Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Styraceæ

by Kanhoba Ranchoddas Kirtikar and Baman Das Basu

N. 0. STYRACEÆ.

730. Symplocos Cratœgoides, Ham. h.f.b.i., iii. 573.

Vern.:—Lú, lándar, loj, losh (Pb.); Lodh (Kumaun); Loja (Sutlej); Lodur; Pathani lodh (Sind.).

Habitat:—Himalaya, from Kashmir to Bhotan; Khasia.

A large shrub or small tree, deciduous. Bark light-grey, corky, with long vertical cracks. Wood white, soft to moderately hard, close-grained, splits and twists in seasoning. Branchlets and leaves hairy. Leaves 2-4 by 1-1½in., broad elliptic or ovate, acuminate, sharply glandular, serrulate towards the apex, membranous, pilose beneath or glabrescent; petiole 1/5in. long. Flowers white, ¼in. diam., fragrant, in cymose corymbs, forming dense terminal or axillary panicles; bracts small, linear, caducous. Calyx: turbinate, lobes ciliate. Corolla 5-cleft nearly to the base. Stamens indefinite 20-60, equalling the corolla in length, connate, in 5 bundles. Ovary inferior, 2-celled, glabrous or hairy. Fruit ⅛-⅓in. long, obliquely ovoid, or obovoid, crowned with remains of the Calyxlimb, usually 1-seeded, black when ripe, embryo curved , oxile (Kanjilal).

Use : — The bark is considered tonic. It is also used in. ophthalmia (Dr. Stewart).

731. S. racemosa, Roxb. h.f.b.i., iii. 576, Roxb. 415.

Sans. : — Lodhra.

Vern. : — Lodh (H. and B.) ; Chamlani (Nepal) ; Palyok (Lepcha); Kaiday (Mechi) ; Singyan (Bhutia).

Habitat : — Throughout North-East India, common from the Terai of Kumaun to Assam ; common throughout Chota Nagpore.

A small evergreen tree. Bark soft, Branchlets soon glabrous. Leaves glabrous, coriaceous, elliptic-lanceolate, obscurely crenate. Blade 4-6in. Petiole ⅓-⅔in. Flowers yellow, fragrant, in simple hairy axillary, more or less lax racemes ; pedicels as long as Calyx-tube, which is glabrous; lobes rounded, equalling the tube, slightly pubescent and with ciliate edges. Stamens about 100-115. Disk glabrous. Corolla 3 times longer than calyx. Fruit cylindric, nearly ½in. long, smooth, 1-3 celled. Calyxrim nearly as wide as the fruit, with erect teeth. Ovary 3 celled, hairy. Embryo straight.

Uses : — In Hindoo medicine, the bark is described as cooling, astringent, and useful in bowel complaints, eye diseases, ulcers, &c. A decoction is used as a gargle for giving firmness to bleeding and spongy gums (Dutt).

It is often used in Bombay in the preparation of plasters (lêp.); it is supposed to promote the maturation or resolution of stagnant tumors (Dymock).

Drs. Charles and K. L. Dey, recommend the bark in 20 grain doses mixed with sugar, as a remedial agent in monorrhagia due to relaxation of the uterine tissue; it should be given two or three times a day, for three or four days. Dr. K. L. Dey considers that the drug has a special action upon relaxed mucous membranes.

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