more in their cooling, demulcent and aphrodisiac properties, and getting heavier in digestion in each of the successive stages of refinement. They are successively more frigorific, and beneficial in cases of haemoptysis.
Metrical Texts:—To the properties considered as specially belonging to each of these modifications of treacle should be attributed its power of producing its own refinement and efficacy. The virtues of sugar such as, laxativeness, etc., should be regarded as proportional to its refinement, freedom from alkaline saturation, and the actual quantity of sweetening matter (lit. substance) contained in it.
Sugar prepared from concentrated honey (Madhu Sharkara) is parchifying and liquefacient. It proves beneficial in cases of vomiting and dysentery, is pleasant, has a sweet and astringent taste, and is sweet in digestion. Sugar prepared from a decoction of Yavasa Sharkara (Duralabha) has a sweet and astringent taste, leaves a bitter after-taste, and is possessed of laxative properties, and subdues the deranged Kapham. All kinds of sugar tend to assuage burning sensations in the body, and prove curative in hoemoptysis, vomiting, epileptic fits, and thirst. The sweet and concentrated extract (Phanitam) of Modhuka flowers should be regarded as parchifying. It produces Vayu and Pittam, and subdues Kapham. It is sweet, astringent in its digestive transformation, and deranges the blood.
