22 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
solution is decanted from a flask, the indaconitine crystallises on the sides, 
either in a characteristic fern-like form or in thin, circular layers of silky 
needles. 
Indaconitine crystallises uncorabined with its solvent. 
The melting point of indaconitine, if immersed in the bath at 150° and the ' 
temperature slowly raised, is 202-203°. Crystallographically, indaconitine very 
closely resembles aconitine, and on further investigation may prove to be 
isomorphous. 
Composition.— C 34 H 4 , O 10 N, requires C=64 86 ; H=7 - 47, and N— 222 
per cent. 
Physiological action. — This differs in degree only, and not in kind, from that 
of aconitine and pseudo-aconitine. As in the case of other “ aconitines,'' the 
toxic action of indaconitine is virtually abolished by the removal of the 
acetyl group, which occurs in the formation of indbenzaconine, an alkaloid 
which is scarcely poisonous. 
19 . A rotundi folium., Ver. and Kir. 
Syn : — A. napellus, var. mnltifidum, Duthie. 
A. napellus, var. rotundifolium. Hh. f. and Th. 
Habitat: — Alpine zone of Turkistan to the North-Western 
Himalaya, and the Safed Koh of Indo-Afghan frontier. 
Roots : — Biennial, paired, tuberous ; daughter- tuber short, or 
long, conic or subcylindric, 1 — 2.5 cm. long, 6-8 mm. thick, bear- 
ing long fine root — fibres breaking off easily ; bark very thin, 
whitish to brown, smooth, fracture pure white, farinaceous ; taste 
slightly bitter, almost indifferent ; cambium discontinuous, form- 
ing 4-5 isolated, very slender cylindric strands arranged in a 
ring ; mother-tuber more or less shrunk, wrinkled, dark brown to 
almost black, brownish internally. Stem erect or ascending 
from a short (1‘5 cm.) hypogaeous base, simple, 15-40 cm. high, 
terete, slender, crispo-pubescent in upper part, glabrous below. 
Leaves mostly basal, 4-5 rarely 8, gathered in a loose rosette 
above the hypogaeous part of the stem, coetanous with the 
flowers, somewhat fleshy, glabrous or scantily pubescent on long 
(4-13 cm.) petioles which are dilated and more or less sheathing 
at the base ; 1-2 or rarely more, higher up on the stem or very short 
petioles ; lower .blade, orbicular-cordate or almost reniform in 
outline, with a narrow sinus (0'7-2 cm. deep), l-3'5 cm. high 
