stigma dilated, laciniate, Ovaries 3. Drupe of 1-3, ripe carpels size of pea, somewhat ovoid, apiculate, smooth, red, succulent. Endocarp smooth. Seed generally curved round the intruded endocarp.

Uses:—The following pharmaceutical preparations can be made of the plant:—

1. Tincture of Gulwel.—Take 4 ounces of the stem, not very young and thin, nor very old and thick, but of medium age and size, together with the aerial roots (Kanjilal); cut into thin slices, and steep them in a pint of proof-spirit for seven days and press out of a Tincture-press. Dose 1-2 drachms.

2. Cold Infusion.—Take one ounce of the stem, as directed above, cut into thin slices, steep them in ten ounces of cold water for four hours, and strain. Dose 1-3 ounces.

3. Extract of Gulwel.—The well-grown stem is sliced finely and bruised in cold water, well steeped in it for four hours and then kept on a slow fire, until it thickens into a semi-solid or almost pliable mass. Dose 5-15 grains.

4. Gulwel "Satwa," which means the separation of the solid parts, principally the Starch. Slices of a well-formed stem are finely pounded into a pulp with water and strained. The water so strained is allowed to remain in a pan, undisturbed. Much white powdery matter will, after a time, deposit at the bottom of the pan. The supernatant water is removed and the deposit allowed to dry in the air or in the sun, but never heated on fire. Pandit Jaya Krishna Indraji says that, as soon as the deposit settles, the sooner it is dried the better, The quantity thus obtained is small, but clear white. If the mashed product, together with the water, be left over-night, the deposit, after settling down, turns blackish, although a larger quantity of the starch and other solids is obtained from the sediment. Dose