Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/639

Rh Boktok (Lepcha) ; Dambel (Garo.); Pailpûta tammi (Tam.); Kumbir (Santal) ; Asunda (Kol.) ; Budâ-durmi, buda darini ; dudippi (Tel.); Kaval (Kan.) ; Govuldu (Mysore).

Habitat. — Throughout India, from the Himalaya to Travan- core and Tenasserim.

A large, deciduous tree, turning red in the cold season. Bark ½in. thick, dark-grey, with vertical and diagonal cracks, exfoliating in narrow flakes ; linear substance reddish, fibrous. Wood moderately hard ; sap wood whitish large ; heart wood dull red, sometimes claret-coloured, very dark in old trees ; even- grained (Gamble). Leaves membranous, obovate, narrowed into a short marginate petiole, crenate ; secondary nerves prominent, 10-12 pair. Flowers 2-4in. across, sessile, with an unpleasant smell, each supported by 3 unequal bracts ; a few flowers clustered at the end of branchlets ; petals white or greenish white, l-2in. long, filaments purple ; ovules in 2 rows in each cell. Fruit green, globose, fleshy, 2-3in. diam., crowned by the persistent calyx-segments and the remains of the long slender style.

Parts used. — The bark, flowers, juice and fruit.

Uses. — The bark is used as an astringent medicine by the natives. " The bark is applied to the wound in snake-bite and an infusion of the same is given internally" (Rev. A. Campbell, Mânbhum).

The flowers are given in Sindh as a tonic after child-birth (Murray.) In Bombay the natives use the flowers as well as the juice of fresh bark with honey as a demulcent in coughs and colds (Dymock).

The fruit is also astringent and used as a decoction to promote digestion (S. Arjun, 55). It is also pickled by Banyas of Gujrat.

" A miner who was at work in some gold fields in Australia, poisoned his hand, and a bad ulcer formed on the knuckle of one of his fingers. Ordinary treatment having proved useless, Dr. Armitt, F. L. S., tried, at the recommendation of a native, some leaves of the Careya made into a pulp and used as a poultice four times a day. In five days the ulcer had disappeared.