Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/474

394 adiaî (Garo.) ; Amara (Nepal) ; Kouchiling (Lepcha) ; Kat, Amboham (Mal. S. P.) ; Ambuda (Uriya) ; Ambera (Kurku) ; Hamara (Coond) ; Amra, amurs, bohamle, amara, amabara (Kumaon), (Bahamo) ; Ambara (P. B.) ; Ran-amb, jungli am (Deccan) ; Ambada, jangli-am, ambada, amra amarah, (Bomb.) ; Ro amba, ambada (Mar.) ; Kat-maa, rhanamb, mariman, chedi, katmora, Ampullai (Tam.) ; Puîîlle, kaders ambala chettupita, briksh, amnivuru, mamidi, amatum, adivio-mamadie toura mamidi (Tel.) ; Amte, ambatte mara, amate, pundi (Kan). Corre, kyorœ (Burm) ; Æmbcrælla (Sing,); Darakhte-moryam (Pers.).

Habitat. — Throughout India, from the Indus eastwards and southwards to Molacca and Ceylon.

A large, glabrous, deciduous tree. Bark smooth, aromatic grey, with short shallow, longitudinal wrinkles. Wood soft, light grey. Leaves 1-1½ft. ; petiole slender. Leaflets 3-5 pair, quite entire, elliptic-oblong, acuminate 2-9 by 1-4 in., shortly petiolulate, shining, more or less oblique ; secondary nerves nearly straight, 10-20 pair, joined at the ends by a prominent nerve, running along and close to the edge of the leaf-blade. Flowers pentamerous, white, nearly sessile, clustered on stout ramifications of a sparingly-branched, terminal panicle, polygamous, nearly sessile. Calyx 5-toothed, deciduous. Petals 5, about 1/10 in. long, oblong, greenish white, spreading. Disk cupular, crenate. Stamens 10, inserted below the disk ; filaments subulate, shorter than the petals ; anthers versatile. Ovary sessile, free. Carpels 4-5 distinct in flower, coalescing into a single stone in the carpels. Drupe l½-2 in. long, ovoid or oblong, fleshy, smooth, acid and rose- scented, yellow when ripe. Putamen fibrous and filled with cavities outside. Seeds 2-5, of which only one is perfect.

Parts used. — The fruit, bark, leaves and gum.

Use. — The pulp of the fruit is acid and astringent, and is considered useful in bilious dyspepsia (Dymock). The bark is sometimes used as a refrigerant medicine (T. N. Mukerji). It is also useful in dysentery ; and the juice of the leaves is used for ear-ache (Atkinson).