Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/23

Rh Corolla as long as or a little longer than the Calyx, lobes obovate-oblong, reflexed. Stamens exserted. Drupe — yellow when ripe reddish brown when dry, clustered, ½ in., often touching each other.

Uses : — The oil obtained from the seeds by expression, is used as a stimulating application in painful rheumatic affections and after child-birth. The root-bark is used as a vesicant. (Dymock.)

The leaves Rasuna resemble the lanceolate senna, and are purgative. (Honnigberger.)

The fruit is sweet in taste, and is supposed by the natives of the Punjab to have aphrodisiac properties. The fruits eaten singly are said to cause tingling and small ulcers of the mouth, hence people prefer to eat them by handfuls, seeds and all, and the latter are apt to accumulate in masses in the sigmoid flexure of the intestines and lead to disagreeable results. (Stewart.)

The leaves are made into a decoction and given as a purgative to horses. (Watt.)

The seeds yield 44-6 per cent, of a hard, bright, yellow fat, having a faint slightly unpleasant odour and the following characters: sp. gr, at 99° -150°c, 0.867; acid value, 9.3. saponif value 254.2; iodine value, 5.9; solid if pt. of fatty acids (titer test), 304°e. (approx) ; m. pt. 38 c c. The fat could he used in the manufacture of candles, and if freed from its unpleasant odour and taste might be of use in the preparation of vegetable butter and "chocolate fats." —J. Ch. I. May 15, 1913, p. 496.

The following chemical and physical constants were obtained with the commercial fat : Specific gravity at 50°, 0.9084 : melting point, 41° ; acid value, 11.26; saponification value, 242.36 ; iodine value, 7.48; Reichert-Meissl value, 1.28. Fatty acids : per cent. 94.12 ; melting point, 40° ; iodine value, 8.3 ; neutralisation value, 244.42.

The oil of S. persica has similar properties. The oil-cake contains nitrogen 4.8, potash 2.8, and phosphoric anhydride 1.05 per cent. (Hooper).

Syn. : — Monetia barlerioides, D'Herit. Roxb. 716.

Sans. : — Kundali.

Vern. :— Kántagúr-kamai (Hind.); Trikanta-gati (Beng.); Sukkápát (Dec); Sung-elley (Tam.); Tella-upi (Tel.); Sungelley or sung-ilai, changan-chedi, muttu-chengan-chedi, nallo-changan-chedi (Tam.) ; Uppiaku (Tel.).