INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
] 22 
stem and main branches. Branches slender and flexuous. Bark 
t in., thick, grey, smooth. Wood hard, close-grained, yellow or 
light-brown. Pores very small, in radial lines. Medullary 
rays white, very numerous and prominent (Gamble). Leaves 
bifarious, coriaceous, oblong or linear-oblong, abruptly acumi- 
nate, quite entire, shining above ; largest 6-10 by 3-4 in., 
strongly reticulate beneath ; petiole £-1 in. long. Flowers 
sweet-scented, yellowish, in large fascicles on the trunk, solitary 
or a few together in the leaf-axils, dioeous, very variable in 
size, £-2 in. diam. ; the females largest. Peduncles 1-3 in. 
Bracts basal, minute. Calyx coriaceous, cup-shaped, 5-toothed. 
Petals 5, with a ciliate scale at the base of each male flower. 
Stamens numerous, filaments woolly, anthers basifixed, linear. 
Female flowers: staminodea 10-15, villous. Ovary 1-celled, 
styles 5, stigma large, cordate ; ovules numerous, on 5 parietal 
placentas. Fruit globose, 3-5 in. diam. ; rind thick, hard, rough. 
Seeds 1 in. long, obovoid, immersed in pulp. Cotyledons flat, 
In oily albumen. 
Uses : — It is officinal in the Indian Pharmacopoeia. The 
oil has been very successfully used in leprosy. 
“ It has been very favorably reported on in many medical 
publications, especially as a remedy for leprosy, psoriasis, 
eczema, scrofula, phthisis, lupus, marasmus, chronic rheu- 
matism, and gout. The preparations most in repute in Europe 
are the pure oil, gynocardic acid, and an ointment prepared 
from the oil. 15 0 3 Perhaps the most satisfactory and trustworthy 
results have been those obtained in the treatment of chronic 
and acut eczema, and other forms of skin disease” (Watt.) 
Prior to 1900 it was believed that the “ chaulmoogra oil ” was obtained 
from its seeds. Bat now it is known that, that oil is obtained from the seeds 
of Taruktogenos Kurzii. Chaulmoogra oil, at the ordinary temperature, is a 
solid (m. p. 22-23°) the oil from the seeds of Qynocurdia odorata is a liquid. 
Furthermore, Chaulmoogra oil is optically active and consists chiefly of the 
glycerylesters of members of the Chauimoogric acid series, whereas the oil from 
gynocardia seeds is opticially inactive, and contains neither Chauimoogric 
acid nor its homoiogues. 
Gynocardia oil consists of the glycerylesters of the following acids: — 
(t) linolic acid, or isomerides of the same series, consisturing the largest 
proportion of the oil ; (2) palmitic acid, in considerable amount ; (3) linolenic 
