Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/191

Rh In otorrhœa, the use of an oil has been recommended in Sanskrit medicine, prepared by boiling a paste made of the root-bark with sesamun oil (Dutt).

The Gonds employ a decoction of the bark as a discutient application to rheumatic swellings. The powder and infusion of the bark are diaphoretic, and useful in acute rheumatism (I. M. G., 1895, p. m).

Powder made from the bark along with hurdi, is a useful cure for the sore-backs of horses (Gamble).

Seeds purgative (J. J. Wood's Plants of Chutia Nagpur, p. 125).

Chemical composition. — The bark has been examined by W. A. H. Naylor and E. M. Chaplin with the following results : —

A. One pound of the bark reduced to line powder was percolated to exhaustion with cold petroleum ether. The ether was distilled off, and the residue, which weighed about 1.8 gram, possessed the characters of a soft greenish-brown fat, having an acid reaction and a slightly acrid taste. It was treated successively with ether and proof spirit, the former removed vegetable wax, which was subsequently identified as such after re-solution in limited quantities of ether and separation thereform. The latter on evaporation gave a brownish-yellow residue small in quantity and crystalline. When further purified by extraction with ether and the ethereal residue by benzol it was golden yellow, unctuous to the touch, and pronouncedly acrid. Under the microscope it presented the appearance of long, wavy, branching crystals, which dissolved readily in alcohol, chloroform ether, petroleum ether, and benzol.

B. The marc was next percolated with cold ether. After distilling off the greater portion of the ether, and allowing the remainder to evaporate spontaneously, a yellow mass studded with minute interlacing crystals was obtained, which when airdried weighed about 4 grams. This product was treated with boiling proof spirit and filtered while hot ; on cooling small yellow crystals fell out of solution. When quite cold the crop of crystals was collected and subjected to the action of boiling petroleum ether until freed from every trace of fat. It was then crystallized from boiling proof spirit until it had a constant melting point, and was no longer contaminated with uncrystallizable matter. The resulting crystals were dried under the receiver of an air-pump, and when constant weighed 0.9 gram. They were of a lemon yellow colour, about ⅓ inch in length, and melted at 228.5°— 229° C. Alcohol, ether, glacial acetic acid, and hot benzol dissolved them readily, but they were practically insoluble in water hot or cold. The following reactions in connection with this interesting body have been noted, of which the most striking is its behaviour with the caustic alkalies. A minute quantity brought into contact with one drop of a weak solution of sodium potassium or ammonium