300 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS, 
Western Peninsula on the Western Ghats from the Concan 
southward. 
Use : — “ This is the country ipecacuanha of the Portuguese 
at Goa The drug consists of the creeping root, with the slender 
stems attached to it, the leaves having been stripped off. It 
has a somewhat pungent, aromatic odour, but hardly any taste ; 
and is given as an emetic, in doses of from 12 to 18 grains. In 
Southern India it is used as a remedy for rheumatism. In the 
Concan the Hindus use the leaves and stems in decoction with 
bitters and aromatics as a remedy for biliousness. In the 
Southern Concan it is called pit-yel or pitpapra, on account of 
its well-marked, emetic and bile-expelling properties ; it is the 
best indigenous emetic on tliis side of India” (Dyrnock). 
It has recently been tried in Madras in acute dysentery and 
also as an emetic and expectorant, with results similar to those 
of ipecacuanha, given in equal doses (Pharmacog. Ind.). 
An ethereal extract contained 0'3 per cent, of Hooper’s alkaloid narega- 
miane, 2'0 of wax, 2‘5 of resin, and 0'9 of fatty oil and cloring matter. The 
wax melted 58° had a sp. gr. 0*91, acid number 5'9 (Chloroform solution), 8‘t 
(alcoholic solution), ether number 21*1, and saponification number 27‘0. 
When the alcoholic solusion was poured into water, a resin was precipitated, 
whilst in the solution there still remained a substance which readily reduced 
Fehling's solution (sugar). The aqueous extract had a faint acid reaction 
and gave a blue coloration with iodine ; a crystalline compound, which is 
probably asparagine (Hooper), was also isolated and the extract contained 
proteids, gum, and peetiu substances but not tannin. The drug left 5 73— 7-1 
per cent, of ash, that of the wood being 1’79 and that of the bark 5‘97 ; 5’9 per 
cent, of dry residue was obtained from the alcoholic and 12-3 from the aqueous 
extract. 
J. Ch. S. Vol : LXXX. (Pt. II of 1901) pp. 70-71. 
252 . Melia azadiraclita, Linn, h.f.b.i,, i . 544 . 
Roxb. 368 . 
Syn. : — Azadiraclita indica, Adr. Juss. 
Sans. — The bark: — Nimba-valkalam, Nimba-mulam-val- 
kalam. The fruit : — Nimba-phalam. The oil : — Nimba-tailam, 
The flower Nimba-pushpam. The leaf : — Nimba-patram, The 
juice : — Nimba-niryasam. 
