THE PRICKLY PEAR 



D.E.P., 

 iv., 493-6. 

 Turpeth. 



Medicine. 



Two Forms. 



D.E.P., 

 v., 490-2. 

 Prickly 

 Pear. 



Naturalised 

 Plant. 



Pood. 

 Fodder. 



Hedges. 



Fibre. 



OPERCULINA TURPETHUM, Manso ; Prain, Beng. Plants, 

 1903, ii., 731 ; Cooke, Fl Pres. Bomb., 1905, ii., pt. ii., 240 ; Ipomcea 

 Turpethum, FL Br. Ind., iv., 212 ; Talbot, List Trees, etc., 1902, 251 ; 

 Rec.Bot. Surv. Ind., 1904, iii., 81. CONVOLVULACE^:. Turpeth Root or 

 Indian Jalap, nisoth, teori, tohri, chita bdnsa, nisottar, tikuri, shivadai, etc. 

 Found throughout India, ascending the hills to altitudes of 3,000 feet ; 

 occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant. 



The root (also root-bark), known as trivrit, has been used as a purgative, 

 by Native practitioners, from time immemorial. Vartherna (Travels, 1510, 

 (ed. Hald. Soc.), 106-7) mentions it by the name of turbidi among the spices 

 of Cambay, and Garcia de Orta (1563, Coll., liv. ; also in Ball, Proc. Roy. 

 Ir. Acad., 1889-91, 3rd ser., i., 677) gives an account of the plant and the 

 uses made of it. Two varieties have been described by most writers, sveta 

 or white, and krishna or black. The white is preferred, as the black is con- 

 sidered too drastic. As sold in the bazars, Turpeth consists of the root and 

 stem of the plant cut into portions of about one-half to two inches in length. 

 The market rate is about i to 1 anna per Ib. [Cf. Forster, PL Esc,., 1786, 77 ; 

 Milburn, Or. Comm., 1813,"i., 293 ; Paulus jflgineta (Adams, Comment.), 1847, 

 iii., 445-6 ; Pharmacog. Ind., 1891, ii., 527-30 ; Dutt, Mat. Med. Hind., 

 1900, 203-4.] 



OPUNTIA, Mitt. ; FL Br. Ind., ii., 657 ; Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 

 1902, 382-3 ; Talbot, List Trees, etc., 1902, 180 ; Prain, Beng. Plants, 1903, 

 i., 531 ; CACTE.E. Several species have been introduced into India and 

 are now quite naturalised. In many portions of the hotter regions, such 

 as in Madras, Bengal, the United Provinces and the Panjab, they have 

 overrun immense tracts of country, and their eradication has in some cases 

 become a serious problem. For their connection with the Cochineal 

 insect, see Coccos cacti (p. 348). 



0. Dillenil, Haw. The Prickly Pear, ndg-phand, pheni-mama, samar, zhor- 

 hatheylo, ndga-dali, chappal, aha soung, lit wa, etc. This is the only species 

 described in the Flora of British India. It is indigenous in America, but natural- 

 ised all over India from Bengal and Madras to the Panjab, and found on the 

 Himalaya up to 5,000 feet in altitude. The fruit is edible, and can be employed 

 in the distillation of alcohol. The jointed, juicy, leaf-like stems, when deprived of 

 their spines, have generally been considered a useful CATTLE FOOD, especially 

 in times of famine. Mr. P. R. Mehta, however, in a report on prickly-pear feeding 

 experiments carried on at the Poona and Surat Farms, gives a poor estimate of 

 its feeding value. He states that the experiments conclusively prove that the 

 prickly pear has hardly any value as a cattle food. A sample analysed by 

 Leather gave the following result : water, 16-96 per cent.; organic matter, 

 60-64 ; ash, 22-40. Hooper furnishes the following composition of the fruit from 

 Nellore examined by him : carbohydrates 41-89 ; fibre 32-00 ; albuminoids 6-25 ; 

 fat 3-63 ; water 5-67 ; and ash 10-56 ; (Kept. Labor. Ind. Mus. (Indust. Sec.), 

 1904-5, 30). 



In India the plant is much used to form hedges about fields and for fences 

 round homesteads. Gamble states that the chief interest in Ojmntin, to the 

 Forest Officer, has been in the hope that it would assist in the reproduction of 

 forest trees, by protecting the young seedlings from cattle. A coarse FIBRE 

 can be obtained from it, which might prove useful as a paper material. [Cf. 

 Mason, Burma and its People (ed. Theobald), 1883, ii., 441 ; De Candolle, Orig. 

 Cult. Plants, 1884, 274 ; Asa Gray, Scient. Papers, 1889, i., 312 ; Kew Bull., 1888, 

 165-73 ; Pharmacog. Ind., 1890, ii., 99 ; The Scrub Exterminator, Agri. Dept. 

 Madras Bull., 1891, 23 ; Voelcker, Improv. Ind. Agri., 1893, 193-4 ; Bourne, 

 Rept. on Destruct. of Prickly Pear by Cochineal Insect, Offic. Govt. of Madras 

 Rev., Aug. 5, 1897 ; Dodge, Useful Fibre Plants of the World, 1897, 253 ; Maiden, 

 Study of Prickly Pears Naturalised in New S. Wales, Dept. Agri. Sydney, Misc., 

 1898, 253 ; Woodrow, Gard. in Ind., 1899, 336-7 ; Mehta, Prickly Pear and 

 Aloe as Cattle Fodder during Scarcity, in Dept. Land Rec. and Agri. Bomb. Bull., 

 1903, No. 22.] 



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