EUFBOllBIACEM 263 



purposes and in the arts; the chips of the wood or small 

 branches thrown into impure or muddy water, according to the 

 same authority, clear it effectually. In the Concan the juice of 

 the fresh bark, with honey and turmeric, is given in gonorrhoea. 



Description*— Fresh Emblic myrobalans are globular, 



fleshy, smooth J six- striated, of a yellowish-green colour, and 

 sometimes as large as a walnut ; they contain an obovate obtusely 

 triangular, 3-cellednut, each cell of which contains two triangu- 

 lar seeds. The taste of the pulp is acid, astringent, and some- 

 what acrid. The dried fruit is the size of a cob nut^ sub- 

 hexagonal, wrinkled, of a grey-black colour if it has been 

 collected when immature, but yellowish-brown if mature; the 

 latter upon pressure breaks up into six parts, each of which 

 consists of a section of the pulp and nut, and contains one 

 triangular brown seed. 



Chemical composition. — The pulpy portion of the fruit dried 

 at ]00°C., and freed from the nuts, had the following composi- 

 tion: 



Ether extract (gallic acid, &c.) 11*32 



Alcoholic „ (tannin, sugar, &c.) 36'10 



Aqueous ,, (gum, i&c.) 13*75 



Soda „ (albumen, &c.) 13*08 



Crude cellulose ]7'S0 



Mineral matter 



412 



Moisture and loss 3'83 



] 00-00 



The acidity of the fruit was found to be equal to 9' 6 per 

 cent., calculated as acetic acid. The amount of tannic acid, 

 estimated with acetete of lead solution, was 35 per cent., and 10 

 per cent, of glucose was estimated by means of Fehling's solu- 

 tion on an infusion of the pulp after the removal of the tannin, 



Lowe considers this tannin to be identical with the cllago- 

 tannic acid of Divi-divi, 



