N. 0. UIGNONUOEAS. 
941 
In otorrhcea, the use of an oil lias been recommended in 
Sanskrit medicine, prepared by boiling a paste made of the 
root-bark with sesarmm oil (Dutt). 
The G-onds employ a decoction of the bark as a discutient 
application to rheumatic swellings. The powder and infu- 
sion of the bark are diaphoretic, and useful in acute rheu- 
matism (I. M. 0., 1895, p. 66). 
Powder made from the bark along with hurdi, is a useful 
cure for the sore-backs of horses (Gamble!. 
Seeds purgative (J. J. Wood’s Plants of Chutia Nagpur, p. 
125). 
Chemical composition . — The bark has been examined by W. A. H. Naylor 
and E. M. Chaplin with the following results : — 
A. One pound of the bark reduced to fine powder was percolated to 
exhaustion with cold petroleum ether. The ether was distilled off, and the 
residue, which weighed about 1-8 gram, possessed the characters of a soft 
greenish-brown fat, having an acid reaction and a slightly acrid- taste. It 
was treated successively with ether and proof spirit, the former removed 
vegetable wax, which was subsequently identified as such after re-solution 
in limited quantities of ether and separation thereform. The latter on eva- 
poration gave a brownish-yellow residue small in quantity and crystalline. 
When further purified by extraction with ether and the ethereal residue by 
benzol it was golden yellow, unctuous to the touch, and pronouncedly acrid. 
Under the microscope it presented the appearance of long, wavy, branching 
crystals, which dissolved readily in alcohol, chloroform ether, petroleum 
ether, and benzol. 
B. The marc was next percolated with cold ether. After distilling off 
the greater portion of the ether, and allowing the remainder to evaporate 
spontaneously, a yellow mass studded with minute interlacing crystals 
was obtained, which when ft irdried weighed about 4 grams. This product 
was treated with boiling proof spirit and filtered while hot ; on cooling small 
yellow crystals fell out of solution. When quite cold the crop of crystals 
was collected and subjected to the action of boiling petroleum ether until 
freed from every trace of fat. It was then crystallized from boiling proof spirit 
until it had a constant melting point, and was no longer contaminated with 
nncrystallizable matter. The resulting crystals were dried under the receiver 
of an air-pump, and when constant weighed 0’9 gram. They were of a lemon 
yellow colour, about £ inch in length, and melted at 2'28-5°— 229° C. Alcohol, 
ether, glacial acetic acid, and hot benzol dissolved them readily, but they 
were practically insoluble in water hot or cold. The following reactions in 
connection with this interesting body have been noted, of which the most 
striking is its behaviour with the caustic alkalies. A minute quantity brought 
into contact with onedrop of a weak solution of sodium potassium orammonium 
