Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Elægnaceæ

Vern.:— Sanjit (Afg.) ; Sirshing (Tibet); Shiûlik (U.P.); Botvir, Gangu (Kashmir).

Habitat: — Western Himalaya.

A small, deciduous tree or large shrub, 12-30ft. high, often spinous, young, silvery. Bark light grey, thick, fibrous, smooth, ​ with deep longitudinal furrows. Wood soft to moderate hard ; heartwood orange-brown ; sapwood white. Branches dark brown. Leaves ovate-oblong or linear-oblong, silvery beneath, l-3in., obtuse ; nerves faint, petiole ¼in. Flowers 1-3-nate, pedicelled, yellow, fragrant. Perianth 1/6-¼in. long, silvery, campanulate above ; teeth triangular, ovate ; style glabrous. Fruit ellipsoid, oblong, ¾in. long, red, dry or fleshy ; endocarp thick, long, sweet and mealy when ripe.

Uses : — The flowers are reported to be medicinal. "The oil from the seeds with syrup, as a linctus recommended in catarrhal and bronchial affections" (Honnigberger, Vol. II. p. 273 )

Vern.: — Ghiwain, ghain, kankoli, bammewa (Pb.); Ginroi (Jaunsar).

Habitat : — Temperate Himalaya, from Kashmir to Nepal.

A thorny, deciduous shrub. Bark grey. Wood white, hard, even-grained, warps in seasoning. Branches numerous, often forming a dense bush. Branchlets and underside of leaves densely clothed with shining silvery scales, upperside bright green with scattered stellate hairs. Leaves 1-3 by ⅓-¾in-, elliptic- lanceolate ; blade ⅓in.; petiole ¼in. long. Flowers white, exquisitely scented ; axillary often fasciculate on the current year's branchlets appearing with or after the leaves. Upper portion of perianth slender tubular. Fruit ovoid or globose, ½in. long, succulent ; endocarp ribbed, coriaceous, clothed inside with a dense felt of white hairs.

Uses : — The seeds are said to be used as a stimulant in coughs, the expressed oil in pulmonary affections, and the flowers as a cardiac and astringent. (Watt.)

Syn. : — E. conferta, Roxb. 148.

Vern. : — Ghiwain, mijhanla (Kumaun) ; Loharu (Garhwal); Jarila (Nepal) ; Guara (Beng.) ; Kamboong(Magh.) ; Kunkœ (H.) ; Shenshong (Garo Hills) ; Amgul, nurgi (Bomb.)..

Habitat -.—Subtropical and temperate Himalaya, from Kumaon to Sikkim ; Bhotan and the Mishmi Hills ; Khasia Mts., ​ Bengal, at Comilla, Chittagong, Deccan Peninsula, from the Concan southwards.

A straggling shrub, climber or erect tree. Bark dark-brown, ¼ or ½in. thick, deeply cleft in vertical or spiral fissures and peeling off in thick plates. Wood light-yellow, moderately hard. Trunk sometimes 6in. diam. ; branches often spinescent. Leaves ovate-oblong, elliptic or almost rounded, obtuse or acute ; blade 3-5in. ; petiole ¼-½in. long. Branchlets, petioles, under-side of leaves densely clothed with ferruginous or silvery, circular, dentate and lobed scales. Flowers male and bi-sexual, scented ; pedicellate in few or many-fid, often pedunculate fascicles. Perianth clothed outside with silvery or ferruginous scales ; in the fertile flower much constricted above the ovary. Fruit 1-1½in., ovoid-oblong, succulent, red or yellow pulp when ripe, edible. Endocarp ribbed, coriaceous, clothed inside with a dense felt or white hairs.

Uses : — The flowers are officinal in Sind and Punjab, and are considered cardiac and astringent. (Stewart.) Griffith says that fruit is used medicinally in Kashmere as an astringent. Very agreeable to taste.

Vern. : — Tsarap, tsarana, sirna, tsuk, tasru (Ladak, Piti and Lahoul) ; Dhûrchûk, târwâ, chûk, chuma (U. P.) ; Kála bisa, bânt phût, amb, kando, milech, miles, suts, rul (Pb.).

Habitat: — North-Western Himalaya; in the beds of streams of the inner drier ranges, from Kumaon westwards.

A large, thorny, dioecious shrub, sometimes a small tree, with rigid branches, and silvery twigs and leaves. Bark grey, rough, with vertical furrows. Heartwood yellowish-brown, mottled, moderately hard, close-grained. Leaves short-petioled, alternate, ½-2 by 1/10-⅓in., sub-coriaceous, glabrescent and dull-green above, felted with grey or rust- coloured, circular or irregularly indented scales beneath. Male flowers in axillary clusters on the old wood. Perianth with two opposite oblong segments, filaments short. Female flowers axillary, solitary, pedicelled. ​Perianth tubular, 2-dentate. Fruit oblong or globose, orange-yellow, or bright-scarlet when ripe, enclosed in the succulent perianth. Seed dark-brown, shining.

Uses : — The natives of Kanâwâr are stated by Longden to eat it as a sort of chatni. As a chatni, it is recommended for lung complaints in a Tibetan Pharmacopæia.

The Siberians and Tartars make a jelly from these berries and eat them with milk and cheese, whilst the inhabitants of the Gulf of Bothnia prepare from them a sort of rob, which they use as a condiment with fish. * * In some districts of France a sauce is made from these berries and eaten with fish or meat. A decoction of them is said to be useful in cutaneous eruptions. * * The roots of the plant are long and straggling, and often assist in binding the loose sand on which it grows. (Sowerby's English. Botany, Vol. VIII. p. 83.)

Vern. : — Ashûk (Nepal) ; Lhâla (Bhotan and Lepcha) ; Sûrch, suts, kâlâ bis, tserdkar, dhûrchuk, tarwa-chuk, chuma (Pb ).

Habitat : — Temperate Himalaya, from Jammu to Sikkim.

A willow-like shrub, 10-20ft. high, with lateral thorns. Very similar in appearance and hardly specifically different from H. rhamnoides. Bark dark-grey, brown, soft, ½in thick, cleft in deep vertical furrows and shallow cross ones into somewhat rectangular ones. Leaves membranous, glabrous or pubescent above, 2-4in., dull-green, linear-lanceolate, densely clothed beneath with white or rusty stellate hairs and some circular scales, so also are in the petioles and branchlets covered.

Use : — The fruit is employed in cases of lung disease. (Punjab Products )

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