106 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Habitat: — Hot Western Himalayan Valleys eastward to 

 Nepal, Sindh, the Punjab, and Western Peninsula in the Maha= 

 baleswar hills. 



A diffuse, prostrate or trailing shrub. Buds long ; green 

 branches and young shoots pubescent or covered with soft 

 caducous white, green or yellowish totnentura. Stipulary thorns 

 yellow, hooked or nearly straight. Leaves orbicular or broadly 

 ovate, entire, rnucronate, 1-2 in. diam ; petioles i in. long. 

 Flowers 1-3 in. across, white, large showy, axillary solitary ; 

 pedicels 1-2 in. long, thickened in fruit ; filaments long, slender, 

 purple. Ovary on a slender, filiform gynophore. Fruit 1-3 in. 

 long, many-seeded, oblong, ribbed on a stout gynophore, bent 

 downwards when ripe, irregularly dehiscent, crimson inside ; 

 seeds numerous, uniform. 



Parts used : — The root and root- bark. 



Uses :— The author of the Makkzan-ul-Advia considers the 

 root-bark to be hot and dry and to act as a detergent and as- 

 tringent, expelling cold humours ; it is therefore recommended 

 in palsy, dropsy, and gouty and rheumatic affections ; the juice 

 of the fresh plant is directed to be dropped into the ear to kill 

 worms, just as Gleome juice is used in India; all parts of the 

 plants are said to have a stimulating and astringent effect when 

 applied locally (Dymocki. In Kangra, the macerated roots are 

 applied to sores (Stewart). Ainslie notices its use as an external 

 application to malignant ulcers. 



" The dried bark of the root is considered diuretic, and 

 was formerly employed in obstructions of the liver and spleen, 

 amenorrhoea, and chronic rheumatism." (United States Dis- 

 pensatory). 



The flower buds contain caper-quercitrin, having the formula C 27 H 30 

 O l6 . On hydrolysis, this yields caper-quercetin C 13 F 12 7 , in addition to 

 glucose and isodulcitol. The amount of sugar formed on hydrolysis is as 

 follows :— 



Sugar as isodulcite, Quercetin, 



per cent. per cent. 



Caper-quercitrin ... ... 56*73 ... 49*61 



J. Ch. 8. LXVI, pt. I. (1894), p. 299, 



