BOMBAX MALABARICUM. ' 123 



BOMBAX MALABARICUM. 



Sans. sn^rsft, SCdmali, iffaT, Mocha. 



* 



Vern. Simul, Uakta Simul. Beng. 



"This is one of the largest of our Indian trees, often about 

 one hundred feet high and the trunk thick and ramous in propor- 

 tion. Flowering time the end of winter, when the tree is totally 





/ 



destitute of leaves. The great numbers of very large bright red 

 flowers with which it is then covered make it remarkably cons- 

 picuous at a very great distance." The thick stems are used for 

 making large boats called kondas, from their being made by 

 hollowing out the trunks. Some of these boats are large enough 

 to carry a freight of a thousand maunds. The smaller floats are 

 m very common use in Eastern Bengal, for crossing over rice 

 fields during the rainy season. In fact during the rains these 

 little floats, constitute the only mode of conveyance from village 

 to village in low alluvial tracts. The thick beds and pillows of 

 the natives are stuffed with the Cotton attached to the interior of 

 the seed vessels of this plant, while the thin quilts and stuffed 

 clothing for winter, are made with kdrpdsa (cotton of Gossypium 



herbaceum.) 



The gum of this trfce, called rnochara&a is used in medicine.* 

 It is considered astringent, tonic and alterative, and is used in 

 diarrhoea, dysentery and menorrhagia. Mocharasa with sugar in 

 equal parts, is given in doses of twenty to forty grains, in the 

 diarrhoea of children. In the dysentery of children, the following 

 is used. Take of mocharasa, flowers e»f Woodfordia floribunda 





* In the Pharmacopoeia of India it is stated. "To this tree (Bomban 



Malabaricum J , which is common in some parts of India, two drugs which hold 



. a prominent place in the Native Materia Medica, have been usually but 



erroneously referred. 1. An astringent gummy exudation, Mucherus (Hind). 



Its botanical source is unknown. 2. Dried roots well known 



as Safed Musli (Hind)." The Sanskrit term Mocharasa of which the Hindi 



Mucker ua is a corruption, means the juice or exudation of the Mocha tree, and 



Mocha ia one of the Sanskrit names of Bombay Malabaricum. Hence there 



<&n be no error in attributing the origin of Mucherus to Bomba Malabaricum. 



Safed U*Mli [b .the Talamuli of Sanskrit Materia Medica, the Hypoxia 

 otchioidco of Botanists. 





