Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/602

498 flesh and a relish for food, is palatable to the taste, and tends to constipate the bowels by (imparting a greater consistency to the fecal matter). Dadimas may be classified into two distinct species according as they are sweet or acid to the taste. The sweet species subdues the three deranged bodily humours, while the acid one subdues the Vayu and Kapham. The fruit known as the Amalaka has a taste blended of the sweet, pungent and astringent ones with a shade of the bitter. It is laxative, spermatopoietic and beneficial to the eye-sight, and is capable of subduing all the three deranged humours The Vataghna virtue of this fruit should be ascribed to its acid taste; its power of subduing the Pittam, to its sweetness and coolness; and its efficacy in subduing the Kapham, to its affecting the tongue as a dry astringent substance. This fruit is by far the best known fruit as possessing high therapeutic properties. The Karkandhu, like the Kola or the Vadara, generates the Kapham and Pittam in its unripe or immature stage, while in its ripe or matured stage it is sweet, demulcent, purgative and subdues the Vayu and Pittam. The fruit known as the Sauvira is possessed of properties similar to those of the Vadara; moreover it is sweet, demulcent, and subdues the vayu and Pittam. The Shimvitika-fruit is cooling, astringent and palatable and has an astringent taste. The Kapittham in its unripe stage produces hoarseness. It is astringent and subdues the Kapham and increases