770 



INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



brown or olive-brown to nearly black, clouded. Leaves 2-4in. 

 long, oblong, lanceolate, cuspidate, entire, very coriaceous, 

 dark-green and shining above, thickly coated with a dense film 

 of minute red scales ; margins slightly recurved, midrib prom- 

 inent, petiole about Jin. Flowers bisexual, whitish, in axillary 

 trichotomous cymes, l-2in. long. Calyx nearly truncate or 

 with 4 short teeth. Corolla deeply divided. Lobes T V n - elliptic, 

 obtuse or acute, with a ridge along the middle, induplicate- 

 valvate in bud. Anthers oval, dehiscing alternately. Style short, 

 stigma bifid. Drupe J-iin. long, ovoid, black when ripe, 

 supported by the remains of the Calyx. Endocarp bony ; pulp 

 scanty, oily. 



Uses: — An oil is extracted from the fruit which is used 

 medicinally as a rubefacient. Leaves and bark are bitter and 

 astringent, used as an antiperiodic in fever and debility, 

 (Brandis), 



The Commissioner of Kohat has sent to the Tndian Museum samples of the 

 oil and fruit which is said to ripen in October and November. The fruits 

 contained very little pulp and the oil appeared to be yielded by the speeds, the 

 kernels of which contained 318 per cent. This may explain the small yield 

 of oil recorded in pressing experiments made since 1851. It has been sugges- 

 ted that by grafting the European species and by improved method of extrac- 

 tion the yield might be improved. The oil of this wild olive has a greenish- 

 yellow colour, and its characters resemble those of European olive oil. Cros- 

 sley and Le Sueur in 1897 obtained the following constants : Specific gravity, 

 920 ; acid value, 50 ; saponification value, 190 9 ; iodine value, 93 6 ; Reichert- 

 Meissl value, "6 ; insoluble fatty acids, 95" 14 per cent. Like olive oil it was 

 non-siccative, but the iodine value of this sample was abnormally high. A 

 recent sample of this oil from Koliat had a more normal iodine value of 86*1. 

 (Hooper). 



743. 0. glandulifera, Wall, h.f.b.i., hi. 612. 



Vern. :— Gulili, raban, sira, pbalsb (Pb.) ; Gair, galdu, garur 

 (Kumaon). 



Habitat : — Fairly common along the outer Himalaya tracts, 

 N.-W. Himalaya, from Kashmir to Nepal. Mountains of South 

 India. 



A moderate-sized tree, 20-60ft., glabrous or nearly so. Bark 

 -§-in. thick, grey, uneven, exfoliating in brittle scales. Branches 

 lenticillate. Leaves rhomboid-lanceolate 4-2in., entire, ovate- 

 lanceolate, long acuminate entire, margins slightly undulate; 



