Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/63

Rh (Sind); Mándára (Mar.) ; Safed-ak, ak, madàr (Hind.) ; Vellerku (Tam.); Spalwakka (Afg.).

Habitat: — Western and Central India, from Sindh and the Punjab to Behar and Bombay.

Habit, leaves, and inflorescence as of C. gigantea, excepting that the leaves, 8-9 by 4in., are more gradually narrowed and somewhat less cottony beneath when mature, and the peduncles rather longer. Flowers purplish red, silvery outside, odorous ; buds hemispherical. Corolla campanulate, lobes erect. Corona-scales acute, nearly as broad as long, glabrous or pubescent. Follicles as of C. gigantea. Both the plants have a white, milky, acid juice and substantial roots.

Rev. A. K. Nairne, in the Flowering Plants of Western India writes : — * T never could make out the difference between the two species, as the distinctions given seemed to me to be not only trifling, but also not constant ; and Roxburgh knew of only one species. There are also various differences of opinion among the authorities as to the distribution of the two species. One or both of these shrubs has the property of maintaining a very low temperature, Hooker having found the fresh milky juice to be 70°, when the soil surrounding the roots was from 90° to 104° and the exposed leaves 80°, when the surrounding earth was about 105.

Uses : — The medicinal properties of this plant are similar to those of C. gigantea. The milky juice is, moreover, used as a blistering agent. The fresh root is used as a tooth-brush, and is considered by Pathans to cure toothache (Watt).

The flowers believed to have detergent properties. (S. Arjun).

The fresh milk is employed in the Punjab for the purposes of infanticide. Tn a drachm dose the fresh juice will kill a large drop in 15 minutes ; its action, though slower, resembles that of hydrocyanic acid, but commences with foaming at the mouth. (Dr. Aitchison, in Watt's Dictionary).

The flowers are used in cases of cholera (Dr. Thompson, in Watt's Dictionary).

In the Second Report of the Indigenous Drugs Committee, (p. Ill), it is stated : —

Calotropis procera and Calotropis gigantea (tincture used) : —Conflicting reports of the action of this drug were received from those who experimented with it. Major Sutherland, Principal of the Lahore Medical College, tried it at the Mayo Hospital and reports that it has not proved of much value