Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/524

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INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.


This is a fairly useful anthelmintic and a good substitute for santonine, in some cases acting very well, indeed.

Preparations. — Powdered seeds, dose fifteen to thirty grains twice or thrice a day, followed by castor-oil on the succeeding morning. The gum has been only lately used in this hospital ; but as an astringent, it is found to be a useful substitute for kino in the ordinary cases of diarrhœa and dysentery, of children especially. Preparations and dose, &c, are similar to Kino." (Apothecary F. G. Ashworth, Kumbakonam). The leaves are astringent and used by the Natives as a poultice to dispel tumorous hæmorrhoids, buboes, etc. The seeds are anthelmintic in doses of 20 grains. The gum is very astringent, and, in doses of five grains, most useful in checking serous diarrhœa. In large doses, it is efficacious in hæmorrhage from the stomach and bladder. A strong solution of the gum is said to be a useful application for bruises and erysipelatous inflammations." Surgeon E. A. Barker, Doomka.

The seeds contain 18.2 per cent, of fat (Waeber, 1386). The oil is yellow, nearly tasteless and solidifies at 10' (Lepine). Brannt records the specific gravity at 0.927.

387. B. superba, Roxb. h.f.b.i., ii. 195, Roxb. 541.

Sans. : — Latâ-palâsa.

Vern, :~Tiwat, tiwas, palâs-wél (Bom.); Tiga-muduga (Tel.) ; Latâ-palâsh (B.) ; Nari-murup (Santal) ; Vél-khkar (Guz.) ; Bel-palâs (Dec.) ; Kodi-murukkam, kodi-palsham (Tam.) ; Balli-muttaga (Kan.) ; Valliplâch-aha, valli-muruk-ka (Mal.).

Habitat : — Forests of the Concan, Bengal, Orissa, Burma, Oudh, Central India, and the Circars.

A gigantic climber. Bark dark brown, thick, very fibrous. Wood dark-brown, very porous and fibrous. It yields a gum like Kino. Stems thick as a man's leg. Does not differ from B. superba in botanic characters ; leaves and flowers scarcely distinguishable from B. superba. Leaflets and flowers larger, says J. G. Baker. Leaflets chartaceous, acuminate, says Brandis. Flowers of a gorgeous orange colour on pedicels 3 times the length of Calyx. Lower Calyx-teeth lanceolated, deltoid. Keel