HEMIDESMUS 

 INDICUS 



THE INDIAN SAKSAPAKILLA 



Yield. 



New Method. 



D.E.P., 



vi., pt. i., 



lie. 



Burmese 

 Gutta-percha. 



D.E.P., 

 iv., 219-20. 

 Indian Sar- 

 saparilla. 



Medicine. 



still others indicate varying degrees of adulteration. For example the taban 

 merah (according to Burn-Murdoch the most recent writer) is r. obi on yi folium ; 

 taban chaier is Fnia-tiuiuin *j. ; taban puteh is JR. pustuiatum and taban baik is 

 F. sp. The taban puteh is much inferior to the others. On the other hand, while 

 p. obiotigifolitint , Burck, is but a variety of P. ti-uttn, still by certain writers it 

 is held to be a distinct species and to yield the taban sutra of Perak, 



Gamble (Man. Ind. Timbs., 445) says, " The method of collection, usually 

 employed by the Natives of the Malay Peninsula, is very simple but very wasteful. 

 The tree is felled, and either the bark is stripped off altogether or rings are cut 

 at intervals of about a foot. The sap that oozes out is then collected, put in a 

 pot and boiled with a little water, which prevents its hardening afterwards when 

 exposed to the air. It is then run into moulds. The trees usually chosen are 

 those of about thirty to thirty-five years old, and each tree gives 2 to 3 Ib. of 

 gutta. Such a system is naturally a wasteful one, and if regularly continued 

 without any arrangements for reproduction would probably lead to the exhaustion 

 of the supply, so that it is satisfactory that French experts are said to have dis- 

 covered that the gutta-percha can be obtained from the leaves without felling 

 the tree. However this may be, there is little doubt of the value of the product, 

 and that if it is to be regularly produced the tree must be grown in plantation 

 and systematically worked." 



P. poly ant hum, Engl,, Pflanzenr., iv., i., 135 ; Isonandra polyantha, Kurz ; 

 Dischopsis polyantha, Benth. & Hook., Gen. PL, ii., 658. A moderate-sized 

 tree of Cachar, Chittagong, Arakan and Pegu. This is the tali, sill-kurta, 

 thainban, etc. Kurz says it yields a good quality of gutta-percha and in largo 

 quantitv. [Cf. P. obovatum, King and Gamble, in Hooper, Rept. Labor. Ind. 

 Mus., 1905-6; 27.] 



13. Payena lucida, A. DC. ; Isonandra polyandra, Wight, Ic., t., 1589 ; Fl. Br. 

 Ind., in., 547 ; Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 449 ; SABOTAGED. The dolu-kurta 

 of Cachar is an evergreen tree of Assam, Tenasserim and the Straits Settlements. 

 p. iininijHiji. Clarke, a tree of Penang and Malacca. Both these trees afford gutta- 

 percha ; the last mentioned, according to Maingay, abounds in that substance. 



P. Leerii, Burck, Rapport Gutta, 1884 ; also Orig. Bot. de la Gutta-percha, in 

 Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitz., 1885, v., 56, pi. viii. ; P. Leerii, Engler, Pflanzenr., 1889, 

 iv., pt. i., 133, with plate. Kurz rightly transferred Kertophorus Leerii, Hassk.* 

 to Paycna (Journ. As. Soc. Beng., 1871, xl., 69), but his Burmese plant is appar- 

 ently a different species from that of Malacca, Sumatra, Borneo, Banka and 

 Amboina, to which the name J. Leerii strictly speaking belongs. Kurz accord- 

 ingly would seem to have desired to correct his mistake when (in Journ. As. Soc. 

 Beng., xlvi., 230) he subsequently gave the Mergui plant the name i*. //!/- 

 ii-iftm-tirit. Kurz. Hooper found that the Burmese plant contains 59'9 per cent, 

 gutta and 39'6 per cent, resin, i*. Lecril proper yields the sundek of Perak and 

 the niato balam baringin (or soendi) of Sumatra a trade quality of gutta-percha. 

 [Cf. Jumelle, I.e., 1903, 486-92 ; Hooper, Rept. Labor. Ind. Mus., 1905-6, 27-8 ; 

 Mason, I.e. 78.] 



H 



HEMIDESMUS INDICUS, Br. ; Fl. Br. Ind., iv., 5 ; Prain, 

 Beng. Plants, 1903, ii., 686 ; Cooke, Fl. Pres. Bomb., 1904, ii., 146 ; As- 

 CLEPIADE.E. Indian (or country) Sarsaparilla ; anantamul (anantvel), 

 magrdbu, sugandi paid, nannari, uparsdra; sdrivd (Sanskr.). A climbing 

 plant of North India, from Banda to Oudh and Sikkim, and southward 

 to Travancore and Ceylon. 



The root has long been employed in Native medicine. Garcia de Orta (1563, 

 Coll., xlii. ; also in Ball, Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., 1890, 3rd. ser., i., 656) speaks of a 

 thorny climber which resembles the pomegranate, from the wood, bark and root 

 of which a drug is obtained. Ball regards that passage as possibly denoting 

 Mejlle*. but is it not rather Smiiax ? The root is supposed to possess 

 properties allied to those of sarsaparilla, and from 1864 has been officinal in 

 the British Pharmacopoeia. It is prescribed usually in the form of syrup and 

 is demulcent, alterative and diuretic. Sometimes the whole plant is pounded 

 and a congee made with rice, or an infusion prepared of the dried leaves. In 

 Indian commerce anantamul is found in the form of little bundles, which consist 



628 



