422 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Habitat: — Plains of the U. Provinces, upper Ganges 
and the Concan. 
Sans. Durlabha, girikarnika, yavdsa. 
Arab. : — Alhaju, haj, aaqi'il, shoukuljaiinal. 
Pers. : — Shutarkhor, khareshutar. 
Vern : — Jawas4 (H. and Bomb.) ; Dulalabha (B.) ; 
Girikarmika (Tel.) ; Oosturkbar, kas-kliandero (Sind). 
The Manna, Taranjabin. 
A low shrub, armed with copious sub-patent, hard pungent 
spines §-lin. long. Leaves simple, drooping from the base of 
the spines or branches, oblong, obtuse, rigidly coriaceous glab- 
rous. Flowers 1-6 from a spine, on short pedicels. Calyx 
glabrous T Viim Corolla reddish, 3 times the Calyx. Pod one 
in. long or less, falcate or straight. 
Duthie writes ( Flora of the Upper Oangetic Plain, Vol. I., p. 
280 ) that “ the true A. maurorum of Tournefort, with silky 
pods, does not occur in India.” 
Uses:—' The plant is described by Sanskrit writers as 
laxative, diuretic and expectorant, the thorny flower, stalks and 
branches being the parts used. No reference is made by them 
to the manna. 
In Mahomedan works it is' considered to be aperient, attenuant 
and alexipharmic. A poultice or fumigation with it is 
recommended to cure piles. The expressed juice is applied to 
opacities of the cornea, and is directed to be snuffed up the 
nose as a remedy for megrim. An oil is prepared with the 
leaves as an external application in rheumatism ; the floweis are 
applied to remove piles (Dymock). 
The manna is not produced by the Indian plant, but is 
imported from Persia and Bokhara. It is described by the 
author of the Mahhzan as aperient and cholagogue, more 
digestible than ash manna, expectorant, a good purifier of the 
blood from corrupt and adust humors when given in diet 
drinks, such as barley water, &c ; diuretic, and, with milk, 
fattening and aphrodisiac. (Dymock). 
