1378 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



1344. Eleusine coracana, Gaertn., h>f.b.i., vii. 

 294;Roxb. 115. 



Sans. : — Rajika (according to Paddington), raji (according 

 to U. C. Dutt). 



Vern. : — Mama, (Beng.) ; Kode (Sant.) ; Mandua, mama, 

 makra, rotka (H.) ; Mandal, chalodra (Pb.) ; Kodon, koda, kodra, 

 kutra (Pb. Him.) ; Nangli, nachni (Sind) ; Nagli, nachiri (Mar.); 

 Navto nagli, (Guz.) ; Kayur, kelvaragu (Tarn.) ; Tamidelu, ragulu 

 (Tel.) ; Ragi(Kan.); Kurakkan (Sing.) ; Mandwah (Pers.). 



Habitat : — Cultivated in many parts of India. 



A medium-sized annual grass. Stems several, erect, 2-4ft. 

 high, somewhat compressed, smooth, sulcate. Leaves with long 

 finely sulcate sheaths ; ligule shallow, densely bearded ; blade 

 l-2ft., linear, smooth, striate. Spikes 4-6, digitate, incurved, 

 with usually one or more isolated ones placed lower down and 

 representing a second verticil ; spikelets sessile, 2-5in., arranged 

 in two rows on one side of a flattened somewhat flexuose and 

 minutely toothed rachis. Florets sessile, distichous. Glumes 

 lanceolate, boat-shaped, with membranous margins, keel promi- 

 nent, edged with minute forward prickles ; outer one about 

 twice as long as the inner ; lower pale ovate mucronate, the 

 middle nerve forming a prominent keel ; inner pale smaller, 

 bifid, the two principal nerves keeled and armed with small 

 prickles. Lodicules very small, entire or bilobed at the apex. 

 Ovary smooth, shortly stalked ; styles 2, with long feathery 

 stigmas. Seed globular and about the size of mustard, dark 

 reddish brown, transversely wrinkled, enclosed in a loose mem- 

 branous pericarp. Var. stricta (E. striata, Roxb. 1. c. 115), stems 

 2-5 ft. high, spikes straight. (Duthie and Fuller.) 



Mandua is a native of India. Its specific name is founded on the Cingha- 

 lese word kourakhan. There is an allied species (Eleusine cegyptiaca) bearing 

 the vernacular name (makra), and occurring commonly throughout Upper 

 India, which presents to a superficial examination hardly any points of differ- 

 ence from the cultivated plant ; the seed of this wild plant is collected by the 

 poorer classes as an unpalatable, though often very serviceable, food. The 

 grain of the cultivated mandua is anything but popular diet. Cakes made from 

 it are very dry eating, and little satisfies an empty stomach. For this reason 

 it is recknoned an economic grain by the poor. But no one eats mandua cakes 



