1366 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



contain water 12*5, albuminoids 95, starch 707, oil 3'6, fibre 2*0, ash 17. 

 American grain contained 1 per cent, more fat than Indians. 



In the unrefined state the oil has a specific gravity of *916 at 15°C, the 

 elaidin test shows the presence of a large quantity of olein. Maize oil is 

 of a pale yellowish-brown colour, with an odour and taste like that of freshly 

 ground corn meal ; it belongs to the non-drying group of the vegetable oils, 

 does not easily become rancid, and has no purgative action. With alkalies 

 it forms a white soap ; it contains fatty acids (free) 0'88, total fatty acids 

 9675 per cent., mucilaginous bodies 1*34. The loss sustained by purification 

 is under 5 per cent. (J". U. Lloyd, Arner. Journ. Pharm., July 1888.) 



1334. Saccharum officinarum, Linn., h.f.b.i., vii. 

 118 ; Roxb. 97. 



Vern. : — Ukh, ganna, ikh, nai shakar, rikhu, kumad, kusiyar, 

 katari(H.); Ik, ak, uk, kushiar, puri, kullua, kajuli, (Beng.) ; 

 Akh, ikshu (Sant.) ; Tu (Newar) ; Ghenra (Parb.) ; Uk, akali 

 ehaku (Nep.) ; Aku (Ur.) ; Shakar surkh, khand, ganna, kamand, 

 paunda, ikh (Pb.) ; Kamand (Sind) ; Ganda, Sherdi, aos, us, 

 kabbu (Mar.) ; Sheradi, nai-sakar, uns (Guz.) ; Karumbu (Tam.); 

 Cheruku, charki, arukanupula-kranuga, (Tel.) ; Khabbu, basari- 

 mara (Kan.) ; Karinpa, tebu (Mai.). 



Habitat : — Cultivated throughout India. 



A large perennial grass. Stems many, 6-1 2ft. high, thick, 

 solid, jointed, polished, yellow purple or stripped ; lower inter- 

 nodes short with fibrous roots above each joint. Leaves very 

 large, crowded, lower ones soon falling off ; ligule short, entire; 

 sheaths about one foot in length, striate, smooth or with mealy 

 pubescence ; blade 3-4ft. long and from 1J to 2 inches in 

 breadth, acute, smooth on both surfaces, margins minutely 

 serrulate, ciliate at the base ; midrib prominent beneath. 

 Panicles large, compound, drooping, feathery, of a greyish 

 colour. Spikelets small, very numerous, 1-flowered, arranged 

 in pairs on alternate sides of the long slender panicle branches, 

 one stalked and the other sessile, each enveloped in an in- 

 volucre of long white silky hairs ; glumes 2, nearly equal, 

 lower 2-nerved and ciliate towards the apex, upper 1-nerved ; 

 outer pale wanting, inner shorter than the glumes. Lodicules 

 2, free, truncate, lobed. Stamens 3 ; anthers linear, oblong. 



