Ninl'KllTIKS \Nh I'SKS 



JBGLB 



MARMELOS 



Baol Fruit 

 special merit, where extra security and, at the same time, neatness are 



ed. It is reported to give brilliancy when added to water-colour Enamel pint. 

 paints. In Burma it is commonly mixed with paint as a dryer and to 

 give a glossy surface. But perhaps the most remarkable use of this 

 substance is that recorded in connection with the Madras Presidency. 

 In Madura it would appear that the yogis (Hindu devotees) employ the 

 pulp of the fruit as a kalpam or substitute for oil. For this purpose a 

 ripe fruit is placed on the hearth until it bursts. The pulp is then re- 

 moved from the shell, and a little water worked up with it until a glutinous 

 material has been produced. After being purified, the pulp is rubbed 

 over the body. A bath is then taken, when the pulp acts as a detergent 

 and imparts a refreshing and cooling sensation. Of South Arcot it is 

 stated that the mucous fluid only is used for the above purpose, and that 

 it is rubbed on the hair in place of oil by the poorer classes or is employed 

 as SOAP in washing garments. The Dutch in Ceylon used formerly to soap substitute. 

 prepare an ESSENTIAL OIL (or attar) from the rind, known as Marmelle Essential on. 

 Oil (Journ. Agri.-Hort. Soc. Ind. (Proc.), 1857, ix., 134). A PERFUME perfume. 

 is also distilled from the flowers. 



The MEDICINAL properties of bael fruit are so well known that they Medicine. 

 need hardly be detailed. The fresh ripe fruit is eaten as an article of 

 FOOD by the poorer classes only, more especially the aboriginal hill tribes. p od. 

 By others it is mainly consumed as pickles or preserves or as a refreshing rickies. 

 and mildly laxative drink or sherbet. Most writers say that the half- sherbet 

 ripe fruit is extensively employed in India as an astringent, digestive and 

 stomachic, and is prescribed in diarrhoea and dysentery, and often proves 

 effectual in chronic cases when all other remedies have failed. For these 

 purposes, however, according to some writers, the wild fruit is preferable 

 to the cultivated. It is certainly much more astringent, contains a larger 

 amount of the gummy substance already mentioned, but has an objection- 

 able quantity of seeds and only a very small amount of pulp. On the other 

 hand, Colonel J. Parker (Medical Storekeeper to Government, Bombay 

 Command) writes (Rept. Cent. Indig. Drugs Comm., I.e. 138), "Natives 

 do not use the unripe fruits for medicinal purposes, but the pickle prepared 

 therefrom is considered to be admissible in illness when other forms of 

 pickle are said to be contra-indicated. The half-ripe fruit is adopted by 

 the British Pharmacopoeia, but the rind only of the ripe fruit is used at 

 this Depot in the manufacture of Extractum Belae Liquidum." Moodeen Liquid Extract. 

 Sheriff recommends for medicinal use a syrup made of the pulp of the Syrup. 

 ripe fruit, as more especially serviceable for chronic affections, and a Powder. 

 powder of the pulp of the half-ripe fruit for acute diseases. He says of 

 the last preparation that it is specially useful in altering the nature of 

 dysenteric motions rather than in reducing their frequency. 



The sun-dried slices of bael (generally known as belgiri) may be seen sliced Baci. 

 in every drug shop of India. They are not supposed to be injured by 

 time, if kept perfectly dry, but in Europe the same beneficial results have 

 not been attained with this drug as in India, a circumstance explained 

 by European physicians by the theory that the dry slices deteriorate 

 when kept for more than one season. Dymock says, " The best pre- 

 paration of bael-fruit is a MARMALADE made from the full-grown but Mrmiade. 

 still tender fruit, cut in thin slices ; it keeps well, which is not the case 

 with the conserve made from the pulp of the ripe fruit that is usually 

 met with in the shops." 



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