N. 0. C0MBRETA0E-E. 
543 
diarrhoea and chronic diarrhoea. He administers it in pills of 
25 centigrammes each, the dose being from four to twelve pills 
or even more in the twenty-four hours (Pharmacog. Ind.). 
It is therefore possible that the therapeutic value of myroba- 
ians may before long form the subject of systematic investiga- 
tion (Watt). 
A fruit, finely powdered, is used as dentifrice. Said to be 
useful in carious teeth, bleeding and ulcerations of the gums 
(B. D. Basu). 
A fruit, coarsely powdered and smoked in a pipe, affords 
relief in a fit of asthma. A decoction of the fruit is a good 
astringent wash. A fine paste, obtained by rubbing the fruit 
on a rough stone with little water, mixed with the carron oil 
of the Pharmacopeia and applied to burns and scalds, effects 
a more rapid cure than when carron oil alone is used (D. R. 
Thompson in Watt’s Die.). 
Water in which the fruits are kept for the night is con- 
sidered a very cooling wash for the eyes. The ashes mixed 
with butter form p, good ointment for sores (Robb, in Watt’s 
Die.). 
On removing ' the astringent pulp of the myrobalans a hard, stony seed 
remains which weighs 37-5 per cent, of the fruit. The seeds are sent in large 
quantities from the Central Provinces to Bombay as an oil seed. Within the 
seed is a kernel which yields to ether 3G'7 per cent, of a yellowish, pleasant 
and edible oil. A sample of the oil had an acid value of 8'9, saponification 
value of 192-6, iodine value 87-5, and 96'2 per cent, of insoluble fatty acids and 
nnsaponifiabie matter. 
Ohebulic acid : — This is obtained from the fruits in the following 
manner The dried fruits are powdered, macerated for 10 days at the ordinary 
temperature with 90 per cent, alcohol, pressed and filtered. The alcohol is 
completely removed from the extract, and the residue then dissolved in hot 
water ; cold water is added until no further milkiness appears, and the whole 
is allowed to settle, and then filtered. To the filtrate, sodium chloride is added 
until a permanent turbidity appears, and the solution is then shaken out 
with ethyl acetate, which dissolves chebulic and tannic acids. To remove 
the latter, the ethylacetate is distilled off, and the residue dissolved in water, 
and shaken out with ether ; from the aqueous solution crystals of chebulic 
acid then separate on standing, and may be recrystallised from hot water. 
The yield is 8-5 per cent. 
Ohebulic acid, C 23 H 24 0 1S) -)-H 2 O, begins to melt at about 200°, and is 
optically active, having [a] D = -j-66'94°. The molecular weight of the an- 
hydrous compound was determined by Beckmann's boiling point method 
