Asclepiadece.] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 275 
Valuable as it is probable that some of this family will prove as medicinal agents, 
the Mudar, Calotropis (Asclepias,Auct.) gigantea is the only one that has yet attracted 
any attention in Europe. This has long been employed as an article of the Indian 
Materia Medica, by the native practitioners, with their many other very efficient remedies. 
It is called Arka and Akund in Sanscrit, and Ashur by the Arabs; it is the Ak and 
Mudar of the Hindoos, to which jumakioos is assigned as a Greek name. From the 
united testimony of Europeans and natives, there is no doubt of its being a powerful 
alterative in leprosy, elephantiasis, &c. (v. Ainslie, Mat. Ind. 1. p. 486.) From this plant 
Dr. Duncan obtained ‘ that singular substance Mudarine, which possesses the property 
of coagulating by heat, and becoming again fluid on exposure to cold.” Wight, 1. c. 
Another, but a less known product, is obtained on the Mudar, or some nearly allied 
species, probably the Calotropis procera of Persia: this is a sweetish exudation formed 
on the plant in consequence of the puncture of an insect called gultigal; the 
substance is called sukkur-ool-ashur, and ak or mudar-ke-shukur (sugar). The species 
most common in the Northern provinces, and nearly allied to the Persian C. procera, ° 
is Calotropis Hamiltonii, of Wight, which obtains among the natives the same names 
as C. gigantea: it possesses also many of the properties of that species, as I have proved 
from prescribing it in cases of incipient leprosy and cutaneous affections, in the civil 
and military hospitals at Saharunpore. 
It is much to be desired that these experiments should be repeated and others 
instituted, on the plants of this as well as of other families, for I have no doubt that, 
with a diminution of the prejudice in favour of things brought from a distance, it will 
be found, that India is capable of producing, and does produce, many as efficient as 
those which have to make a series of voyages before they can be brought into use. 
For it must be allowed, that. the climate is favourable for the production of drugs of 
the most energetic nature, as may be witnessed in the Nu vomica, the Aconitum ferox, 
Opium, Bhang, Datura, &c. among narcotics; Croton Tiglium, Jatropha, Castor-oil, 
Turbith, and Senna, as cathartics; among tonics and febrifuges, the Rohuna (Soymida 
febrifuga), Kutkurunja. (Ce@salpinia Bonduc), which has long maintained its station 
in the Materia Medica of the East, with the Gentian, Cheretta, Creyat, and several 
others as bitters; the Catechu, Kino, &c. as astringents, and innumerable mucilaginous 
demulcents. It is improbable, therefore, that India should be deficient only in those of 
which the physical properties. being less obvious, and the effects on the human system 
less decided, require for their discovery and ascertainment nicer powers of discrimi- 
nation. But as numbers. of the Medical Establishment possess the requisite qualifi- 
cations, it is to be hoped.that some may be induced to investigate the properties and 
powers of the Indian Materia Medica. The sensible properties will frequently yield 
considerable assistance, while the natural affinities of the plants will shew the strong 
probability of their possessing ‘much the same powers as some of their congeners: at 
least, the experience of the Natives will often give assurance to the inferences we 
may have deduced, and confidence in prescribing a new medicine, by attending to the 
2Nn2 doses 
