Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Myristiceæ

Vern.: — Kanagi (Kan.); Pindi-kai (seeds), rânajayaphala, jangli-jâyaphal, Kâiphal (Bomb.). ​ Habitat : — The Concan, Canara and N. Malabar.

A large, nearly glabrous tree. Wood reddish-grey, moderately hard. Branchlets nearly smooth, slightly ribbed. Leaves 4-8in. by 1½-4in., linear-oblong or elliptic-lanceolate, sub-acute, glaucous beneath, thinly coriaceous on the flowering branches, thick and leathery on the fruiting, more or less shining above, nerves 8-14 pair, very slender; petiole ¾-1in. Male panicles sub-cymose, bracteolate, 1-1½in., axillary or supra-axillary ; peduncles naked below, sub-umbellately cymose above ; bracteole an orbicular scale. Perianth 1/6in., puberulous globose, 3 -toothed ; anthers 10-15, connate, in a cylindric, shortly stipitate column. Female panicles few-fid ; flowers larger. Fruit 2 by lin., rusty, brown, pubescent, narrowly oblong, aril yellow, completely enclosing the seed (J. D. Hooker and Brandis).

Uses:— "It yields a variety of nutmeg (Malabar or false Nutmeg ?), larger and much longer than the officinal nutmeg, and possessing little of its fragrance or its warm aromatic taste. When braised and subjected to boiling, it yields a considerable quantity of a yellowish concrete oil, analogous to expressed oil of nutmeg, which has been represented to the Editor as a most efficacious application to indolent and ill-conditioned ulcers, allaying pain, cleansing the surface and establishing healthy action. For this purpose it requires to be melted down with a small quantity of any bland oil. It may be found serviceable as an embrocation in rheumatism. (Ph. Inch, p : 190.)

The seeds in the form of a lep are used as an external application in Bombay. (Dymock.)

" The arillus jâyapatri is considered to be a nervine tonic and is used in stopping vomiting," (Dr. Peters in Watt's Dic.)

The dried juices from the bark of several Asiatic species of Myristica show but little difference from officinal Malabar Kino. The crude, inspissated, fresh juice from the Myristica species differs by containing crystalline calcium tartarate suspended in, and depositing from it. This distinguishes it from all the other kinos of commerce. (Edward Schaer, Ph. J. Trans. 1896.)

The seeds contain 40.7 per cent, of fat, and the mace 63.2 per cent., in each case the fat is associated with a red resin. Bombay mace differs entirely in its composition from that of genuine mace (M. fragrans, Houtt.). According ​to Arnst and Hart (1893), the former contains 61.05 per cent, of fat and only 0.27 per cent, of essential oil, while the latter contains only 26-78 per cent, of fat and 4.12 per cent, of essential oil.

This difference is observed not only in the composition of the crude material, but also in the characters of the separated fats. E. Spaeth in 1895 determined the constants of the fat from the Bombay mace and compared them with those of genuine Banda mace, with the following results : —

It would seem that both these fats contain myristin and olein in varying proportions. (Agric. Ledger, No. 3 of 1907.)

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