Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/75

Rh precipitate, a dark-coloured resinous product was obtained. This substance, which was termed by Hooper " gymnemic acid," is a complex mixture, from which ethyl acetate extracts a portion possessing the property of temporarily destroying the sense of taste for sweet substances ; this latter product., for which it is proposed to reserve the name " gymnemic acid," although there is no evidence that it is a homogeneous substance, amounts to about 6 per cent, of the air-dried leaves. It has weak acidic properties and, when fused with potassium hydroxide, yields acetic acid and a molecular compound of proto-catechuic and p-hydroxybenzoic acids which melts at 192° ; on oxidation with potassium permanganate, formic acid is produced. The resinous substance associated with the gymnemic acid in the precipitate obtained with sulphuric acid is also of an acidic nature, and yields the same products on fusion with potassium hydroxide. The liquid from which the above substances had been separated was found to coutain Z-quercitol, together with i-dextrose. The fruits of gymnema sylestre contain the same substances as the leaves, with the exception of l-quercitol.

Gymnemic acid and the resinous substance insoluble in ethyl acetate are devoid of toxic properties.— (Fred. B. Power and Frank Tutin, Pharm. J. 1904.) J. Oh. S. Vol. LXXXVL, pp. 763-764.

Vern. :— Pathor (Chenab) ; Tar, veri (Salt Range) ; Kurang (Simla) ; Murkula (Hind.).

Habitat : — Eastern and Western Himalaya, from Simla to Kumaon and Sikkim.

A twining shrub. Young parts soft tomentose. Brandies, petioles, leaves beneath and cymes finely pubescent or tomentose. Leaves 3-6 by 2-4in., often velvety beneath, ovate, cordate, acuminate; base usually deeply cordate. Cymes 1-1½in. diam., corymbose. Calyx hairy outside. Corolla ¼-⅓in. diam., lobes pubescent without, villous within, coronal scales slender, subulate, far exceeding the short anther-tips. Stigma dome-shaped. Follicles turgid, 3in. long, 1 to l½in. broad, with a beak-like tip, straight ; pericarp thick, transversely rugose, puberulous. Seeds ½in. long.

Uses :— The unripe fruit is powdered and given as a cooling medicine (Stewart). A decoction is used as a remedy in gonorrhœa.

Vern. :— Bhui-dori (Bomb.).