1378 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
1344. Eleusine coracana, Gaertn., H.f.b.i., vii. 
294; Roxb. 115. 
Sans. : — Rajika (according to Paddington), raji (according 
to U. C. Dutt). 
Vern — Marua, (Beng.) ; Rode (Sant.); Mandua, marua, 
makra, rotka (H.) ; Mandal, chalodra (Pb.) ; Kodon, koda, kodra, 
kutra (Pb. Him.) ; Nangli, nackni (Sind) ; Nagli, nachiri (Mar.); 
Navto nagli, (Guz.) ; Kayur, kelvaragu (Tam.) ; Tamidelu, ragulu 
(Tel.) ; Ragi(Kan.); Kurakkan (Sing.) ; Mandwah (Pers.). 
Habitat : — Cultivated in many pans of India. 
A medium-sized annual grass. Stems several, erect, 2-4ft. 
high, somewhat compressed, smooth, sulcate. Leaves with long 
finely sulcate sheaths ; ligule shallow, densely bearded ; blade 
1- 2ft., linear, smooth, striate. Spikes 4-6, digitate, incurved, 
with usually one or more isolated ones placed lower down and 
representing a second verticil ; spikelets sessile, 2-5in., arranged 
in two rows on one side of a flattened somewhat ■ flexuose and 
minutely toothed rachis. Florets sessile, distichous. Glumes 
lanceolate, boat-shaped, with membranous margins, keel promi- 
nent, edged with minute forward prickles ; outer one about 
twice as long as the inner ; lower pale ovate mucronate, the 
middle nerve forming a prominent keel ; inner pale smaller, 
bifid, the two principal nerves^ keeled and armed *with small 
prickles. Lodicules very small, entire or bilobed at the apex. 
Ovary smooth, shortly stalked ; styles 2, with long feathery 
stigmas. Seed globular and about the size of mustard, dark 
reddish brown, transversely wrinkled, enclosed in a loose mem- 
branous pericarp. Var. striata (E. striata , Roxb. 1. c. 115), stems 
2- 5 ft. high, spikes straight. (Duthie and Fuller.) 
Mandua is a native of India. Its specific name is founded on the Cingha- 
lese word kourakhan. There is an allied species (Eleusine cegyptiaca) bearing 
the vernacular name (makra), and occurring commonly throughout Upper 
India, which presents to a superficial examination hardly any points of differ- 
ence from the cultivated plant ; the seed of this wild plant is collected by the 
poorer classes as an unpalatable, though often very serviceable, food. The 
grain of the cultivated mandua is anything but popular diet. Cakes made from 
it are very dry eating, and little satisfies an empty stomach. For this reason 
it is reoknoned an economic grain by the poor. But no one eats mandua cakes 
