445. A. arabica, Willd, h.f.b.l, ii. 293.
Syn. : — Mimosa arabica,Lam. Roxb. 421.
Sans. : — Vabhula ; Barbara.
Arab. : — Am-mughilan.
Pers. : — Kare-mughilan.
Vern. .—Babúl, kikar (H.) ; Bábul (B.) ; Bábhul (Mar.) ; Kali-kikar (Dec.) ; Karu-veylam (Tam.) ; Nallatumma, Barburamu, Tumma-chettu. (Tel.)
Habitat : — Punjab to Behar, and Western Peninsula.
A large tree. Bark dark-brown, rough. Wood hard ; sap wood large, whitish ; heart wood pinkish white, turning reddish brown on exposure, mottled with dark streaks. Trunk thick cylindrical. Branchlets straight, finely grey downy, slender. Stipular spines variable, ¼-2in. long, white, sharp, straight, sometimes wanting. Leaves bipinnate, rachis downy, 2-4in. long, pinnae 3-6 pair, ¾-2in. long, with a cup-shaped gland between the lowest and sometimes between the top pair ; petioles l-2in. long, leaflets 10-20 pair, ⅛-¼ by 1/20-1/10in. glabrous, linear acute, sessile, membranous, green. Flowers bright-yellow, in globose, fasciculate heads, about Ta in. diam.; peduncles 2-6 short, slender, grey-downy, with 2 opposite, scaly bracts, about the middle. Calyx minute, membranous. Corolla campanulate, twice the Calyx, ⅓in. long. Pod stalked, 3-6in. long by ½ broad, compressed, moniliform, contracted between the seeds, coriaceous, persistently white tomentose, subindehiscent, 8-12-seeded ; seeds ovoid, smooth, dark-brown. (Talbot).
Parts used : — The bark, gum, leaves, seeds, and pods.
Uses: — The tender leaves beaten into a pulp, are given in diarrhœa as an astringent (DUTT).
Some native hakeems say, it is very useful in diabetes mellitus, as the gum is not converted into sugar (DR.EMERSON).
In the Concan, a strengthening sweetmeat is made by frying the gum, with spices and butter, and making it into balls with sugar. In bloody seminal discharges, 1 tola of the young leaves with 4 máshas of cumin and 2 tolás of sugar are eaten
