FRUCTUS DIOSPYRI. 



403 



EBENACE^. 



FRUCTUS DIOSPYRI. 



India,' Pi I siinnion. 



Botanical Origin — Diospyros Embryopteris Pers. {EmhryopteAs 

 glutinifera Roxb.), a middle-sized or large evergreen tree, native of the 

 western coast of India, Ceylon, Bengal, Burma, Siam, and also Java/ 



History — The tree, which is mentioned in the earliest epic poems 

 of tlie Sanskrit literature under the name of tinduka,^ was also known 

 about the year 1680 to Rheede, and was figured in his Hortus Mala- 

 hariciis? The circumstance that the unripe fruit abounds in an astrin- 

 gent viscid juice which is used by the natives of India for daubing the 

 bottoms of iDoats, was communicated by Sir William Jones to Roxburgh 

 in 1791. The introduction of the fruit into medicine, which is due to 

 O'Shaughnessy,^ has been followed by its admission to the Phaiinacopoeia 

 of India, 18G8. 



Description — The fruit is usually solitary, subsessile or pedun- 

 culate, globular or ovoid, li to 2 inches long, and as much as li inch in 

 diameter, surrounded at the base by a large and deeply 4-lobed calyx. 

 It is of a yellowish colour, covered with a rusty tomentum ; internally 

 it is pulpy, 6- to 10-celled, with thin flat solitary seeds. The fruit is 

 used only in the unripe and fresh state ; the pulp is then excessively 

 astringent. At maturity, in the month of April near Bombay, the fruit 

 becomes eatable, but is very little appreciated. 



Chemical Composition — No analysis has been made of this fiTiit, 

 but there can be no doubt that in common with that of other species 

 of Diospyros, it is, when immature, rich in tannic acid. Charropin 

 (1873),^ who has examined the fruit of the American D. virginiana L., 

 found it to contain a tannic acid which he considered identical with 

 that of nutgalls, besides an abundance of pectin, glucose, and a yellow 

 colouring matter insoluble in water but dissolving freely in ether. 



Uses — The inspissated juice has been recommended as an astringent 

 in diarrhoea and chronic dysentery. 



STYRACE^. 



RESINA BENZOE. 



Benzorniuni ; Benzoin, Gum Benjamin ; F. Benjoin ; G. Benzoeharz.^ 



Botanical Origin — Styrax Benzoin Dryander, a tree of moderate 

 height, with stem as thick as a man's body and beautiful crown of 



^ Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med. 

 Plants, part 18 (1877). 



^ As we learn from Dr. Rice. — Prof. 

 Dymock (1876) gives Timbooree as the Bom- 

 bay name. 



3 Tom. iii. tab. 41. 



■* Bengal Dispensatory,Ca[cutta,l8^2A28. 



' L'ticde sur (e Plaqiitminier {Diospyros), 

 thfese, Paris, 1873. 28-30. 



6 Benzoin in Malay and Javanese is termed 

 Kamdilan, Kamiaan, and Kamayan, abbre- 

 viated to mdnan and mifian (Crawfurd) ; it 

 is called ia Siamese kom-yan or kan-yan ; 

 in Chinese ngdn-si-hldng. 



The name Benzoin is also applied to the 

 beautiful prisms C^^H'^'O- obtained by 

 treating Bitter Almond Oil with an alco- 

 holic solution of potash. 



