Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/243

Rh Chemical composition.— The root-bark of this plant afforded a yellowish-brown powder giving an orange-brown tincture with alcohol. The tincture when evaporated left a reddish coloured tasteless resin and some extractive matter. The resin was soluble in ether and in alkaline liquors; from the latter solution it was precipitated in greyish-brown nocks by acids. Warmed with soda, the resin evolved an odour of lemon similar to that of Kamala resin; heated with sulphuric acid a transient purple colour was developed and a fragrant odour evolved. It showed no disposition to crystallize. The watery solution of the alcoholic extract had a sweetish taste in small quantities and was nauseous in larger quantities. It contained a bitterish amorphous alkaloid, a substance reducing Fehling's solution, and an astringent body, striking a green colour with ferric chloride, but giving no precipitates with gelatine. The alkaloid gave no distinct colour reactions with the strong mineral acids.

Vern. : — Naguru-Chettu (Tel.) ; Pedanganeree, Kollay-Cotlay wellag (Tam.).

Habitat: — Deccan peninsula and Ceylon, frequent ; from the Circars and Central Provinces southward.

A tree, often 50ft. ; branchlets densely stellate-woolly. Leaves 6 by 3½in., base rounded or subcordate, coriaceous, minutely glandular scabrous above, nerves 7 pair ; petiole lin. Corymbs ¾in. diam., often sessile, upper branches (or nearly all) alternate ; bracts⅓ in., linear. Calyx 1/11in., stellately woolly Corolla ⅛-1/6 in. ,2 lipped, hairy in the throat, greenish-yellow. Drupe ⅓in. diam., deciduously hairy, ovoid, 3-1- seeded.

An aromatic oil is obtained from the root, and used as a remedy in disorders of the stomach (Trimen).

Var. — Mucronata Roxb., h.f.b.i. iv., 578 ; Roxb. 485.

Vern. : — Bakar, bakarcha, basóta agniúm (Hind.); Agniú (Kumaun) ; Ban, khar, gián (Pb.).

Habitat : — N. India, from Kumaon to Bhotan and the Khasia Hills., also common in Bengal Plains.

Uses :— Dr. P. S. Mootooswamy states that the leaves are diuretic, and are given internally and applied externally in dropsy. An infusion of 10 drachms of the leaves and 2 drachms of coriander in ten ounces of boiling water has been used by him with advantage in acute dropsy.