498 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
445. A. arabica, Willd., h.f.b.i., ii. 293. 
Syn. : — Mimosa arabica, Lam. Roxb. 421. 
Sans. : — Vabhula ; Barbara. 
Arab. : — Am-mughilan. 
Vers. : — Kare-mughilan. 
Vern. : — Babul, kikar (H.) ; Bdbul (B.) ; Babhul (Mar.) ; 
Kali-kikar (Dec.); Karu-veylam (Tam.); Nallatnmma, Bar- 
buramu, Tumma-chettu (Tel.) 
Habitat : — Punjab to Behar, and Western Peninsula. 
A large tree. Bark dark-brown, rough. Wood hard ; sapwood 
large, whitish ; heartwood pinkish white, turning reddish brown 
on exposure, mottled with dark streaks. Trunk thick cylindri- 
cal. Branchlets straight, finely grey downy, slender. Stipular 
spines variable, 4-2in. long, white, sharp, straight, sometimes 
wanting. Leaves bipinnate, rachis downy, 2-4in. long, pinnm 
3-6 pair, f-2in. long, with a cup-shaped gland between the 
lowest and sometimes between the top pair; petioles l-2in. 
long, leaflets 10-20 pair, by sVrnim, glabrous, linear acute, 
sessile, membranous, green. Flowers bright-yellow, in globose, 
fasciculate heads, about TO in. diam.; peduncles 2-6 short, 
slender, grey-downy, with 2 opposite, scaly bracts, about the 
middle- Calyx minute, membranous. Corolla campan.ulat.e, 
twice the Calyx, £in. long. Pod stalked, 3-6in. long by J broad, 
compressed, moniliform, contracted between the seeds, coria- 
ceous, persistently white tomentose, subindehiscent, 8-12-seeded ; 
seeds ovoid, smooth, dark-brown. (Talbot). 
Parts used : — The bark, gum, leaves, seeds, and pods. 
Uses -The tender leaves beaten into a pulp, are given in 
diarrhoea as an astringent (Dutt). 
Some native hakeems say, it is very useful in diabetes 
mellitus, as the gum is not converted into sugar (Da. Emerson). 
In the Concan, a strengthening sweetmeat is made by frying 
the gum, with spices and butter, and making it into balls with 
sugar. In bloody seminal discharges, 1 tola of the young 
leaves with 4 m£shas of cumin and 2 tolas of sugar are eaten 
