Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/358

278 sugar, and heat it till it acquires the consistency of a thick syrup. When the syrup is prepared from the pulp of the large or cultivated variety of bael-fruit, the quantity of sugar required is only ten ounces.

" Doses. — Of the powder, as a remedy in dysentery, from twenty to forty-five grains ; and for all other purposes, from ten to twenty grains ; four, five or six times in the twenty-four hours. Of the syrup, from four fluid drachms to one fluid ounce every third or fourth hour. The small or common variety of bael fruit being, as a medicine, stronger than the larger or cultivated variety, the dose of its powder should always be less than that of the latter by one-third..

" Remarks. — There are two varieties of Male Marmelos, the small or common, and the large or cultivated. There is no distinct difference between the medical properties of both varieties, except that the fruit of the small or common variety, which is described in every botanical work in this country, is much stronger, as a drug, than that of the large or cultivated variety. The large or cultivated variety differs from the small or common one in the following points : —

" Generally free from spines ; leaflets broadly and abruptly acuminate, instead of oblong or broadly lanceolate, and when bruised, have an agreeable and aromatic odor ; fruit eatable and delicious when quite ripe, almost invariably globular, generally two or three times larger than that of the small or common variety, and sometimes attains the size of a small child's head.

" The pulp of the ripe and half-ripe fruit of both varieties is the best and most useful part of the plant for medicinal purposes. The pulp should be removed from the rind before the fruit is dry, cut into small pieces and dried in the sun. The pulp of the ripe fruit of the large variety is, first, of flesh color, but gradually becomes dark-brown ; it has an agreeable and aromatic odour and a terebinthinate and sweetish taste. It is not destroyed by keeping. However old it may be, if soaked in water for some hours, it becomes as soft as it is when fresh, and still retains its characteristic smell and taste.