Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/267

Rh Habitat: — Tropical shores of Bengal and both peninsulas, Ceylon.

A middle-sized, evergreen, rapid-growing tree. Heartwood small, dark red, smooth ; sapwood soft. Leaves cordate, acuminate, entire on both sides, with minute, peltate scales ; blade 3-5 in., petiole 1-4 in. Flowers axillary, solitary or 2 together. Bracteoles none, or early deciduous. Calyx cup-shaped, truncate. Corolla yellow, passing into purplish pink when withering, 2 in. diam. Capsule dehiscent or indehiscent ; 1½ in., oblong, depressed, scaly, ultimately glabrescent. Seeds silky, pilose or powdery on the surface (Maxwell T. Masters).

Parts used : — The bark, fruit, seeds, flowers, root and leaves.

Uses : — The fruit yields a yellow, viscid juice, which forms a valuable local application in scabies and other cutaneous diseases in South India. The affected parts of the body are daily washed with a decoction of the bark (Watt). Ainslie says that a decoction of the bark is given internally as an alterative.

Dr. Waring tried it in scabies and other cutaneous diseases; in some cases, it exercised a favourable influence, but in the majority it was productive of little or no benefit.

In Tahiti, the fresh capsules, bruised and applied to the forehead are said to cure migraine ; the yellow sap exuding from the peduncles is considered a cure for the bites of insects, especially .of the centipede ; it is also useful in sprains, bruises, and all cutaneous affections. In Mauritius, the bark is described as depurative, as used in dysentery, hæmorrhoids ; the juice of the fruits being applied to warts." Christy's N. C. P., No. x., p. 43.

Rumphius speaks highly of the value of heartwood as a remedy for bilious attacks and colic, and in a kind of pleurodynia from which the Malayas often suffer.

In the Central Provinces, the root is taken as a tonic.

In the Concan, the flowers are employed in the cure of itch ; and the leaves are employed as a local application to inflamed and swollen joints (Dymock).