22 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



solution is decanted from a flask, the indaconitine crystallises on the sides, 

 either in a characteristic fern-like form or in thin, circular layers of silky 

 needles. 



Indaconitine crystallises uncombined with its solvent, 



The melting point of indaconitine, if immersed in the bath at 150° and the 

 temperature slowly raised, is 202-203°. Crystallographically, indaconitine very 

 closely resembles aconitine, and on further investigation may prove to be 

 isomorphous, 



Composition.— C 34 H 47 O 10 N, requires C=64'86 ; 11=7-47, and N=2"22 

 per cent. 



Physiological action. — This differs in degree only, and not in kind, from that 

 of aconitine and pseudo-aconitine. As in the case of other " aconitines,'' the 

 toxic action of indaconitine is virtually abolished by the removal of the 

 acetyl group, which occul-s in the formation of indbenzaconine, an alkaloid 

 which is scarcely poisonous. 



19. A rotundi folium,, Ver. and Kir. 



Syn : — A. napellus, var. rnultifidum, Duthie. 



A. napellus, var. rotundifolium. Hk. /. and Th. 



Habitat : — Alpine zone of Tnrkistan to the North- Western 

 Himalaya, and the Safed Koh of Indo- Afghan frontier. 



Roots : — Biennial, paired, tuberous ; daughter-tuber short, or 

 long, conic or subcylindric, 1 — 2.5 cm. long. 6-8 mm. thick, bear- 

 ing long fine root — fibres breaking off easily ; bark very thin, 

 whitish to brown, smooth, fracture pure white, farinaceous ; taste 

 slightly bitter, almost indifferent ; cambium discontinuous, form- 

 ing 4-5 isolated, very slender cylindric strands arranged in a 

 ring ; mother-tuber more or less shrunk, wrinkled, dark brown to 

 almost black, brownish internally. Stem erect or ascending 

 from a short (1*5 cm.) hypogaeous base, simple, L5-40 cm. high, 

 terete, slender, crispo-pubescent in upper part, glabrous below. 

 Leaves mostly basal, 4-5 rarely 8, gathered in a loose rosette 

 above the hypogaeous part of the stem, coetanous with the 

 flowers, somewhat fleshy, glabrous or scantily pubescent on long 

 (4-13 cm.) petioles which are dilated and more or less sheathing 

 at the base ; 1-2 or rarely more, higher up on the stem or very short 

 petioles ; lower blade, orbicular-cordate or almost reniform in 

 outline, with a narrow sinus (07-2 cm. deep), 1-35 cm. high 



