776 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Parts used : — The fruit and root. 
A large erect evergreen shrub or small tree. Bark yellowish 
brown, peeling off in square scales. Wood white ; heartwood 
irregular greyish or orange yellow, streaked, hard, smooth, close- 
grained, (Gamble). Branches many dichotomous rigid, spreading; 
axils and nodes with 2 straight sharp simple or forked thorns 
sometimes 1-2 in. long. Leaves subsessile, 1$ — 3 by 1 — 1$ in., 
oblong-oval or oblong-lanceolate, rather thinly coriaceous, gla- 
brous, base rounded or retuse, apex obtuse, rarely mucronate. 
Flowers fragrant white or pale rose-coloured in threes, shortly 
stalked in cluster at end ef short axillary and terminal pedun- 
cles ; bracts small, linear, pubescent. Calyx-segments subulate 
lanceolate, acute, puberulous and ciliate. Corolla-tube f in., 
glabrous or puberulous with swollen throat and lobes pubescent ; 
lobes lanceolate, acute, about half as long as the tube, spreading. 
Ovary glabrous, cells 4-ovuled. Fruit a drupe \ — 1 in. long, 
boardly ovoid, bluntly pointed, shinking, blackish or reddish 
purple with pulp of the same colour or pinkish white, with white 
sticky juice on the epicarp. Seeds 2-4 seldom more. 
Uses The unripe fruit is astringent, and the ripe fruit is 
cooling, acid and useful in bilious complaints. The root has 
the reputation of being a bitter stomachic. “ Used in Concau, 
pounded with horse urine, lime-juice and camphor as a remedy 
for itch.” (Dymock.) 
In Cuttack the decoction of the leaves is very much used at 
the commencement of remittent fever (Surg. r Major P. N. 
Mukerji.) 
The fruit has been reported by several medical officers to 
possess antiscorbutic properties. (Watt, II. 165.) 
“ The roots were air-dried, reduced to powder, and digested with 80 per 
cent., alcohol. The alcohol-free extract was mixed with water, dilute Sulphuric 
acid added, and agitated with benzole, which separated an oil of the consistence 
of honey at 75° F., and partly soluble in absolute alcohol with acid reaction. A 
trace of volatile oil was also present, with an odour similar to that of Piper 
Betle leaf oil. During agitation with benzole a mass of dark-yellowish resin 
separated, which caked. The liquid containing the separated resin was next 
agigated with ether. The ether extract was; not more than a trace, and 
contained 8alicylic acid. The insoluble mass of resin was now separated, and 
