Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/455

Rh Parts used : — The fruit, kernel, leaves, flower, bark and gum.

Use :— The smoke of the burning leaves is supposed to have a curative effect in some affections of the throat. According to the author of the Makhzan, the Hindus make a confection of the unripe fruit mixed with sugar, which, in times of plague or cholera, they take internally and rub all over the body ; it is also stated in the same work that the midribs of the leaves calcined are used to remove warts on the eyelids. Ainslie says that the gum-resin, mixed with lime-juice or oil, is used in scabies and cutaneous affections. The juice of the ripe fruits dried in the sun, so as to form thin cakes, Amras or Amwaat (Hind.), Ambapuri, Âmbipoli (Bom.), Amsatta (Beng.), is used as a relish and antiscorbutic (Dymock).

A resin obtained from the bark of the tree is considered anti-syphilitic (Murray).

Resinous juice mixed with the white of an egg and a little Opium, is considered a good specific on the Malabar Coast for diarrhœa and dysentery (Ainslie).

The unripe fruit is said to be useful in ophthalmia and eruptions, and the seeds in asthma.

The rind of the fruit is astringent and also a stimulant tonic in debility of the stomach.

The ripe fruit is considered laxative, and therefore much prized by persons labouring under habitual constipation. The bark and kernel are known as astringent and used in hæmorrhage, diarrhœa and other discharges. The decoction of the kernel, either alone or in combination with bel and ginger, is generally prescribed in diarrhœa. The juice of the kernel, if snuffed, can stop nasal bleeding. The kernel is also described in the Indian Pharmacopoeia as an anthelmintic and containing a large quantity of gallic acid, highly useful in bleeding piles and menorrhagia.

Mango bark and fruit have been lately introduced by Dr. Linguist as a medicine in Europe ; he recommends it for its extraordinary action in cases of hæmorrhage from the uterus, lungs or intestines (Dymoek).