50 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
cordate, glabrous, thin, acute or acuminate. Petiole lf-3 in., 
slender, thickened and curved at base. Flowers greenish-yellow, 
or yellow, large for the order, £ in. diam. Males in clusters 
of 1-b on slender branches of a drooping panicle exceeding the 
leaves. Females in shorter racemes, solitary. Male-flower: — 
stamens, free, but wrapped in the petals. Female flower : — 
Stigma dilated, laciniate. Ovaries 3. Drupe of 1-3, ripe carpels 
size of pea, somewhat ovoid, apiculate, smooth, red, succulent- 
Endocarp smooth. Seed generally curved round the intruded 
endocarp. 
Uses : — The following pharmaceutical preparations can be 
made of the plant : — 
1. Tincture of Gulwel. — Take 4 ounces of the stem, not 
very young and thin, nor very old and thick, but of medium age 
and size, together with the aerial roots (Kanjilal) ; cut into 
thin slices, and steep them in a pint of proof-spirit for seven 
days and press out of a Tincture-press. Dose 1-2 drachms. 
2. Cold Infusion. — Take one ounce of the stem, as directed 
above, cut into thin slices, steep them in ten ounces of cold 
water for four hours, and strain. Dose 1-3 ounces. 
3. Extract of Gulwel. — The well-grown stem is sliced 
finely and bruised in cold water, well steeped in it for four hours 
and then kept on a slow fire, until it thickens into a semi-solid or 
almost pliable mass. Dose 5-15 grains. 
4. Gulwel “ Satwa,” which means the separation of the 
solid parts, principally the Starch. Slices of a well-formed' stem 
are finely pounded into a pulp with water and strained. The 
water so strained is allowed to remain in a pan, undisturbed. 
Much white powdery matter will, after a time, deposit at the 
bottom of the pan. The supernatant water is removed and the 
deposit allowed to dry in the air or in the sun, but never heated 
on fire. Pandit Jaya Krishna Indraji says that, as soon as the 
deposit settles, the sooner it is dried the better. The quantity 
thus obtained is small, but clear white. If the mashed product, 
together with the water, be left over-night, the deposit, after 
settling down, turns blackish, although a larger quantity of the 
starch and other solids is obtained from the sediment. Dose 
