N. 0. COMBRETACE^. 543 



diarrhoea and chronic diarrhoea. He administers it in pills of 

 25 centigrammes each, the dose being from four to twelve pills 

 or even more in the twenty-four hours (Pharmacog. Ind.). 



It is therefore possible that the therapeutic value of myroba- 

 lans may before long form the subject of systematic investiga- 

 tion (Watt). 



A fruit, finely powdered, is used as dentifrice. Said to be 

 useful in carious teeth, bleeding and ufcerations of the gums 

 (B. D. Basu). 



A fruit, coarsely powdered and smoked in a pipe, affords 

 relief in a fit of asthma. A decoction of the fruit is a good 

 astringent wash. A fine paste, obtained by rubbing the fruit 

 on a rough stone with little water, mixed with the carron oil 

 of the Pharmacopeia and applied to burns and scalds, effects 

 a more rapid cure than when carron oil alone is used (D. R. 

 Thompson in Watt's Die). 



Water in which the fruits are kept for the night is con- 

 sidered a very cooling wash for the eyes. The ashes mixed 

 with butter form a good ointment for sores (Robb, in Watt's 

 Die). 



On removing the astringent pulp of the myrobalans a hard, stony seed 

 remains which weighs 37*5 per cent, of the fruit. The seeds are sent in large 

 quantities from the Central Provinces to Bombay as an oil seed. Within the 

 seed is a kernel which yields to ether 3G'7 per cent, of a yellowish, pleasant 

 and edible oil. A sample of the oil had an acid value of 89, saponification 

 value of 192*6, iodine value 87'5, and 96'2 per cent, of insoluble fatty acids and 

 unsaponifiabie matter. 



Ohebulic acid : — This is obtained from the fruits in the following 

 manner :— The dried fruits are powdered, macerated for 10 days at the ordinary 

 temperature with 90 per cent, alcohol, pressed and filtered. The alcohol is 

 completely removed from the extract, and the residue then dissolved in hot 

 water ; cold water is added until no further milkiness appears, and the whole 

 is allowed to settle, and then filtered. To the filtrate, sodium chloride is added 

 until a permanent turbidity appears, and the solution is then shaken out 

 with ethyl acetate, which dissolves chebulic and tannic acids. To remove 

 the latter, the ethylacetate is distilled off, and the residue dissolved in water, 

 and shaken out with ether ; from the aqueous solution crystals of chebulic 

 acid then separate on standing, and may be recrystallised from hot water. 

 The yield is 3*5 per cent. 



Chebulic acid, C 28 H 24 19 +H 2 O, begins to melt at about 200°, and is 

 optically active, having [a] D = + 66-94°. The molecular weight of the an- 

 hydrous compound was determined by Beekmann's boiling point method 



