660 
INDIAN MEDIOINAL PLANTS. 
613 . Morinda citrifolia, Linn. Var. bracteata, 
H.F.B.I., III. 156 . 
Syn. M. bracteata, Roxb. 182. 
Sans. : — Achchhuka. 
Vern — A1 (H.) ; Acb, Aicli, Acbhu ( B. > ; A1 ; Bartondi, 
nagakuda, aseti (Bomb.) ; Munja-pavattay ; Noona-maram (Tam.) ; 
Cada pilva(Mal.) ; Molagha; Maddichettoo (Tel.) 
Vav. — Bracteata, hurdi, buldi kunj, touch (B.) 
Habitat : — Cultivated and wild (?) throughout the hotter 
parts of India. 
A large shrub or small tree, glabrous, trunk straight, bark 
smooth, branches obtusely 4-angled. Leaves shining, usually 
6-10in., broadly elliptic, acuminate, acute or obtuse short- 
petioled, one of the pair next to the peduncle often suppressed. 
Stipules large, broadly oblong or semilunar, entire or 2-3-fid, 
glabrous. Peduncles solitary, rarely 2-3-nate at the ends of 
the branches, usually in the axils of every other pair of leaves, 
lin. long or more, supporting leaf not developed. Flowers 
5-merous. Calyx-limb truncate. Corolla white, tube Jin. or less. 
Lobes glabrous, fusiform in bud, throat pubescent. Anthers 
partly exserted. Fruit of many drupes coalescent into a fleshy 
globose or ovoid head, pale, greenish-white, lin. diam. 
Use : — The charred leaves made into a decoction with mustard 
are a favourite domestic remedy for infantile diarrhoea. The 
unripe berries, charred and mixed with salt, are applied success- 
fully to spongy gums (Watt’s Dictionary). 
The Cochin Chinese believe the fruit to be deobstruent and 
emmenagogue (Ainslie.) The expressed juice -of leaves is ex- 
ternally applied to gout, to relieve pain (Drury). In Bombay, 
the leaves are used as a healing application to wounds and 
ulcers, aud are administered internally as a tonic and febrifuge 
(Dymock). 
The root is used as a cathartic (Watt l 
The oil is of a yellowish color, with a Sp. Gr. of 0'927 at 13°C. It is cloudy, 
owing to the separation from it of small crystals, which, recrystallised from 
alcohol, melt at 60° C., and, upon analysis, are shown to consist of paraffins. 
When freed from the crystals, the oil is almost entirely soluble in dilute caustic 
soda. In the solution capronic and caprylic acids as well as a trace of higher 
