Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/521

Rh ¼in. thick, fibrous, grey, exfoliating in small irregular pieces ; exuding from cut and fissures a red juice which, hardens into a ruby-coloured gum similar to Kino. Wood grey or grey brown, white or brown, if cut up fresh and quickly seasoned, soft and durable (Gamble). Trunk crooked and irregular. Young shoots densely pubescent. Leaves large, rachis 5-8in., slender, pubescent when young, swollen at base. Stipules small, linear-lanceolate, deciduous. Leaflets 4-8in., unequal, the terminal the largest and rhomboidal, orbicular, the lateral ones ovate-oval, dilated in lower half, all very obtuse, glabrous above when mature, closely and finely tomentose, and with much raised reticulation beneath. Flowers large, l½-2in. on velvety drooping pedicels, ¾-lin. long, 2-3 together from the swollen nodes of rigid stout racemes coming off from woody tuberosities. Bracts small, deciduous Calyx finely velvety outside, lined with white, silvery hair. Segments acute. Keel very deeply boat-shaped, acute. Pod pendulous, 5-8in., by about ¾in. wide, on a densely, woody stalk, ¾in. long, obtuse, thickened at sutures, leathery, transversely veined, densely but finely pubescent, especially at end. Seed l¼in., flat, broadly oval, smooth reddish-brown. Flowers orange-scarlet, very silvery outside, with silky hair, so that the buds are white.

Uses : — The Gum. — This is known as Bengal or Butea Kino. Nearly the whole of the so-called Kino of our bazaars is this substance. Dr. Waring (in his Bazaar Medicines, p. 31) remarks that this is of little moment, since it appears to be equally effectual. He says : " It is an excellent astringent, similar to catechu, but being mild in operation it is better adapted for children and delicate females. The dose of the powdered gum is 10 to 30 grains, with a few grains of cinnamon." The addition of a little opium increases the efficacy.

The fresh juice is used in phthisis and hæmorrhagic affections. It is also employed as an application to ulcers and relaxed sore- throats. As an astringent, it is given in diarrhœa and dyspepsia, In the Concan, it is prescribed for fevers. " The use of the gum as an external astringent application is mentioned by Chakradatta ; it is directed to be combined with