N. 6. ASCLEPIADEffi. 
833 
acute or apiculate, rarely elliptic-lanceolate ; base acute, rounded 
or cordate. In some varieties, the leaves are subsessile, very 
narrowly linear, 4-8 by i-iin. In a third variety, the leaves 
are 4-5 by lin., shortly petioled, linear-lanceolate. Peduncle 
i-lin., 3-5fid. Pedicels short. Calyx minute ; sepals join. long. 
Corolla small, straight, rarely lin. long, narrow, greenish, base 
moderately inflated, mouth obtusely 5-angled ; lobes short, 
narrow, erect, fleshy, linear from a triangular base, villous within ; 
the length of the tube, purple within. Corona glabrous, 
lobes minute, or obsolete ; processes filiform, straight. Follicles 
4in. long, slender, terete; pericarp thto. Seeds £in. long, linear 
oblong, wing membranous. 
The part used : — The tubers. t „ 
Use : — The tubers of this and several other species of Ceropegia 
are used and considered to be tonic and digestive., The au- 
thors of the Pharmacographia Indiea (Vol. II., p. 456) write : — 
“The tubers when boiled lose their bitterness, and pulped with 
milk form a sweet mucilaginous mixture not unlike Salep, which, 
judging from their chemical composition, should be highly 
nutritious.” 
The drug is used in Behar in colds and eye-diseases to 
cause sneezing ; dose : gr. 1 to i dram. (Irvine). 
The tubers yielded on analysis — 
Moisture 
... 6-25 
Pat 
... 3-30 
Sugar, Gum, &o 
... 23'40 
Albuminoids 
... 8-48 
Starch ... 
... 42 52 
Crude flbre 
... 12-64 
Ash 
... 9-43 
100-00 
The bitter principle of the tubers is an Alkaloid, Ceropogine, soluble in 
ether, Alcohol and water. The total nitrogen afforded by burning with soda 
lime was 0'55 per cent. The ash contains Manganese, and is constituted 
as follows 
Soluble in water ... ... ... ... ... 617 
Soluble in Acid ... ... ... ••• ... 14 9 
Insoluble ... ... ... ... ... 23‘4 
[Pharmacographia Indiea, Vol. II— p. 457.] 
105 
100 0 
