122 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



stem and main branches. Branches slender and flexuous. Bark 

 j in., thick, grey, smooth. Wood hard, close-grained, yellow or 

 light-brown. Pores very small, in radial lines. Medullary 

 rays white, very numerous and prominent ''Gamble). Leaves 

 bifarious, coriaceous, oblong or linear-oblong, abruptly acumi- 

 nate, quite entire, shining above ; largest 640 by 3-4 in., 

 strongly reticulate beneath ; petiole £-1 in. long. Flowers 

 sweet-scented, yellowish, in large fascicles on the trunk, solitary 

 or a few together in the leaf-axils, dioeous, very variable in 

 size, -§--2 in. diam. ; the females largest. Peduncles 1-3 in. 

 Bracts basal, minute. Calyx coriaceous, cup-shaped, 5-toothed. 

 Petals 5, with a ciliate scale at the base of each male flower. 

 Stamens numerous, filaments woolly, anthers basifixed, linear. 

 Female flowers: staminodes 10-15, villous. Ovary 1-celled, 

 styles 5, stigma large, cordate ; ovules numerous, on 5 parietal 

 placentas. Fruit globose, 3-5 in. diam. ; rind thick, hard, rough. 

 Seeds 1 in. long, obovoid, immersed in pulp. Cotyledons flat, 

 in oily albumen. 



Uses : — It is officinal in the Indian Pharmacopoeia. The 

 oil has been very successfully used in leprosy. 



" It has been very favorably reported on in many medical 

 publications, especially as a remedy for leprosy, psoriasis, 

 eczema, scrofula, phthisis, lupus, marasmus, chronic rheu- 

 matism, and gout. The preparations most in repute in Europe 

 are the pure oil, gynocardic acid, and an ointment prepared 

 from the oil." 35 • * Perhaps the most satisfactory and trustworthy 

 results have been those obtained in the treatment of chronic 

 and acut eczema, and other forms of skin disease" (Watt.) 



Prior to 1900 it was believed that the " chaultnoogra oil " was obtained 

 from its seeds. But now it is known that, that oil is obtained from the seeds 

 of Taruktogenos Kurzii. Chaultnoogra oil, at the ordinary temperature, is a 

 solid (m. p. 22-23°) the oil from the seeds of Gynocurdia odorata is a liquid. 

 Furthermore, Chaultnoogra oil is optically active and consists chiefly of the 

 glycevylesters of members of the Chaulmoogric acid series, whereas the oil from 

 gynocardia seeds is opticially inactive, and contains neither Chaulmoogric 

 acid nor its homologues. 



Gynocardia oil consists of the glycerylesters of the following acids :— 

 (I) linolic acid, or isomerides of the same series, consisturing the largest 

 proportion of the oil ; (2) palmitic acid, in considerable amount ; (3) linolenic 



