Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/441

Rh ritha (Dec.) ; Ponnauga, ponâu-kottai, pureandi, puvanti (Tam.) ; Kunkudu chettu, kukudû, koukudu, kukudu-koyalu, kukudu- Kayalu, Neykkoddaû, Pannalaw (Tel.) ; Autala, artala, thalog morathu, kukate-kayi, kugate, auta wala, puvella, punerai gaspenela, Penela (Sing.).

Eng. : — The Soap-nut Tree.

Habitat :— Common about the villages in South India and cultivated in Bengal, Ceylon, Bombay. Baroda city, in the Lakshmi Vilas Palace gardens.

A large tree. Bark shining, grey, with rough, deciduous scales. Wood yellow, hard. Leaves 5-12 in. (usually) ; normally abruptly pinnate. Leaflets 2-3 pair, elliptic, generally obtuse and somewhat emarginate, at times acute, those of the terminal pair longest, 3-7in., glabrous or especially beneath, pubescent, with short curved or stellate hairs ; base obtuse, petioles short. Inflorescence rusty-pubscent, in terminal panicles. Calyx rusty pubescent. Flowers 1/6-1/5 in. long, white, hairy, greenish-white (Trimen). Sepals 5 elliptic, obtuse. Petals 4-5, narrower, oblong or lanceolate without scales, or with two tufts of white hair (Brandis ; " scale of the petals membranous, pilose, ciliate," says Hiern. Disk concave, edge fleshy, hirsute. Stamens 8, anthers oblong, spiculate. Ovary hairy densely rusty, tomentose. Fruit 2-3-lobed fleshy. Drupes slightly united, ½ -¾ in. long, at length glaucescent, saponaceous. There are two forms of this tree usually regarded as distinct species, corresponding to ValiTs names, one with acuminate, glabrous leaves, the other with emarginate leaves, pubescent beneath.

Part used : — The fruit.

Uses : — The fruit is described in the Makhzan-ul-Adwiya, as hot, dry, tonic and alexipharmic. Four grains in wine or sherbet cure colic ; one miskal rubbed in water until it soaps, and then strained, may be given to people who have been bitten by venomous reptiles, and to those suffering from diarrhœa or cholera. Three or four grains may be given by the nose in all kinds of fits producing insensibility. Fumigations with it are useful in hysteria and melancholia. Externally,