Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/518

414 sweet or richly cooked dishes (Santarpanam) such as, thirst, etc. Amalakam is cooling, and refrigerent ; it subdues Pittam and Kapham and is antifat in its virtues. Vibhitakam is cooling; it subdues Pittam and Kapham. The- group of medicinal fruits known as the Triphala consists of Haritaki, Amalakam and Vibhitakam, which are collectively marked by an acid-astringent taste with a shade of bitter and sweet. Powdered Triphala regularly taken with clarified butter of a three quarter part of its own weight acts as a regular panacea and is endued with a rejuvenating virtue.

All fruits possessed of purgative properties, should be used in the manner described in connection with Haritaki with the exception of Chaturangulas. The Chaturangula fruit should be collected in the proper season, and then kept buried for a week in a bed of sand. After that, they should be unearthed and dried in the sun, and their stones or seeds (lit. marrow) should be taken out. Then the essential oil of the seeds should be extracted by pressing them in an oil-mill like the seeds of sesamum, or by boiling them with water (hot expression). The oil is a good purgative for a child up to its twelfth year.

Hot water taken after having licked a compound consisting of Castor oil saturated with powdered Kushtha and Trikatus, acts as a good purgative. Castor oil taken with a decoction of Triphalas, double its own