Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Salicineæ

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Sans. : — Búrum.

Vern. : —Bed, bent, baishi, bet (H.) ; Nachol (Kol.) ; Gada, ​ Sigrik (Santal) ; Bhesh (Garo) ; Bhi (Assam) ; Pani jama (Beng.); Laila, bainsnj (N.-W. India); Bis, bitsa, bakshel (Pb.) ; Yir (Kashmir) ; Válunj, bachá (Dec.) ; Atrupalai (Tam.') ; Etipála (Tel.) ; Atrapala (Mal.) ; Momakha (Burm.) ; Niranji (Kan.); Sufaida, badha (Sindh) ; Wullunj, bacha (Bombay); Boch, bach (M.) ; Dhanie (C. P.)

Habitat  : — Throughout tropical and Sub-tropical India, from the Punjab eastwards to Mishmi, Assam and Munnipore and southwards to Travancore.

A moderate-sized, deciduous tree, 20-40ft. Bark rough, with deep, vertical, rough fissures. Wood red, soft, porous, even-grained. Flowering after leafing ; trunk stout, attaining 10ft. girth ; head large; branches sub-erect. Young shoots and young leaves silky ; branchlets and underside of leaves sometimes pubescent. Leaves 3-6in., glabrous, glaucous beneath, lanceolate, rarely ovate-lanceolate, minutely and regularly serrulate, acuminate. Lateral nerves numerous, prominent. Petiole ¼-lin. Stipules ovate or orbicular, deciduous. Peduncle leaf-leaving. Male catkins 2-4in., on leafy branchlets, sweet-scented ; bracts obovate or spathulate, pale, hairy ; stamens 5-10. Anthers minute. Female catkins 3-5in. long ; bracts pale, smaller. Disk small, ½ annular. Capsules long, stipulate, glabrous or pubescent, in groups of 3-4. Pedicels as long as the capsule, 1/10-1/6in. long. Stigmas 2, spreading, sub-sessile, generally entire. Seeds 4-6. Fruiting catkins, sometimes 5in.

Uses  : — The bark is stated by Dalzell and Gibson (Flora of Bombay, p. ii., p. 82) to be of some account as a febrifuge. Mr. Long (Journ. of Agri.-Hort. Soc. of India, 1858, vol. x., p. 43 ) states that the bark yields "atonic substance." If by this he means Salicine (the crystalline principle found in some European species of Salix ), he is under a mistake, as Sir W. O'Shaughnessy carefully examined this bark, and failed to detect any trace of this principle. (Bengal Disp., p. 606). (Ph. Ind.)

Vern. :— -Bed (Afg.) ; Budha (Sind.); Bisu, bada (Pb.) ; Jalmâlâ (Dehra Dun.) ​ Habitat : — Himalayan Valleys, Sub-Himalayan tract and Siwaliks from the Ganges westward, Northern Punjab often cultivated. Afghanistan and Baluchistan.

A deciduous, middle-sized, handsome tree, quite glabrous, with flexuose branches, which break off easily from the stem, Young shoots and young leaves silky. Bark ½in. thick, rough, dark-brown, somewhat corky, deeply and irregularly vertically cleft. Wood soft, porous, even-grained ; sapwood white. Trunk attaining 7ft. girth ; branches often pendulous. Crown rounded. Leaves 2-8in. by ⅓-¾in., pale, those near the catkins much smaller, linear-lanceolate, upper caudate-acuminate, quite entire ; lower often sub-acute or mucronate, glabrous and glaucous when mature ; lateral nerves faint. Petiole ⅓-½in. Flowers after the leaves on short, leafy penduncles ; bracts ovate or oblong, concave, villous. Male catkins l-2in., cylindric, dense-fid. Female catkins lin., nodding with deciduous, long haired bracts. Stamens 4-6 ; anthers short, globose ; style short : stigmas 2, sessile entire, spreading. Capsule shortly stipitate, ovoid-oblong, glabrous. (Kanjilal.)

Use : — A decoction of the bark is used in Beluchistan as a febrifuge. (Murray.)

Vern.: — Bed mushk (Pb.) ; Khwagawala (Pushtu); Khilaf (Arab).

Habitat : — Cultivated in Robilkund and N.-W. India.

A large, deciduous shrub or small tree, 25-30ft., flowering before leafing. Trunk attaining 3-4ft. girth. Bark, dark-grey, or yellowish-brown, with irregular, longitudinal clefts and short cross clefts. Wood light-red, soft, even-grained. Leaves 2-4in., dark-green above, crenate, broadly elliptic or obovate, glabrous and more or less rugose above, grey, tomentose beneath; stipules large, reniform. Catkins densely silky, nearly sessile ; male sweet-scented, ovoid-oblong, very stout, erect, l-l½in. long ; bracts tipped black ; stamens 2, free. Female catkins 2-3in., slender, nodding ; bracts tipped with black. Capsules downy, shortly stipulate. Stigmas sub-sessile.

Uses :— The flowers yield on distillation a scented water ​ which is highly valued as a medicine, being cordial, stimulant, and aphrodisiac, and is externally applied in headache and ophthalmia. The ashes of the wood are useful in hæmoptysis, and, mixed with vinegar, applied to hæmorrhoids. The stem and leaves are astringent, and the juice and gum are also used medicinally to increase visual powers. (Dr. Stewart.)

In Europe, the bark of this species of willow was at one time used as a substitute for Cinchona.

The leaves have been found useful in fevers in the form of a decoction. (Asst.-Surg. Bhagwan Das.)

The distilled water from the flowers is useful in palpitation of the heart. (Dr. Perry in Watt's Dic.)

The Persian settlers in India have introduced the flowers (bedmushk) and the distilled water (ma-el-khilaf) of S. Caprea, both of which are used by the upper classes of Mahometans and Parsees. who consider them to be cephalic and cardiacal and use them as domestic remedies in almost every kind of slight ailment. Raughan-i-bed, an oil prepared by boiling two parts of the distilled water with one of sesamum oil until the water has all evaporated, is a favorite remedy for cough. (Pharmacog. Ind.)

Chemical composition. — Willow bark has been shown to contain salicin, wax, fat, gum, and a tannin which gives with ferric salts a blue-black precipitate, the liquid becoming purplish-red on the addition of soda. Johanson (1875) has also shown the presence of a kind of sugar having a slightly sweet taste and reducing alkaline copper solution with difficulty, and of the glucoside benzohelicin, C^2°H^2°O⁸ . Salicin, a glucoside, crystallizes in colour-less plates or flat rhombic prisms, but it usually occurs in commerce in white glossy scales or needles. It remains unaltered in the air, is neutral to test-paper, inodorous, and has a persistently bitter taste.

Bidenguebine or "willow honey," said to be derived from the leaves and young branches of a willow, and to have a feebly saccharine taste.

Bidangubin or "willow honey" has been examined by Raby (Union Pharm., May, 1886, p. 201). It affords about 12 per cent, of sugar, estimated as glucose, and a considerable quantity of a sugar crystallizing in opaque hard crystals like those of sugar of milk. It melts at 150° to a transparent liquid, and dissolves in 5*5 parts of water at 15° C. The formula is given as C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁. This sugar evidently possesses considerable affinity to melezitose, from which it differs, according to M. Raby, in not being efflorescent, and in the greater rotatory power of the glucose derived from it by inversion over that obtained from melezitose. The inversion by means of dilute hydrochloric acid also takes place more rapidly, Mo therefore proposes to call the new sugar bidenguebinose. ​

Vern. : — Vivir (Kashmir) ; Bis, yur, changma, mâlchang, châmma, kalchan, chung, bûshan, madânu (Pb.) ; Bed-i-siah (Afg.); Kharwala (Trans-Indus).

Habitat : — Cultivated in the North- West Himalaya and Western Tibet.

A large, deciduous tree. Bark light-brown ; wood white, pink or light-brown, soft, even-grained. Attains a height of 80ft.; flowering after leafing. Branchlets olive, green, yellow, red or purple. Leaves 2-4in., dull-green above, young silky on both surfaces, old glabrous, often glaucous beneath, narrow, lanceolate, acuminate, glandular-denticulate. Stipules silky, ⅓-3/5in., falcately ovate or lanceolate, deciduous ; petioles eglandular, 1/10-½in. Catkins on leafy peduncles. Male cylindric, l-l½in., dense- fid, drooping ; bracts oblong, cilia te ; stamens 2, free. Female 2-3im, lax-fid ; bracts yellow or brown, ciliate. Dish scales 2. Capsules with narrowed tips, sub-sessile, ovoid, glabrous or pubescent ; style very short ; stigmas 2-fld.

Uses : — The bark yields salicin, a drug largely used in the treatment of acute rheumatism. It is recognised as antiseptic, antipyretic and antiperiodic.

Vern. : — Tissi, bhosi (Nepal); Giûr (Kashmir) ; Bisa, bada katira, bidâi, bitsu bes, besu, wala, majnun, laila, bed maju (Pb.).

Habitat : — Cultivated in the plains of India, and the Himalaya and elsewhere in gardens, etc.

A deciduous tree, with pendent branches, 50ft. Trunk 12ft., in girth flowering and leafing together ; males much commoner than females. Branchlets glabrous, shining. Buds thin, acute. Bark grey, ¼-½in. thick. Wood soft, porous, even-grained. Leaves 3-6 by ½in.; midrib prominent, linear-lanceolate,

acuminate, serrulate, glabrous or sparsely hairy; stipules falcate, serrate. Catkins very slender on leafy peduncles ; males short, cylindric, ​

curved, slender, pale-yellow, ½-lin. long ; stamens 2, free; bracts lanceolate. Females : as long bracts as in the male, small pale. Capsules sessile, narrowly conic, glabrous or slightly hairy at base. Stigmas 2, sessile, entire.

Uses : — The leaves and bark are considered tonic, possibly from the salicine in them. (Stewart.) They are still much used by native practitioners as astringents and tonics, chiefly in the treatment of intermittent and remittent fevers. (Punjab Products.) The bark is also said to be anthelmintic. (Watt.;

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Vern.: — Sûfeda (Pb.) ; Frast (Kashmir) ; Prost, farsh, kramali, biûns, (Himalayan names) ; Yarpa, yûlatt, changma, kabul, kaull (Ladak).

Habitat : — Cultivated here and there in the N.-W. Himalaya, from Simla westward.

A large, deciduous tree. Bark thick, grey or blackish-grey, rough, with numerous characteristic, deep, vertical fissures. Wood soft, even-grained ; sap wood white, heartwood reddish-brown. Gamble further adds : — " The variety of the Black Poplar, found in the Himalaya, is almost always the fastigiate form known as the Lombardy Poplar; it is very common and conspicuous in avenues in Kashmir, and some trees are 90-100ft. in height and 6 to 7ft. in girth. From the Kuram Valley, Aitchison and Hemsly have described a variety, afghanica, with slender branches and small leaves." Branchlets and leaves glabrous. Buds viscid. Leaves with penni-nerved midrib and 3 basal-nerves ; almost triangular, acuminate, crenate ; blade 2-4in. Petiole l-2½in. long. Catkins glabrous. Males pink, stamens 15-30. Females lax, drooping, disk shallow ; pedicel short. Fruiting catkins 4-6in. long.

Uses : — The bark is officinal in the plains, an arak [liquor] being extracted from it, which is considered depurative. (Dr. Stewart.)

In Tuscany, an ointment prepared from the buds is used for hæmorrhoids, and the balsam obtained from the same source is a popular remedy for colds. (Watt.) ​

Vern. : — Bangikat (Nepal); Sungribond (Lepcha) ; Garpipal (Kumaun) ; Chelun (Simla) ; Safeda, bagnu, asan, pahari pipal (Pb.) ; Palach (Pb.) ; Shodar (Pushtu); Piplás (corruption of Poplar), Biáon, Sharphárá, Tilaunja, Kapásil (Jamsar.)

Habitat : — Temperate Himalaya, from Kashmir to Bhotan.

A large, deciduous tree. Bark greenish-grey, smooth when young, brown, with deep vertical fissures when old. Wood grey or brownish-grey, soft. Buds viscid, lanceolate, the yellow resinous gum sometimes secreted in large masses. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, broad-ovate, as a rule finely ciliate along the edge, pale and often minutely pubescent beneath, denticulate, usually cordate, 3-6in. by 2½-4½in., 3-5-nerved ; lateral nerves 4-6 pairs above the basal, irregularly forked. Petiole 2-5in. long, compressed above. Flowers before the leaves or with young leaves in lateral catkins, raceme-like and drooping. Male catkins 2-4in. long, somewhat interrupted ; Perianth bell-shaped. Margins undulate. Stamens numerous, filaments free, short, slender ; bract fringed, early caducous, ⅓in. long. Female catkins 6-12in. long, lax in fruit. Pedicels as long as flowers. Ovary conical ; ovules along the centre of the valves. Stigmas 3-4, nearly sessile, spreading, 2 lobed, disk toothed. Capsule ⅓-½in. long, ovoid, 3-4-valved, glabrous ; seeds numerous. Stipes and hairs of the seeds as loog as the capsules. The female tree is common ; the male is very scarce.

Use: — The bark is occasionally used as a tonic stimulant and purifier of the blood. (Atkinson.)

Vern. : — Sufaida ; Bahan (Sind) Padar (Baluch) ; Patki (Brhui); Hodung (Ladak) ; Sufaida; Junglee bentee (Pb.) ; Bahân (Pushtu) ; Pada, padak (Afg.).

Habitat : — Common in the forest belt of Sindh along the Indus " Where subject to inundation, the lower part of the trunk often gets covered with short horn-like roots and shoots, hard spine-like processes are found projecting from the wood ​ into the bark." (Brandis.) Common also in the Punjab ; and planted in the U. P.

A large, deciduous tree, usually gregarious. Bark thick, with irregular, vertical furrows. Wood moderately hard, compact, even-grained. Sap wood white ; heartwood red, often nearly black near the centre. Height 40-50ft ; trunk attaining 8ft. in girth. Extremities sometimes hoary, buds slightly pubescent, not viscid ; branches terete. Leaves polymorphous ; " those of seedlings, young trees, pollard— and coppice-shoots linear, short petiolate, 3-6in. long ; those of older trees on branches, with short internodes, as a rule broad — ovate, rhomboid or cordate ; blade 2-3in. ; petiole l-2in. The broader leaves are dentate, cut or lobed, while the narrow leaves are generally entire. Intermediate forms frequent on the same tree and on the same branch." (Brandis.) Catkins lax-fid. Male flowers :-- bracts oblanceolate, incised ; disk orbicular, 8-cleft ; stamens 8-12. Female flowers: — disk tubular, 8-12 cleft, membranous, caducous. Capsule turgidly lanceolate, ovoid, sub-sessile, 3-valved, ¼-½in., on a long, slender pedicel.

Use : — The bark is used as a vermifuge in the Punjab and Sind. (Stewart.)

Vern. : — Chitta bagnu, safeda, jangli-frast, fras, chanûn (Pb.); Sperdor, spelda (Afg.); Fras (Kashmir).

Habitat : — N.-W. Himalaya, from Kunawur westwards.

A lofty tree in Europe ; in India exceeding 40ft. (Brandis.) Leaf-buds, shoots and leaves beneath, white with cottony tomentum. Leaves oblong— ovate or broadly ovate, dull-green above, or orbicular, sinnately lobed or toothed, palmately on young shoots ; petiole l-2in., laterally compressed. Base 5-nerved, more or less cordate ; catkins hairy. Males 1½-4 ; stamens 6-10. Females slender shoots. Tips crenate, ciliate. Disk stellate ; stigmas 2-2, partate ; arms linear. Carpels pedicelled, 2-valved. Capsule lin., shortly pedicelled.

Uses : — The bark contains some salicine and acts as a tonic ; used for purifying the blood and in skin diseases. Bark said to be useful in strangury. (Punjab Products.)

​PLATE No. 915.

​PLATE No. 916.

​PLATE No. 917.

​ ​PLATE No. 919.

​PLATE No. 920

​PLATE No. 921.