Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/107

Rh male larger, laxer, terminal, and on short lateral branches. But very near, globose. Calyx ⅛-1/6in. at flower time, soon much accrescent, tubular campanulate, lobes very short. Corolla- tube 1/10-⅛in. tube hairy within. Stamens exserted, filaments hairy below. Stigmas with long linear lobes. Fruit drupe, ½-1in. long ; when ripe yellowish brown, pink or nearly black, shining, but minutely rugose ; endocarp rugose, very hard in a sweetish viscid, but translucent pulp, edible. Brand is says the pulp is transparent, but it is not quite so. C. B. Clarke calls the fruit a berry, yellow or pinkish, nearly always 1-seeded. Kanjilal says the Drupe is yellow, and glossy when ripe. The fruiting Calyx is ¾in. diam., wide funnel-shaped, more or less distinctly striated longitudinally (Sebestin).

Uses : — According to Sanskrit writers, the bark is useful in calculous affections, strangury and catarrh, The ripe fruits are sweet, cooling and demulcent (U. C. Dutt).

The fruits were, in European practice, in considerable repute as an emollient and demulcent, especially in affections of the lungs and genito-urinary organs, but now have fallen into disuse. In doses of from ten to twelve drachms the pulp acts as a laxative. The bark, according to Horsfield (Asiat. Journ, 1819), is one of the chief remedies of the Javanese, who employ it in fevers, &c. It is, apparently, a mild tonic (Ph. Ind.).

Teeth are rubbed with the bark to strengthen them. Pickles are prepared from the fruit. The bark contains a large amount of tannic acid (B. D. Basu).

The kernels are a good remedy in ringworm. The leaves are useful as an application to ulcers and in headache (Baden - Powell).

The juice of the bark, along with cocoanut oil, is given in gripes. The bark and also the unripe fruit are used as a mild tonic (Atkinson). The Santals use a powder of the bark as an external application in prurigo (Revd. A. Campbell).

Syn. :— C. latifolia, Roxb. 189.