774 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Habitat : — Deccan Peninsula ; “ one of the commonest shrubs 
of Coromandel, growing in all situations.” (Roxburgh.) 
A sraggling thorny shrub. Branches green herbaceous. 
Bark light brown, rough, wood white, soft, consisting of con- 
centred layers in which the pores, surrounded by white loose 
tissue, are alternately scanty and many— (Gamble) young shoots 
pubescent, glabrous afterwards; spines in each axil 1-2 in. 
number, J-lin. long. Leaves stiff, shining, sharply mucronate 
or spinescent §-2in. long 5-fiu. broad, elliptic, acute. Flowers 
greenish white, sessile, axillary, clustered, scarcely ^ in. diam. 
Female flowers solitary or in 2-fid clustered. Male flowers in 
dense globose fascicles, the supporting leaves of the upper fasci- 
cles reduced to bracts or obsolete, so that the flower-branches 
end in naked interrupted spikes on which the flowers are 
whorled. Calyx in.; petals linear-lanceolate, acute, spread- 
ing, ^ in. Ovary 2-celled. Cells 2-ovulate, or more often- lovu- 
late. Berry £ in. diam. white ; usually 1 seeded. 
Uses : — The leaves, root, and milky juice are bitter and are 
used medicinally by the Hindus. Dr. P. S. Mootooswamy, (Ind. 
Med. Gazette, October 1889), states that the leaves are considered 
stimulant, and are given to puerperal women immediately after 
confinement. They are administered in the following manner 
by the villagers : — The leaves with an equal quantity of Neem 
leaves, and a little powdered brick, are finely ground and given 
twice a day for the first two days, no food being allowed. For 
the next six days the woman gets a little boiled rice and pepper 
water once a day, and is allowed to drink a little warm water 
after the meal ; she is not allowed to sleep after her food dur- 
ing the day, and if thirsty must quench her thirst by eating 
betel leaves and areca nut. From the seventh day she gets her 
ordinary food. It is also the practice among the rural classes 
to give 2 or 4 ounces of Neem oil soon after delivery ; with a 
little roasted assafoetida, and the woman is made to take daily 
for a month from the morning of the third or fourth day a bolus 
of a stimulating confection, called Nadayeayam in Tamil, which 
is supposed to keep off cold from the system. (This practice 
is general amongst the country people in most part of India). 
