492 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



pair ; leaflets 3-4 pair, l-2in. long, glabrous, shining, oblong 

 or obovate, obtuse or acute, rigidly coriaceous. Flowers tVI* 11 - 

 long, pale yellow, crowded in long slender spikes from the 

 axils of the upper leaves, or arranged in terminal panicle. 

 Spikes peduncled, hit. long or more, usually panicled from 

 the nodes of old leafless branches. Pedicels short, or absent. 

 Calyx shortly 5-tootbed ; petals 5, stamens free, 10, exserted, 

 anthers tipped with glabrous, deciduous glands. Pods woody, 

 2- 4ft., or more by 4-5in., curved, constricted between the 

 seeds, consisting of 10-30, one-seeded, flat, square or nearly 

 orbicular joints, the valves thick, separating from the thick 

 rim. Seeds 2in. broad, flat, nearly orbicular, brown, shining, 

 testa hard. The seeds are eaten after being roasted. 



Uses : — The kernel of the seeds is employed by the Hill people 

 as a febrifuge. In Java, employed as emetic (Drury). 



An infusion of the spongy fibres of the trunk is used with 

 advantage for various affections of the skin in the Philippines. 

 (Dalzell and Gibson). The seeds are used in pains of the loins 

 and debility (Watt.) 



The properties of the seeds do not appear to have been tested 

 in European practice (Dymock>. 



Powdered kernel, mixed with some few spices, is commonly 



taken by native women for some days immediately after delivery, 



for allaying the bodily pains and warding off cold (Watt). 



Crude saponin was extracted from the seeds after removal of the fat by 

 means of 90 per cent alcohol, and precipitated by ether from the cold alcoholic 

 extract. By precipitation with barium hydroxide solution, a saponin, named 

 " Saponin A. " was removed from the aqueous solution of this crude saponin. 

 The solution thus freed from "Saponin A " was evaporated to dryness, after 

 removing the excess of barium hydroxide, the dry residue extracted with hot 

 90 per cent, alcohol, and the alcoholic solution fractionally precipitated with 

 chloroform and ether. The aqueous solution of the ether precipitate was 

 dialysed, and the residue evaporated to dryness in vacua over sulphuric acid. 

 " Saponin B " C 15 H 22 O 10 was thus obtained as a whitish hygroscopic 

 powder, which became brownish on heating to 110 °C. It was precipitated 

 from strong aqueous solutions by basic, but not by normal lead acetate. 

 It gave a dark reddish-violet color, with strong sulphuric acid, eventually 

 turning brown. On hydrolysis, a sugar identical with galactose, a sapogenin 

 soluble in ether and in alcohol, and another body insoluble in those solvents 

 and in ammonia, were formed.— J. S. Ch. I. 16-5-1904, p. 502. 



