N. O. AMPELID.K. 
345 
Arab. Of the small variety of raisins without stones — Sultfina 
Raisins, Eng. Kishmish, B6d&nah, Hind., Duk. and Pers. 
Habitat . — Wild in the N. W. Himalaya ; cultivated exten- 
sively in N. W. India and rarely in the Peninsula as Poona and 
Nasik. 
A large, woody climber ; tendrils long, bifid. Leaves 
simple, glabrous above, clothed beneath with grey floccose 
deciduous tomentum, from a cordate base nearly orbicular, 
more or less deeply 5-lobed, edge cut into large unequal, acute 
teeth ; basal nerves 5, the midrib with 4-5 pair of prominent 
secondary nerves, petioles generally shorter than leaf, longer than 
half its length. Flowers green, fragrant, petals cohering at the 
top. Inflorescence usually on the tendrils. Cymes arranged in 
panicles. Fruit 3-5-seeded. 
Use . — The dried fruits, called raisins, are used in medicine. 
They are described as demulcent, laxative, sweet, cooling, 
agreeable and useful in thirst, heat of body, cough, hoarseness 
and consumption (Durr). 
Mahotnedan writers consider grapes and raisins to be 
attenuant, suppurative, pectoral and the most digestible of fruit, 
purifying the blood and increasing its quantity and quality. 
The ashes of the wood are recommended as a preventive of 
stone in the bladder, cold swellings of the testes and piles. 
The juice of the unripe grapes is used as an astringent. The 
modern Italians use the juice in affections of the throat 
(Dymook). 
The leaves, on account of their astrigency, are sometimes 
used in diarrhoea. 
In modern native practice, the raisins are considered cool 
and aperient, and given in coughs, catarrh and jaundice 
(MookerjI). 
Grapes are refrigerant, diuretic and antipyretic. In large 
doses, raisins act as a demulcent, expectorant and laxative, 
and in smaller ones as an astringent. 
The sherbet or syrup of grapes is a very pleasant and cool- 
ing drink, and proves very useful in relieving thirst and other 
pyrexial symptoms in many forms of fever. 1 have also used 
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