Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/186

106 Habitat: — Hot Western Himalayan Valleys eastward to Nepal, Sindh, the Punjab, and Western Peninsula in the Mahabaleswar hills.

A diffuse, prostrate or trailing shrub. Buds long; green branches and young shoots pubescent or covered with soft caducous white, green or yellowish tomentum. Stipulary thorns yellow, hooked or nearly straight. Leaves orbicular or broadly ovate, entire, mucronate, 1-2 in. diam.; petioles 3/10 in. long. Flowers 1-3 in. across, white, large showy, axillary solitary; pedicels 1-2 in. long, thickened in fruit; filaments long, slender, purple. Ovary on a slender, filiform gynophore. Fruit 1-3 in. long, many-seeded, oblong, ribbed on a stout gynophore, bent downwards when ripe, irregularly dehiscent, crimson inside; seeds numerous, uniform.

Parts used:—The root and root- bark.

Uses:—The author of the Makkzan-ul-Advia considers the root-bark to be hot and dry and to act as a detergent and astringent, expelling cold humours; it is therefore recommended in palsy, dropsy, and gouty and rheumatic affections; the juice of the fresh plant is directed to be dropped into the ear to kill worms, just as Cleome juice is used in India; all parts of the plants are said to have a stimulating and astringent effect when applied locally (Dymock). In Kangra, the macerated roots are applied to sores (Stewart). Ainslie notices its use as an external application to malignant ulcers.

"The dried bark of the root is considered diuretic, and was formerly employed in obstructions of the liver and spleen, amenorrhœa, and chronic rheumatism." (United States Dispensatory).

The flower buds contain caper-quercitrin, having the formula C27H30O16. On hydrolysis, this yields caper-quercetin C13H12O7, in addition to glucose and isodulcitol. The amount of sugar formed on hydrolysis is as follows:—

Sugar as isodulcite, Quercetin, per cent. per cent. Caper-quercitrin ... ... 56.73 ... 49.61 J. Ch. 8. LXVI, pt. I. (1894), p. 299,