1 in. long, pubescent on pedicels as long as the flowers. Exterior Petals 3, narrow-oblong, lanceolate, triquetrous, thick and fleshy, 3; interior minute or wanting. Sepals small. Stamens indefinite, crowded round a hemispherical torus. Connective overlapping the anthers. Carpels many, subconnate, style oblong. Ovule, 1, erect. Ripe carpels confluent into a many-celled ovoid or globose many-seeded fruit. Fruit fleshy, areolate, 2-4 in. diam, juicy with the pleasant and agreeable odour of the English Heliotrope. Seeds oblong, brownish-black.
This is the genuine Custard Apple of India.
A native of the West Indies, naturalized in India, especially the Western Peninsula, and the Dekkan, Bijapur; in the Madras Presidency in the Krishna district. Wild in the old Forts of the Dekkan, cultivated as far as Gurdaspur in the Punjab.
Parts used:—The fruit (both ripe and unripe); leaves, seeds. roots.
Uses:—The ripe fruit is medicinally considered a maturant, and when bruised and mixed with salt, is applied to malignant tumours to hasten suppuration, The seeds contain an acrid principle fatal to insects, and the dried unripe fruit, powdered and mixed with gram flour, is used to destroy vermin. An infusion of the leaves is considered efficacious in prolapsus ani of children. The root is considered a drastic purgative; natives administer it in acute dysentery. It is also employed internally in depression of spirits and spinal diseases. (T. N. Mukerji.) The seeds are a powerful irritant of the conjunctiva. Lt. Col. Kirtikar, while in charge of the Thana Central Prison, came across a case in which a Life-Convict used the seed powder in destroying the cornea of both eyes to produce blindness for the purpose of avoiding being sent to the Andamans to undergo his sentence there.
The bruised leaves with salt make a cataplasm to induce suppuration (Atkinson).
35. A. reticulata, Linn, h.f.br.i., i. 78; Roxb. 453.
Vern:—Louná, Rám-phal (H.); Noná (Beng); Gom (Santal);
