660 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



613. Morinda citrifolia, Linn. Var. bracteata, 

 H.F.B.I., in. 156. 



Syn. :— M. bracteata, Roxb. 182. 

 Sails. : — Achchhuka. 



Vern.-.—Al (TL); Ach, Aich, Achhu fB.); Al ; Bartondi, 

 nagakuda, aseti (Bomb.) ; Munja-pavattay ; Noona-maram (Tarn.) ; 

 Cada pilva (Mai.) ; Molagha; Maddichetton (Tel.) 

 Var: — Bracteata, hurdi, huldi kunj, rouch (B.) 

 Habitat : — Cultivated and wild (?) throughout the hotter 

 parts of India. 



A large shrub or small tree, glabrous, trunk straight, bark 

 smooth, branches obtusely 4-angled. Leaves shining, usually 

 6-10in., broadly elliptic, acuminate, acute or obtuse short- 

 petioled, one of the pair next to the peduncle often suppressed. 

 Stipules large, broadly oblong or semilunar, entire or 2-3-fid, 

 glabrous. Peduncles solitary, rarely 2-3-nate at the ends of 

 the branches, usually in the axils of every other pair of leaves, 

 lin. long or more, supporting leaf not developed. Flowers 

 5-merous. Calyx-limb truncate. Corolla white, tube Jin. or less. 

 Lobes glabrous, fusiform in bud, throat pubescent. Anthers 

 partly exserted. Fruit of many drupes coalescent into a fleshy 

 globose or ovoid head, pale, greenish-white, lin. diam. 



Use : — The charred leaves made into a decoction with mustard 

 are a favourite domestic remedy for infantile diarrhoea. The 

 unripe berries, charred and mixed with salt, are applied success- 

 fully to spongy gums ^Watt's Dictionary). 



The Cochin Chinese believe the fruit to be deobstruent and 

 emmenagogue (Ainslie.) The expressed juice of leaves is ex- 

 ternally applied to gout, to relieve pain (Drury). In Bombay, 

 the leaves are used as a healing application to wounds and 

 ulcers, and are administered internally as a tonic and febrifuge 

 (Dymock). 



The root is used as a cathartic (Watt\ 

 The oil is of a yellowish color, with a Sp. Gr. of 0'927 at 13°C. It is cloudy, 

 owing to the separation from it of small crystals, which, recrystallised from 

 alcohol, melt at 60° C, and, upon analysis, are shown to consist of paraffins. 

 When freed from the crystals, the oil is almost entirely soluble in dilute caustic 

 soda. In the solution capronic and caprylic acids as well as a trace of higher 



