528 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
prescribed in coughs and bowel complaints as a demulcent ; 
externally it is applied to scalds, burns and blisters (Dymock), 
The seeds act as demulcent, and are used by the natives in 
diarrhoea, dysentery, sore-throat, and fever. The dried fruit is 
used as a refrigerant (Watt). 
Fatty oil of seeds.— Seeds were ground, dried carefully, and extracted with 
ether, chloroform or light petroleum ; fresh seeds yielded 15*3 per cent, of 
oil. This oil was yellow and had a faint odoui of oil of almonds ; it had a 
solidification point— 1S'5°, sp.gr. 0 922 at, 15° solubility 4‘ 1 5 parts in 100 of 95 
per cent, alcohol, index of refraction 1'47248 for green, 147292 for red, visco- 
sity I6’4 at 17° (by Schubler's method, comparing its velocity of efflux with 
that of water) ; it was optically inactive and showed obscure absorption 
bands in the blue and violet. 1 gram neutralised 31'7 milligrams K. O. H. in 
the cold (“ acid number 181*7 on heating (‘‘ Koettstorfer’s ” or “ saponifica- 
tion number ”) ; 5 grams contained volatile acids, soluble in water sufficient to 
neutralise 0'508 c.c. N./ 10 E. O. H. solution (“ Reichert-Meissl number”); it 
contained 95'2 per cent, of fatty acids, insoluble in water ‘‘ Hehner’s number"), 
and united with 113 per cent, of iodine (“ Rubl's iodine number. ”). 
By hydrolysis of the oil with lead oxide, glycerol was obtained to the ex- 
tent of 4-1 per cent. A larger quantity of the oil was hydrolysed with caustic 
soda, and the acids converted into calcium salts, which were then treated with 
ether. From the calcium salt, soluble in ether, a liquid acid was obtained, and 
purified by conversion into its ethylic salt and fractional distillation of the 
latter. This acid has a sp. gr. 0'8931 and composition OH. C 17 H 32 COOH ; 
its ethylic salt boils at 223-226° under 7'5 mm., pressure ; an anhydrous 
barium salt, melting at 79°, and a monacetyl derivative’ were prepared; a 
dibromide, C 13 N 34 0 3 Br 3 , was also prepared, and the acid was found to darken 
in the air, absorbing oxygen. From the calcium salt, insoluble in ether, 
a mixture of solid acids was obtained from which two were separated by 
crystallisation from 70 per cent, alcohol ; these were myristie aeid, the 
main product, and a small amount of an acid which melts at 42°, contains 
C. 75‘1 and H121 per cent., and is possibly an isomeride of pentadecylic acid. 
(J. Ch. S. 1899 A. 1. 822). 
Pectin from Quince. This pectin is strongly dextrorotatory, [n]D = 181'2°. 
On hydrolysis with dilute sulphurio acid, it yields arabinose ; when treated 
with nitric acid, it gives rnucie acid, and with diastase from germinated barley 
it behaves exactly like the pectin obtained from the gentian and the goose- 
berry.— (J. Oh. S. 1899 A. I. 822). 
478 . Eriobotrya japonica, Lindl. h.f.b.i., II. 372 . 
Vern .: — Logat (H.). 
Habitat : — The tree is indigenous in China and Japan. The 
fruit of Saharanpur is especially in repute, says Gamble. It 
