254 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



elsewhere often 4 in. long (called T. floribunda. — Wall). Flowers 

 small, cream-coloured, in axillary panicles longer than the petiole; 

 Jin. diam. Calyx glandular. Petals 5, imbricate. Stamens not 

 exceeding the petals. Ovary usually 5-celled. Style short. 

 Stigma 5-lobed. Ovules 2, superposed in each cell. Fruit 

 globose, size of a large pea, 3-5-grooved, orange-coloured, fin. 

 diam.; 3-5-celled. Seeds solitary in each cell. The whole plant 

 hot and pungent, 



Parts used : — The root, bark, leaves and fruit. 



Uses :--The root is pungent and sub-aromatic, and is consi- 

 dered as stomachic and tonic. It is given in a weak infusion 

 to the quantity of half a teacupful in the course of the clay ; 

 the leaves are also sometimes used for the same purpose 

 (Ainslie). The fresh leaves are eaten raw for pains in the 

 bowels ; the fresh bark of the root is administered by the 

 Telinga physicians for the cure of remittent fever. I conceive 

 every part of this plant to be possessed of strong, stimulating 

 powers, and have no doubt but, under proper management, it 

 might prove a valuable medicine where stimulants are required 



(Roxb.) 



The root-bark is officinal in the Indian Pharmacopoeia, 

 being described as an aromatic tonic, stimulant and anti- 

 periodic ; useful in constitutional debility, and in convalescence 

 after febrile and other exhausting diseases. Dr. Bidie of 

 Madras says, he knows of no single remedy in which active 

 stimulant, carminative, and tonic properties are so happily 

 combined as in this drug. 



Rheede states that the unripe fruit and root are rubbed 

 down with oil to make a stimulant liniment for rheumatism. 



"I have been using the root-bark of T. aculeata in my prac- 

 tice during the last twelve or thirteen years, and do not 

 hesitate in saying that it is one of the most valuable drugs 

 in India. It is, as antiperiodic and antipyretic, equal, if not 

 superior, to quinine and other alkaloids of cinchona and to 

 Warburg's tincture, respectively : and, as a diaphoretic, deci- 

 dedly more efficacious than Pulv. Jacobi Vera or James' 

 powder, and a few other antipyretic medicines mentioned 



