ANONACE^. 267 



have a strong narcotic odour; and tlie juice that Hows from the 

 cut branches is acrid, and inflames the conjunctiva if" dropped into 

 the eye.' As a drug the green fruit is employed just like that of A. 

 muricata^^ 



The fruit of Anona muricatcc' is the Sour-sop, Corossol or Cachiman 

 epineux, grand Corossol or SappacU/Ic ; a large ovoidal, or more rarely 

 nearly globular berry, often unequally grown, with straight or hooked 

 points more or less thickly distributed over its surface (fig. 271). 

 Its weight may reach 4| lbs. (two kilogrammes). The greenish or 

 yellowish surface forms a sort of peel, with a smell of turpentine and 

 a disagreeable taste ; this is easily removed to disclose a whitish 

 pulp of buttery consistency and pleasant subacid fiavour, recalling 

 at once strawberry, pineapple, and cinnamon. Its smell has been 

 compared to both apples and pears. It has been found to contain 

 tartaric acid. The ripe fruit is eaten with or without sugar ;^ or it is 

 fried or boiled as a vegetable when not more than a quarter of its 

 full size. From the expressed juice, mixed with sugar, is prepared 

 a fermented drink in two days ; this does not keep well, but when it 

 turns sour becomes excellent vinegar. The fruit is also used in me- 

 dicine ; when ripe it is supposed to be an antiscorbutic and febrifuge ; 

 besides, picked before maturity, dried and powdered, it is administered 

 in cases of intestinal flux or dysentery, when the inflammatory 

 symptoms have been removed by appropriate treatment.' A decoction 

 of the green fruit is used topically to the aphthse of children. From 

 the leaves are prepared poultices, as from those oi A. reticulala. The 

 flowers, leaf-buds, and leaves, are also, it is said, pectoral and de- 

 mulcent. The seeds are astringent. 



De Mautius also points out A. Pisonis^ and Marcgravi'i' as Anon as 

 with edible fruit. The decoction of the green fruit of the latter 

 is also used in Brazil in the treatment of aphthous stomatitis. 



* This is relieved by lemon-juice. there called Kischta, i.e., cream. The Pignon 

 ^ It is used as an astringent in Saint Do- of Senegal spoken of by Apanson (I o_?^., 47)ap- 



niingo. In tropical Asia it is cooked, when pears to be A. muricata. 



green, like a head of artichoke, for which it is •'' M. de Maetius {Flor. 61) says that it is 



substituted in sauces. The root is used in India administered in a dose of about two drachms, in 



in the treatment of epilepsy. a nuicllaginous enema, to which a small amount 



3 Spec, 75G. — J ACQ., Obs., i. 10, t. 5.— Dun., of opium is added, and that this treatment was 



Mon., 62. — DC, Syst., i. 4G7 ; Prodr., n. 1. — recommended to him by La Cekda, a clever 



Tuss., Fl. AniUl., t. 24. physician of Tara. Descouktils {Fl. Med. des 



* It is used to prepare creams and other deli- Aniillcs, ii. 63) also reconnnends this drug, 

 cacies. According to Fokskhal & Sonnekat '' Fl. Bras., Aiionac, 5, n. 3. 



(see ii. 3), A. muricata, cultivated in Arabia, is ' Op. oil., n. 2. 



