Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/202

122 stem and main branches. Branches slender and flexuous. Bark ¼ in., thick, grey, smooth. Wood hard, close-grained, yellow or light-brown. Pores very small, in radial lines. Medullary rays white, very numerous and prominent (Gamble). Leaves bifarious, coriaceous, oblong or linear-oblong, abruptly acuminate, quite entire, shining above; largest 6-10 by 3-4 in., strongly reticulate beneath; petiole ¼-1 in. long. Flowers sweet-scented, yellowish, in large fascicles on the trunk, solitary or a few together in the leaf-axils, diœous, very variable in size, ⅓-2 in. diam.; the females largest. Peduncles 1-3 in. Bracts basal, minute. Calyx coriaceous, cup-shaped, 5-toothed. Petals 5, with a ciliate scale at the base of each male flower. Stamens numerous, filaments woolly, anthers basifixed, linear. Female flowers: staminodes 10-15, villous. Ovary 1-celled, styles 5, stigma large, cordate; ovules numerous, on 5 parictal placentas. Fruit globose, 3-5 in. diam.; rind thick, hard, rough. Seeds 1 in. long, obovoid, immersed in pulp. Cotyledons flat, in oily albumen.

Uses : — It is officinal in the Indian Pharmacopœia. The oil has been very successfully used in leprosy.

" It has been very favorably reported on in many medical publications, especially as a remedy for leprosy, psoriasis, eczema, scrofula, phthisis, lupus, marasmus, chronic rheumatism, and gout. The preparations most in repute in Europe are the pure oil, gynocardic acid, and an ointment prepared from the oil.* * * Perhaps the most satisfactory and trustworthy results have been those obtained in the treatment of chronic and acut eczema, and other forms of skin disease" (Watt.)

Prior to 1900 it was believed that the " chaulmoogra oil " was obtained from its seeds. But now it is known that, that oil is obtained from the seeds of Taruktogenos Kurzii. Chaulmoogra oil, at the ordinary temperature, is a solid (m. p. 22-23°) the oil from the seeds of Gynocardia odorata is a liquid. Furthermore, Chaulmoogra oil is optically active and consists chiefly of the glycerylesters of members of the Chaulmoogric acid series, whereas the oil from gynocardia seeds is opticially inactive, and contains neither Chaulmoogric acid nor its homologues. Gynocardia oil consists of the glycerylesters of the following acids:— (1) linolic acid, or isomerides of the same series, consisturing the largest proportion of the oil; (2) palmitic acid, in considerable amount; (3) linolenic