254 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
elsewhere often 4in. long (called T. floriljunda.— Wall). Flowers 
small, cream-coloured, in axillary panicles longer than the petiole; 
iin. diam. Calyx glandular. Petals 5, imbricate. Stamens not 
exceeding the petals. Ovary usually 5-celled.. Style short. 
Stigma 5-lobed. Ovules 2, superposed in each cell. Fruit 
globose, size of a large pea, 3-5-grooved, orange-coloured, £in. 
diam.; 3-5-celled. Seeds solitary in each cell. The whole plant 
hot and pungent. 
Parts used The root, bark, leaves and fruit. 
Uses : - -The root is pungent and sub-aromatic, and is consi- 
dered as stomachic and tonic. It is given in a weak infusion 
to the quantity of half a teacupful in the course of the day; 
the leaves are also sometimes used for the same purpose 
(Ainslie). The fresh leaves are eaten raw for pains in the 
bowels ; the fresh bark of the root is administered by the 
Telinga physicians for the cure of remittent fever. I conceive 
every part of this plant to be possessed of strong, stimulating 
powers, and have no doubt but, under proper management, it 
miftht prove a valuable medicine where stimulants are required 
(Roxb.) 
The root-bark is officinal in the Indian Pharmacopoeia, 
being described as an aromatic tonic, stimulant and anti- 
periodic ; useful in constitutional debility, and in convalescence 
after febrile and other exhausting diseases. Dr. Bidie of 
Madras says, he knows of no single remedy in which active 
stimulant, carminative, and tonic properties are so happily 
combined as in this drug. 
Rheede states that the unripe fruit and root are rubbed 
down with oil to make a stimulant liniment for rheumatism. 
“I have been using the root-bark of T. aculeata in my prac- 
tice during the last twelve or thirteen years, and do not 
hesitate in saying that it is one of the most valuable drugs 
in India. It is, as antiperiodic and antipyretic, equal, if not 
superior, to quinine and other alkaloids of cinchona and to 
Warburg’s tincture, respectively ; and, as a diaphoretic, deci- 
dedly more efficacious than Pulv. Jacobi Vera or James 
powder, and a few other antipyretic medicines mentioned 
