644 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



exfoliating in irregularly shaped, softish scales e Wood 

 white when cut up fresh ; if cut up dry, brownish grey, soft. 

 Leaves opposite ovate-elliptic or almost orbicular, abruptly ac :m- 

 inate, finely pubescent on both surfaces, 4-10 by 3-5in. ; membran- 

 ous, narrowed into a petiole l-3in. ; nerves 7-10 pair ; stipules 

 broad, recurved, usually glandular serrate. Flowers pedicil- 

 late, white, fragrant, in dense cylindrical compound ; racemes 

 in terminal drooping panicles, with linear or lanceolate bracts, as 

 long as or longer than the flowers (Brandis). Corolla-tube 

 slender, more than 3 times the length of the Calyx lobes, -g-in. 

 Stamens 5. Filament dilated. Anthers linear. Ovary 2-celled, 

 style long, exserted. Stigma spindle-shaped. Capsules f--lin., 

 on recurved thick pedicels, i jin. long, even fin., ellipsoid, 

 many-seeded. Seeds flat, lenticular, winged all round the 

 margin, ■§• by j m. including the wing. 



Uses : — The inner bark is bitter and astringent, and is used 

 as a febrifuge. The outer layer of the bark is tasteless. The 

 Pharm. Indica suggests that in all future enquiries into the sub- 

 ject of Indian antiperiodics. this bark should be one of the first 

 to which attention should be directed. 



Regarding the constituents of the bark, Messrs. Charles 

 Stanley Gibson and John Lionel Simonsen write in the Journal 

 and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1916, pp. 

 161-162:— 



This bark was first subjected to a chemical examination by Broughton in 

 1870, and subsequently Naylor (Pharm. Journ. 1893, 14. 311, 1884, 15, 195) inves- 

 tigated it much more thoroughly. Broughton showed that it contained a 

 glucoside, aesculin, and that on keeping the bark lost its bitter flavour owing 

 to the hydrolysis of the glucoside with formation of aesculetin (scopoletin). 

 Naylor, on the other hand, succeeded in isolating a crystalline alkaloid to 

 which he gave the name hymenodyctine and the formula C 24: H 40 N3 and also 

 an amorphous neutral substance of the formula C 22 H 43 G l0 . * 



From the results obtained by Naylor it seemed possible to us that the 

 alkaloid might be of therapeutic value and furthermore, since it was one of 

 the few alkaloids which do not contain oxygen, it should be of considerable 

 scientific interest, and we decided, therefore, to attempt its isolation. 



We have isolated aesculin and scopoletin, but we have been unable to find 

 any traces of an alkaloid. It would, therefore, appear that Naylor cannot have 



* This formula is obviusly incorrect, containing as it does an odd number 

 of hydrogen atoms, 



