650 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



The bark is given internally and is also applied externally 

 when the bones ache during fever (Revd. A Campbell). 



An infusion of the bark is used as a nauseating medicine. 

 It is also applied to bruises, mixed with cowdung. 



Dr. Moodeen Sheriff has found the drug a good substitute 

 for Ipecacuanha in dysentery. He recommends the powdered 

 pulp as the most convenient form for administration. Dose : 

 40 grains as an emetic ; 15 to 30 grains in dysentery. 



The bark of the tree is astringent. In colic, the fruit is 

 rubbed to paste with rice water and applied over the navel 

 (Dymock). 



It is also used to poison fish. 



The pulp of the fruit is believed by many native practi- 

 tioners to have also anthelmintic properties, and is sometimes 

 used as an abortifacient. Ground into a coarse powder and 

 applied thus to the tongue and palate, it is highly esteemed 

 as a domestic remedy for the fevers and incidental ailments 

 which children are subject to, while teething (Murray). 



Sir James Sawyer of Dublin has used it "as a nervine 

 calmative and antispasmodic in cases in which the vegetable 

 antispasmodics, such as Valerian and Assafcetida, appear to 

 be indicated." 



In addition to the substances described later, a minute quantity of an 

 alkaloid was isolated, but not characterised or identified, and a small amount 

 of lead (0"02 per cent.) was invariably present. 



Randiasaponin, a glucoside, forms yellowish plates, or a white, amorphous 

 powder, and melts and decomposes at about 250°. It loses 11*4 per cent, of 

 water at 100° ; the percentage composition of the dry substance is C, 55"52; 

 H, 8*72 ; O, 35*76. It is not hygroscopic, but dissolves in water to a neutral 

 solution, which froths readily. It is reprecipitated from this solution by 

 moderately strong hydrochloric or sulphuric acid, and is also thrown down 

 by lead acetate and basic acetate as a gelatinous compound, which serves for 

 its purification. It does not reduce alkaline copper solution, except after 

 prolonged hydrolysis with dilute hydrochloric acid, when it is converted into 

 randiasapogenin and two sugars. The osazone of one of these is insoluble 

 in ether, crystallises in yellow crusts, and melts at 166—167°, whilst that of 

 the other is soluble in ether and amorphous, and melts at 176—177°. Randia- 

 saponin, like quillayasapotoxin, has the property of dissolving red blood 

 corpuscles to a clear solution. 



Randiasapogenin, C 26 H 50 O 9 (?), the product of the hydrolysis of randiasa- 

 ponin, forms a friable mass, little soluble in water. It decomposes without 



