312 EUPHORBIACEM 



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well; wlien cool, add 32 tolas of honey; cinnamon, cardamoms, 

 tejpat leaves, and the flowers of Mesua ferrea^ each 8 tolas, and 

 prepare a confection. The chebulic myrobalans should he kept 

 embedded in the medicine. Two tolas of the confection and 

 one of the myrobalans are to be taken every morning." 



A more simple formula from the Bhavaprakasa is the 

 Gtidashtaka. Take of danti^ trivrit {Iponwa Ttirpetlnm), and 

 plumbago root, black pepper, ginger and long pepper root, 

 equal parts in fine powder ; treacle, equal in weight to all the 

 other ingredients, and mix. Dose about a tola every morning, 

 in flatulence, anasarca, jaundice, &c. 



Rheede says of Danti: — Folia, radix atque fructus, tanta 

 purgandi pollent energia, ut solus odor catharsin excitet : f oha 

 extrinslce applicata articulari medentur morbo/' 



Hoxburgh remarks : — " The seeds are esteemed by the natives 

 a good purgative ; they administer one seed bruised up with water 

 for every evacuation they wish the patient to have. There 

 would appear to be little doubt that the seeds of this plant were 

 the original Dand of the Arabian physicians, but were sub- 

 sequently superseded by those of CrotonTiglmm, us has heen the 



case in India. 



Description. — Roots nearly straight, seldom branched, 

 about as thick as the finger; bark brown, scabrous; wood yellow- 

 ish-white, soft and tough. The outer layer of the bark consists 

 of several rows of brick-shaped brown cells, mostly empty, but 

 some of them containing a dark reddish-brown resin ; within this 

 the parenchyma is so loaded with conglomerate raphides that 

 its structure is with difficulty seen ; it has many cells filled with 

 resin as in the suber, and very numerous yellow liber cells. 

 The wood is loaded with starch. 



The seeds weigh about one and a half grains each, and are 

 exactly similar to very small castor seeds. 



Commerce. — The seeds are no longer found in the bazars, 

 having been superseded by the imported croton seeds; the root 

 is also difficult to obtain, that sold in the shops as Danti-mul 

 being usually the root of Ricinus eommums. 



