Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/740

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Syn. :— M. bracteata, Roxb. 182.

Sans. : — Achchhuka.

Vern.-.—Al (H); Ach, Aich, Achhu (B.); Al ; Bârtondi, nâgakuda, aseti (Bomb.) ; Munja-pavattay ; Noona-maram (Tam.) ; Cada pilva (Mal.) ; Molagha; Maddichetton (Tel.)

Var: — Bracteata, hurdi, huldi kunj, rouch (B.)

Habitat : — Cultivated and wild (?) throughout the hotter parts of India.

A large shrub or small tree, glabrous, trunk straight, bark smooth, branches obtusely 4-angled. Leaves shining, usually 6-10in., broadly elliptic, acuminate, acute or obtuse short-petioled, one of the pair next to the peduncle often suppressed. Stipules large, broadly oblong or semilunar, entire or 2-3-fid, glabrous. Peduncles solitary, rarely 2-3-nate at the ends of the branches, usually in the axils of every other pair of leaves, lin. long or more, supporting leaf not developed. Flowers 5-merous. Calyx-limb truncate. Corolla white, tube ½in. or less. Lobes glabrous, fusiform in bud, throat pubescent. Anthers partly exserted. Fruit of many drupes coalescent into a fleshy globose or ovoid head, pale, greenish-white, lin. diam.

Use : — The charred leaves made into a decoction with mustard are a favourite domestic remedy for infantile diarrhœa. The unripe berries, charred and mixed with salt, are applied successfully to spongy gums ^Watt's Dictionary).

The Cochin Chinese believe the fruit to be deobstruent and emmenagogue (Ainslie.) The expressed juice of leaves is externally applied to gout, to relieve pain (Drury). In Bombay, the leaves are used as a healing application to wounds and ulcers, and are administered internally as a tonic and febrifuge (Dymock).

The root is used as a cathartic (Watt)

The oil is of a yellowish color, with a Sp. Gr. of 0.927 at 13°C. It is cloudy, owing to the separation from it of small crystals, which, recrystallised from alcohol, melt at 60° C, and, upon analysis, are shown to consist of paraffins. When freed from the crystals, the oil is almost entirely soluble in dilute caustic soda. In the solution capronic and caprylic acids as well as a trace of higher