Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/171

Rh stalk contains 0.49 per cent., the leaf 0*9 pep cent., and the seed capsule 0.585 per cent, of alkaloid.

Previous to the outbreak of the present war not only was a large proportion of the drug grown in Germany but German chemists practically held a monopoly for the manufacture of the alkaloid.

If then the supply of this substance falls short of the demand, English manufacturing chemists can obtain an adequate supply of the raw material from Northern India, for the plant can be exported in the dry state without impairing its value for alkaloidal manufacture.— J. H. Barnes.) The Agricultural Journal of India, January, 1916 pp. 86-88.

Vern. : — Khorasani Ajowan (H.).

Habitat. : —Baluchistan. It grows abundantly in Quetta.

It differs from the species mentioned above in having a prickly stem, flowering bordering on purple and a black seed.

Use : — It is used like other species of Hyoscyamus, for it contains Hyoscyamine.

Seeds, 0.082; whole plant (1), 0.240, (2) 0.116 per cent, of total alkaloid. Hyoxyamine was the only alkaloid that was identified.— [Bull. Imp. Inst. 1911].

Vern. : — Tamâkú (Hind.) ; Tanbak (Arab.) ; Tanbâku (Pers.) ; Támák (Beng.) ; Támrakúta (Sans.) ; Tamákú, tamáqú (Dec); Pugai-ilai (Tam.) ; Pogáku, dhúmrapatramu (Tel.) ; Puka-yila, pokala (Mal.) ; Hôgesappu (Kan .) ; Tamáku (Guz.) ; Dungazha, dimkola (Cingh.) ; Sé (Burm.) ; Tambâkhu (Bom.).

Habitat : — Cultivated throughout India.

Erect, viscidly-pubescent herbs, shrubs or trees. Leaves sinuate entire, large, oblong, elliptic ; base cuneate, corymb compound, ultimate branches short. Panicles terminal, or racemes compound subterminal. Calyx ovoid or tubular, 5-fid. Calyx-teeth triangular-lanceolate. Corolla linear funnel-shaped. Corolla lobes 5, in duplicate in bud. Stamens attached in the lower part of the Corolla-tube, filaments filiform ; anther ovate, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary 2-celled ; style filiform, stigma shortly 2-fid. Capsule ¾in. 2-rarely sub-4 celled, 2-valved to the