N. O. AFOOYNAGEJ5. 
785 
employed as a rubefacient in rheumatism, and the blunt-ended 
branches are introduced into the uterus to. procure abortion. 
According to Dymock, the bark is given in the Konkan, with 
cocoanut, ghi, and rice, as a remedy for diarrhoea ; the flower- 
buds are eaten witli betel leaves in ague, and the juice, with 
sandalwood oil and camphor, is employed as a cure for itch. 
“ Sap mixed with cocoanut is used as a remedy for itch 
(Talbot).” 
Campbell states that in Chutia Nagpur the leaves and root 
are used medicinally, but that the part best known to the forest 
tribes of Manbhum is the core of the young wood, which is 
given to lying-in women, to allay thirst, and for cough. Tn the 
Baroda Durbar Catalogue of Medicinal Plants , at the Col. and 
Ind. Exhb., it is stated that the bark is purgative and used in 
cases of leprosy. 
“ This plant is known as Daldna phula in Northern Bengal, 
where its milky juice has been tried and found to be an 
effectual purgative. The dose is as much as a grain of parched, 
rice ( kha'i ) will absorb, the grain being administered as a pill.” 
(Surgeon-Major C. T. Peters, h.b . in Watt’s Dictionary). 
Dr. A. J. Amadeo (Pharrn. Journ ; April 21st, 1888,) lias the following 
account of its medicinal uses in Porto Rico “ In small doses (8 to 12 grains) 
given in emulsion, the milk produces abundant bilious watery stools. The 
bark is a favourite remedy with the country people for gonorrhoea and gleet. 
Two ounces of the fresh powdered bark is placed in 8 pints of can sucree and 
exposed to the sun for four days, being shaken occasionally. A wine, glassful 
is administered four or five times a day, together with refreshing and muci- 
laginous drinks, and the use of tepid baths. The action of (he drug is at first 
purgative, afterw'ards diuretic. An extract of the bark may be used beginning 
with 3—4 grains daily to be gradually increased to 14 or 16 grains, or a Wine 
(loz. to l litre) may be given in liqueur glassfuls three times a day. The 
decoction of the bark is a powerful antiherpetic. 
A crystalline, bitter principle C 57 H 73 0 33 + 2 H 2 0, obtained by evaporation 
of the alcoholic extract, melts at 157-158“ and forms a colourless solution in 
concentrated sulphuric acid, which, on warming, turns yellow, reddish-yellow, 
brownish-red, or black. Its solution in concentrated nitric acid is also 
colourless, but becomes yellow on warming, and, similarly, the solution in 
sodium hydroxide turns yellow on boiling. This substance cannot be identical 
with plumieride, which has been isolated by Boorsma.— J. Ch. S. A.I., 1897 ; 
p. 167. 
