Parts used : — The seeds, leaves and flowers.
Uses: — Described by Hindoo writers as cooling and useful in inflammatory affections ; the oil of the seeds is given in white leprosy, and the powdered seeds, as an astringent ; the flowers and leaves are applied in local inflammations, such as boils, erysipelas, &c. (DUTT).
The seeds are astringent, given in piles, diarrhœa, gonorrhœa, &c; the oil extracted from them is said to cure white leprosy. The flowers are considered by the natives as a cooling medicine, and are externally applied to boils, eruptions, and swellings. The leaves are regarded as useful in ophthalmia, and afford good fodder for cattle. (Baden- Powell's Punjab Prod. s. v. Acacia speciosa, page 345.)
458. Pithecolobium Bigeminum, Benth.h.f.b.i., ii. 303.
Syn.: —Mimosa lucida, Roxb. Fl. Ind. n. 544. Inga bigemina Willd.
Vern.: — Kachlora (H.).
Habitat :- -Forests of the outer Himalaya, from the Ganges eastward and of South India.
A large tree ; wood light brown, soft, subterete. Branchlets, common petioles and inflorescence rusty-puberulous. Pinnæ and leaves long-petioled. Pinnæ 2-3 pair; leaflets of the lowest pinnæ 1-3, of the terminal 3, sometimes 4 pair, elliptic, acuminate, glabrous, dark-green. Flowers cream-coloured, ⅓in. long to extremity of stamens, sessile or shortly pedicelled in 2-5-fid heads. Heads in slender, terminal or supra-axillary panicles. Pod flat, not indented between seeds, 3-5 by ¾in , bright red within, curved into a ring or spiral.
Use: — A decoction of the leaves is a medicine for leprosy and is used as a stimulant to promote the growth of hair, (ATKINSON).
