498 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



445. A. arabiea, Willcl, h.f.b.l, ii. 293. 



Syn. : — Mimosa arabiea, Lam. Roxb. 421. 

 Sans. : — Vabhula ; Barbara. 

 Arab. : — Am-mughilan. 

 Vers. : — Kare-mughilan. 



Vern. .—Babul, kikar (H.) ; Babul (B.) ; Babhul (Mar.) ; 

 Kali-kikar (Dec.) ; Karu-veylam (Tarn.) ; Nallatumma, Bar- 

 buramu, Tunmia-chettu. (Tel.) 



Habitat : — Punjab to Behar, and Western Peninsula. 



A large tree. Bark dark-brown, rough. Wood hard ; sap wood 

 large, whitish ; heart wood pinkish white, turning reddish brown 

 on exposure, mottled with dark streaks. Trunk thick cylindri- 

 cal. Branchlets straight, finely grey downy, slender. Stipular 

 spines variable, i-2in. long, white, sharp, straight, sometimes 

 wanting. Leaves bipinnate, rachis downy, 2-4in. long, pinnae 

 3-6 pair, -f-2in. long, with a cup-shaped gland between the 

 lowest and sometimes between the top pair ; petioles l-2in. 

 long, leaflets 10-20 pair, -§--J by gVin^n glabrous, linear acute, 

 sessile, membranous, green. Flowers bright-yellow, in globose, 

 fasciculate heads, about Ta in. diam.; peduncles 2-6 short, 

 slender, grey-downy, with 2 opposite, scaly bracts, about the 

 middle. Calyx minute, membranous. Corolla campanulate, 

 twice the Calyx, fin. long. Pod stalked, 3-6in. long by \ broad, 

 compressed, moniliform, contracted between the seeds, coria- 

 ceous, persistently white tomentose, subindehiscent, 8-12-seeded ; 

 seeds ovoid, smooth, dark-brown. (Talbot). 



Parts used : — The bark, gum, leaves, seeds, and pods. 



Uses: — The tender leaves beaten into a pulp, are given in 

 diarrhoea as an astringent (Dutt). 



Some native hakeems say, it is very useful in diabetes 

 mellitus, as the gum is not converted into sugar (Dr. Emerson). 



In the Concan, a strengthening sweetmeat is made by frying 

 the gum, with spices and butter, and making it into balls with 

 sugar. In bloody seminal discharges, 1 tola of the young 

 leaves with 4 mashas of cumin and 2 tolas of sugar are eaten 



