450 SCirAMINEJE. 



the Sapskrit name Silarambha is wrongly attributed to tliis 



plant, it is properly the name of the wild i^Iantain or Kashtha 



Kadali. Eheede, describing the medicinal uses of C. indica, 



says : — " E f ructibus parvum testis succus elicitur, qui auribus 



immissus dolores illarum mitigat. Ex iisdem et saccharo massa 



componitur, et umbilicali regioui applicatur contra diabetera, 



ex calidis fcbribus ortam. Succus radicis Mercurii sublimati 



toxicum infringit." Atkinson {Him. Dist. 730) states that the 



root is used as a diaphoretic and diuretic in fevers and dropsy. 



When cattle have eaten any poisonous plant, which is generally 



discovered by the swelling of the abdomen, the natives 



administer to them the root of this plant, which they break up 



in small pieces, boil in rice-water and pepper, and give them to 



drink. {Bmnj.) Badeu-PowcU {FmiJ. Prod. 382) states that the 



seeds arc considered to be cordial and vulnerary. 



V 



Description. — An herbaceous plant, 2-3 feet; leaves 

 large, ovate-lanceolate, stem-clasping; flowers bright scarlet or 

 yellow, inner wing of the corolla trifid, segments lanceolate^ 

 straight; anther single, attached to the edge of the corolla; 

 capsule bristly, 3-celled, many-seeded; seeds round, blacky 

 hard and shining, the size of a pea or buck-shot. 



Chemical covipodiion. — The seeds reduced to powder "were 

 exhausted with alcohol, and the alcoholic extract mixed with 

 water acidulated with sulphuric acid, and agitated with petro- 

 leum ether, then with ether, and after the addition of an 

 al]<:ali, again with ether. 



The petroleum ether extract contained yellowish fatty matter, 

 from which white n odules separated on standing, the taste was 

 camphoraceous and somewhat pepper-like. The acid ether 

 extract bad the odour of vanilla ; it was partly soluble in water 

 with acid reaction , the aqueous solution giving a bright green 

 colorntion with ferric salts, slightly precipitating gelatine, but 

 giving no reaction with potassic cyanide. 



No alkaloidal principle was detected in the ether extract, the 

 aniount of which did not exceed a trace. 



'i'he frcah roots were contused, and treated in the same 



munuvr as the seeds. The t. ,^f +i tit i i 



j-nt T.t ol the ulcoholic extract was 



