1366 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
contain water albuminoids 9'5, starch 70 7, oil 3'6, fibre 2'0, ash 17. 
American grain contained 1 per cent, more fat than Indians. 
In the unrefined state the oil has a specific gravity of '916 at 15"C., the 
elaidin test shows the presence of a large quantity of olein. Maize oil is 
of a pale yellowish-brown colour, with an odour and taste like that of freshly 
ground corn meal ; it belongs to the non-drying group of the vegetable oils, 
does not easily become rancid, and has no purgative action. With alkalies 
it forms a white soap ; it contains fatty acids (free) 0 88, total fatty acids 
9675 per cent., mucilaginous bodies 1*34 The loss sustained by purification 
is under 5 per cent. ( J . U. Lloyd, Amer, Journ. Pharm., July 1888.) 
1334. Saeeharum officinarum, Linn., u.F.B.i., vn. 
118 ; Roxb. 97. 
Vern. : — Ukl), ganna, ikli, naishakar, rikhu, kumad, kusiyar, 
katari(H.); Ik, ak, uk, kusliiar, puri, kullua, kajuli, (Beng.) ; 
Akb, ikshu (Sant.) ; Tu (Newar) ; Glienra (Pirb.); Uk, akali 
ebaku (Nep.) ; Aku (Ur.) ; Sbakar surkh, kliand, ganna, kamand, 
paunda, ikh (Pb.) ; Kamand (Sind) ; Gandn, Sberdi, aos, us, 
kabbu (Mar.); Sheradi, nai-sakar, uns (Guz.); Karumbu (Tam.); 
Cberuku, charki, arukanupula-kranuga, (Tel.) ; Kbabbu, basari- 
mara (Kan.); Karinpa, tebu (Mai). 
Habitat : — Cultivated throughout India. 
A large perennial grass. Stems many, 6-1 2ft. high, thick, 
solid, jointed, polished, yellow purple or striped ; lower inter- 
nodes short with fibrous roots above each joint. Leaves very 
large, crowded, lower ones soon failing of! ; ligule short, entire; 
sheaths about one foot in length, striate, smooth or with mealy 
pubescence ; blade 3-4ft. long and from 1$ to 2 inches in 
breadth, acute, smooth on both surfaces, margins minutely 
serrulate, ciliate at the base ; midrib prominent beneath.. 
Panicles large, compound, drooping, feathery, of a greyish 
colour. Spikelets small, very numerous, L-flowered, arranged 
in pairs on alternate sides of the long slender panicle branches, 
one stalked and the other sessile, each enveloped in an in- 
volucre of long white silky baits ; glumes 2, nearly equal, 
lower 2-nerved and ciliate towards the apex, upper 1-nerved ; 
outer pale wanting, ioner shorter than the glumes. Lodicules 
2, free, truncate, lobed. Stamens 3 ; anthers linear, oblong. 
