776 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Parts used :— The fruit and root. 



A large erect evergreen shrub or small tree. Bark yellowish 

 brown, peeling off in square scales. Wood white ; heartwood 

 irregular greyish or orange yellow, streaked, hard, smooth, close- 

 grained, (Gamble). Branches many dichotomous rigid, spreading; 

 axils and nodes with 2 straight sharp simple or forked thorns 

 sometimes 1-2 in. long. Leaves subsessile, 1J- — 3 by 1 — 1 J in -> 

 oblong-oval or oblong-lanceolate, rather thinly coriaceous, gla- 

 brous, base rounded or retuse, apex obtuse, rarely mucronate. 

 Flowers fragrant white or pale rose-coloured in threes, shortly 

 stalked in cluster at end ef short axillary and terminal pedun- 

 cles ; bracts small, linear, pubescent. Calyx-segments subulate 

 lanceolate, acute, puberulous and ciliate. Corolla-tube f in., 

 glabrous or puberulous with swollen throat and lobes pubescent ; 

 lobes lanceolate, acute, about half as long as the tube, spreading. 

 Ovary glabrous, cells 4-ovuled. Fruit a drupe i — 1 in. long, 

 boardly ovoid, bluntly pointed, shinking, blackish or reddish 

 purple with pulp of the same colour or pinkish white, with white 

 sticky juice on the epicarp. Seeds 2-4 seldom more. 



Uses :— The unripe fruit is astringent, and the ripe fruit is 

 cooling, acid and useful in bilious complaints. The root has 

 the reputation of being a bitter stomachic, " Used in Concan, 

 pounded with horse urine, lime-juice and camphor as a remedy 

 for itch." (Dymock.) 



In Cuttack the decoction of the leaves is very much used at 

 the commencement of remittent fever. (Surg. -Major P. N. 

 Mukerji.^) 



The fruit has been reported by several medical officers to 



possess antiscorbutic properties. (Watt, II. 165.) 



" The roots were air-dried, reduced to powder, and digested with 80 per 

 cent., alcohol. The alcohol-free extract was mixed with water, dilute Sulphuric 

 acid added, and agitated with benzole, which separated an oil of the consistence 

 of honey at 75° P., and partly soluble in absolute alcohol with acid reaction. A 

 trace of volatile oil was also present, with an odour similar, to that of Piper 

 Betle leaf oil. During agitation with benzole a mass of dark-yellowish resin 

 separated, which caked. The liquid containing the separated resin was next 

 agigated with ether. The ether extract was not more than a trace, and 

 contained Salicylic acid. The insoluble mass of resin was now separated, and 



