378 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Ion describes it as compresso-obovate or obcordate, hence 
gibbous. This is a more accurate description, I think. Style 
simple, solitary, filiform, eccentric, becoming convolute, as if to 
bring the stigma into contact with the large anther of the long 
filament (Roxb). Stigma minute, often tinged crimson. Ovule 
solitary, long, conical ; inserted at the summit of a suberect, 
ascending panicle. Chalaza superior ; micropyle in trose, inferior, 
near funicle. Fruit an ash-coloured nut, kidney-shaped, dry, 
shining, indchiscent. lin. long, jin- broad at hilum ; some- 
what compressed. Mesocarp soft, corky, lacunose, oleo-resinous. 
The epicarp and pericarp coriaceous, not woody, as Baillon says. 
The most noteworthy part of the plant is the succulent, fleshy, 
enlarged peduncle, soft and juicy, obovoid, slightly sweet, at 
times very acrid and irritating to the throat and tongue ; popu- 
larly sold as the Kajn fruit in the bazaar, and of which much 
liquor is manufactured in Goa. Seed kidney-shaped which is the 
i-eal fruit, corresponding to the pericarp. Testa crisp, mem- 
branous, and easily removable, mottled reddish-brown outside, 
deep crimson inside, of an astringent aromatic taste, separable 
from the kernel or milkwhite cotyledons by a resinous 
fracture ; albumen absent. 
Parts used : — The fruit, seeds and spirit. 
Uses The bark is said to have alterative properties. The 
tar, which contains about 90 p. c. of anacardic acid and 10 p. c. 
of cardol, has recently been recommended as an external appli- 
cation in leprosy, ringworm, corns and obstinate ulcers ; it is 
powerfully rubefacient and vesicant, and requires to be used 
with caution. In Native practice, it is sometimes used as a 
counter-irritant. In Europe, a tincture of the pericarp (1 to 10 
of rectified spirit) has been used in doses of 2 to 10 minims as 
a vermifuge. According to Basiner, the subcutaneous injection 
of small doses of cardol produces on cold-blooded animals 
paresis, increasing to paralysis of the extremities, stupor, para- 
lysis of respiration and tetanic spasms. In warm-blooded 
animals large doses are not lethal, but stupor, paralysis of the 
extremities and diarrhoea occur, and, after death, congestion of 
