500 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
447 . A. catechu, Willd., h . f . b . i ., ii . 295 . 
Syn. : — Mimosa catechu. 
Sam. : — Khadira i.e., the extract. 
Vem. : — The extract Kattha, khair(H.) ; Khayer (B.) ; Khoira, 
koir (Ass.) ; Khoira (Uriya) ; Vodalai, vodalam, karangalli, 
baga, kasku kutti (Tam.) ; Kanchu, Podali-manu, khadirama 
(Tel.) ; Kadaram (Mala.) ; khair (Mar.) 
Habitat-. — Through the Himalayas, from the Punjab to 
Sikkim. 
A moderate-sized, gregarious, thorny, deciduous tree. Bark 
dark grey or greyish— brown, rough, exfoliating in long, narrow 
stripes which remain hanging. Wood very hard ; sapwood 
yellowish white ; heartwood either dark or light red. Prickles 
twin-hooked infra-stipular, compressed, brown, shining. Branch- 
lets slender, thorny, glabrous, brown or purple, shining. 
Common petiole 3-4in. loDg, often armed with scattered prickles. 
Pinnae 10-20 pair ; leaflets 30-50 pair, linear, imbricate, glabrous 
or pubescent, under £in. long, turning brown on drying 
Flowers pale yellow, in cylindrical spikes ; petals three, the 
length of the Calyx. Pods thin, brown, shining, dehiscent 
strap-shaped, straight, dark-brown, shining, 5-6 — seeded, 
2-3£ by in ; op'a stalk §- T 8 0 in. long. Seeds gin. diam., orbi- 
cular. 
Uses : — Sanskrit writers consider it to be astringent, cooling 
and digestive, useful in relaxed conditions of the throat, mouth 
and gums, also in cough and diarrhoea. Externally, they use 
it as an astringent and cooling application to ulcers, boils and 
eruptions on the skin. 
In the Concan, the juice of the fresh bark is given with 
assafoetida in haemoptysis, and the flowering tops with cumin, 
milk and sugar, in gonorrhoea (Dymock). 
Mixed with aromatics it is used by the natives in melancholia; 
powdered and mixed with water it is used in conjunctivitis 
(Dr. Emerson.) 
Khersal or- catechuic acid is found in cavities of the wood. 
It is valued in native practice as a remedy in chest affections. 
It is thought to promote expectoration. 
