556 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



long; secondary nerves numerous, slender, closely parallel. 

 Flowers whitish, scented, sessile, in compound dichotomous 

 cymes on the previous year's wood, rarely axillary. Calyx-iube 

 turbinate, J-iin. long, base short, cylindrical, limb almost 

 truncate, segments very short. Petals united in a caiyptra. 

 Stamens as long as the Calyx-tube. Fruit |-liin. long, pink 

 while ripening, beautifully purple almost to black when fully 

 ripe, luscious, juicy, astringent to taste, but very agreeable 

 when eaten quite ripe. 



Parts used : — The bark, leaves, fruits and seeds. 



Use:— The bark is astringent, and is used alone or in com- 

 bination with other medicines of its class, in the preparation 

 of astringent decoctions, gargles and washes. The fresh juice 

 of the bark is given with goat's milk in the diarrhoea of children. 

 The expressed juice of the leaves is used alone or in combin- 

 ation with other astringents in dysentery (Dutt). 



The author of the Makhzan says that the fruit is useful as- 

 tringent in bilious diarrhoea, and makes a good gargle for sore 

 throat or lotion for ringworm of the head. The root and seeds 

 are useful astringents, also the leaves. He tells us that a kind 

 of wine is made from the fruit, and that the juice of the leaves 

 dissolves iron filings, or, as he expresses it, reduces them to so 

 light a condition that they float upon the surface of the liquid 

 as a scum. This, when collected and washed, he recommends 

 as a tonic and astringent (Dymock). 



A vinegar, prepared from the juice of the ripe fruit, is 

 an agreeable stomachic and carminative ; it is also used as a 

 diuretic. 



Recently the seeds have been used in diabetes. 



The seeds of Eugenia Jambolana, Lam, contain neither alkaloid nor enezyme. 

 The aloholic extract when distilled in steam yielded a small amount of a 

 pale yellow oil, with the following characteristics : sp gr. 0° 9258 at 20 o /20 o C., 

 aD=2°51' in a 50m. tube. The portion of the alcoholic extract insoluble 

 in water contained the following substances : a mixture of fatty acids, a 

 small amount of a solid, melting at 78°-80°C. and a new phenolic substance, 

 styled Jambulol. This can be crystallised from pyridine, and forms brown 

 needles containing solvent of crystallisation. It has the composition, C 16 

 H 8 9 . The penta acetyl derivative forms pale-brown leaflets melting at 



