224 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



An annual herb. Stem cylindric erect, simple below ; 2-4 

 ft., often solitary, corymbosely branched above. Leaves narrow, 

 linear or lanceolate, sub-3-nerved, without stipular. glands. 

 Flowers lin. diam., in broad cymes ; sepals 5, ovate-acuminate, 

 3-nerved, glandular, margins ciliate or not. Petals 5, crenate, 

 contorted, fugacious, blue ; style, quite free ; stigmas linear- 

 clavate. Carpels with, ciliated axile margins in the Indian 

 plant, 5-celled ; cells 2-locellate, 2-ovuled. Capsule scarcely 

 exceeding the narrowly white-margined sepals, 5-celled, 

 septicidally splitting into 5 simple or 10 1-seeded Cocci. Seeds 

 compressed, albumen sparing ; Embryo straight, 



Parts used : —The seeds, oil and flowers. 



Uses : — The Mahomedans consider it to be cold and dry, and 

 that clothes made with the fibre, cool the body and lessen pers- 

 piration ; they recommend fumigation with the smoke, for colds 

 in the head and hysteria, and use the tinder to staunch haemorr- 

 hages. The flowers are said to be cardiacal, the seeds aphrodi- 

 siacal, and hot and dry. Linseed poultice is recommended for 

 gouty and rheumatic swellings ; as an emollient, the mucilage 

 is dropped into the eye ; with honey it is prescribed in coughs 

 and colds. The roasted seeds are said to be astringent (Dy- 

 mock). 



The seeds are used internally for gonorrhoea and irrita- 

 tion of the genitourinary system. The flowers are considered 

 a cardiac tonic (Emerson). 



It is officinal in the Indian and the British Pharmacopoeias. 



Medicinally, it is used for poultices. 



The proteins of linseed were extracted ^ith 0*2 per cent, potassium 

 hydroxide solution and hvdrolysed with hydrochloric acid of sp. gr. 1*16 

 They yielded glycine traces ; alanine, r03 per cent. ; valine, 12'71 ; leucine 

 and isoleucine, 3"97 ; proline, 2*85; phenylalanine, 4*14 ; aspartic acid, 1*65 ; 

 glutamic acid, 1158 ; 'serine, traces ; trosine, 0*65 ; arginine, 6'06 ; histidine, 

 166 ; lysine, 1*19; ammonia 1*94 ; and tryptophane, traces— in all amounting 

 to 49*43 per cent. The chief feature of the hydrolysis is the very high pro- 

 portion of valine, 12*7 per cent., as most proteins yield less than 1 per cent, 

 of valine. The amount of tyrosine is exceptionally low and the accuracy of 

 the methods of separating this amino-acid is open to doubt. Basic lead 

 acetate precipitates from neutral or faintly alkaline solutions containing 



