Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/446

366 sappy, whitish or pale bluish edible, delicious, sweet arillus, with a fine rosy smell ; juice refreshing.

Uses : — In China the leaves are stated to be officinal as a remedy for the bites of animals (Duthie in Watt's Dictionary).

Vern. : — Ashphal (B.) ; Wumb, wumb-ashphal (Bomb.) ; Vomb (Mar.) ; Púvati, Nuraí. (Tam.) ; Malahcota, Kanakindali (Kan.); Kayetmauk (Lower Burma) ; Tawthayet (Upper Burma) ; Mora, Rasamora (Sinhalese).

Habitat: — Westside of the Peninsula, from the Konkan southwards. Khasi Hills. Burma.

Cultivated in N. India, Ceylon, Malaya Peninsula, Himalaya, from the Jhelum to Bhutan. Dehra Dun.

A large evergreen tree, attaining 50ft. Bark smooth, yellowish grey. Wood red, moderately hard. Leaves paripinnate, 4-18in. Leaflets 4-10 (2-5 pair) opposite, alternate usually rather obtuse at both ends, glabrous above, sub-glaucescent, glabrous or nearly so, marked with lateral veins beneath, wavy, entire, base oblique. Panicles ample, rusty pubescent. Flowers monoecious fin. across. Calyx tomentose, segments 5-6, narrowly imbricate. Petals pubescent, spathulate, as long as Calyx. Stamens 6-10 ; in the male flower long-exserted, in the hermaphrodite flower, as long as Calyx ; filaments hairy near base. Anthers glabrous, ovary 2-3-lobed, hairy. Carpel usually one, ovoid or globose, nearly smooth, yellowish-red, ¾in. diam. Seed entirely enclosed by the succulent sweet edible arillus.

Use : — In China the fruit is reputed to be nutrient, stomachic and anthelmintic (Duthie l. c.)

The seed of the following plant belonging to this genus has been chemically analysed.

The percentage composition of the ground seed is as follows. Water, 5.87 ; fat, soluble in ether and petroleum 35.07 ; ether extractive matter, insoluble in petroleum, 3.00 ; ash, 1.95 ; albumin, 8.89. Crude fibre, 6.90; starch, 25.63 ; sugar, 1.25. The fats consist of the triglycerides of arachic and oleic acids, together with a very small quantity of the triglyceride of stearic acid —J. Ch. S. LXX, pt. II. (1896), p. 209.