Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/21

Rh base cuneate. Main lateral nerves 9-12 pair, slender, with glands at their axils on either side of midrib. Petiole ½-1in. long. Flowers cream-coloured, in terminal or lateral compound trichotomous cymes. Calyx, four toothed. Corolla deeply divided ; lobes 1/10-⅛in - long, elliptic. Anthers large. Ovary glabrate. Drupe ½in. long, ovoid, somewhat oblique, acute at apex; endocarp bony.

Use : — The bark and leaves are astringent and used as an antiperiodic in fevers (Atkinson).



Vern. :— Arák (Arab.) ; Darakhte-misvak (Pers.) ; Kabbar, kharidjar, pilu (Sind.) ; Jhál (Rajputana); Kaurivan, jhár (Pb.) ; Kharjál (H). Opa, ughai, kár kol, kalarva (Tam.) ; Waragu-wenki ; Ghoonia (Tel.) ; Pilu (Mar.) ; Khikan (Bom.).

Habitat : — India in the drier climates from the Punjab and Sindh to Patna. The Circars, North Ceylon.

A small glabrous evergreen tree, with usually a short and crooked trunk. Branches many, drooping, terete, glabrous, whitish-yellow. Bark thin, wood white, soft. Leaves, ovate or oblong, obtuse, 1¾ by ½ in. ; some-what fleshy. Petiole ½in. Panixllary or terminal, compound, 2-5 in., numerous in the upper axils. Flowers greenish white, scattered, pedicelled. Calyx 1/20in. loves ovate. Corolla 1/10 almost 5-partite. Filaments short, anthers ovate. Drupe or Berry red, smooth, ½ in. diam., scattered ; tastes of mustard. Flowers all the year.

Parts used: — The fruit; bark; shoots; leaves; juice, and roots.

Uses:— In Persian works on medicine, the fruit is described as deobstruent, carminative, and diuretic.(Dymock.) It is said to be administered in Sind with good effect in cases of snakebite, and to be used both in the fresh and in the dried state, although in the latter it loses much of its efficacy, and has to be administered in considerably larger doses and combined with borax. 