Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/45

Rh petroleum spirit, benzol, amyl alcohol, and carbon bisulphide. An analysis gave figures corresponding with the formula C11H18N. For this he assigns the name " Wrightine*" (Pharmacographia Indica Vol. 11, pp. 395—396).

"It appears desirable that the investigation should be extended to the bark and seeds." (Ph. J. Feb. 27, 1880).

Vern. : — Pili-karbir, Kener zard (Pb.) ; Caat-aralie (Tam.); Odallam (M.).

Habitat: — Deccan Peninsula; common in the Western Ghats.

A small tree. Wood yellowish white, moderately hard. Milk not acid. Branches dichotomous. Bark pale-grey, smooth. Branchlets marked with scars of fallen leaves. Young parts covered with a shining resinous coat. Leaves numerous, 4-7 or even 10in., elliptic-oblong, or lanceolate-oblong, tapering to base, suddenly and shortly acuminate, obtuse, stiff and coriaceous, dark-green above, paler beneath, lateral veins numerous, horizontal, parallel, depressed above, prominent beneath. Petiole ½-1¼in., stout. Flowers few, white, throat and tube yellow, very sweet-scented, on long, stout pedicels ; cymes in axils of terminal pair of leaves, lax ; peduncle 2-6in., stout, glabrous : bracts small ovate, fleshy, ad pressed. Calyx fleshy at base, segments rounded, glabrous: Corolla l½-3in. diam : tube ¾-1in., fleshy, lobes considerably longer oblong, obtuse, falcately twisted, often crisped at margin. Anthers acute. Ovary glabrous, style clavate ; ripe carpels about two in., pendulous, horizontally-divaricate or reflexed, broadly ovoid, blunt, flat on dorsal, rounded on vertical side, smooth, orange-yellow. Seeds ¾in., 'finely striate, surrounded by a coat of crimson pulp.

Use : — The seeds are said to be powerfully narcotic and poisonous, producing delirium and other symptoms similar to those caused by dhatura (Ainslie).

They are said by Lin d ley to be purgative. The leaves and bark act as purgatives, and are believed to be used in Java as substitutes for senna ; the milky sap is also described as cathartic (Watt).