Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/483
Internally, the resin is used as a stomachic and externally as a plaster, and is applied to buboes and abscesses for suppuration. The wood is considered stimulant, diaphoretic and useful in burning of the body, cough, fainting and ulcerations.
"The resin is stimulant both externally and internally. Internally, it acts chiefly on the mucous membrane of the genito-urinary organs, and is, therefore, a very good remedy for gonorrhœa. I have used it with success in many cases of this disease, and in a few, with decided benefit, after the failure of copaiba, cubebs, gurjan balsam and turpentine. Dose : from one to three drachms in emulsion with mucilage, four times in 24 hours. As it is very thick, it requires to be mixed well and gradually with the mucilage." (Moodeen Sheriff.)
The resin oil forms a white, rather tough, opaque mass and has a granular structure which is probably due to partial crystallisation of the resin acid. Its odor is extremely pleasant and somewhat resembles that of limestone. It has a Sp. Gr. 0.990, [a]D-7°42', acid number 129, ester number 11, and saponification number 140. When distilled with steam, it yields about 18.5 per cent, of a volatile oil, which has the characteristic odour of pinene and a somewhat fainter odour of limonene. The oil has a sp. gr. 0.866 and [a]D+2°48'. When fractionally distilled, it yields (1) 56 per cent, of a liquid which boils at 165-170° and has [a]D -2°; (2)20 per cent, which boils at 170-175° and has [a]D+2°48'; (3) 9 per cent, which boils at 175-180° and has [aD+6°50' ; and (4) 15 per cent, which boils at 180° and above and has [a]D 180° 12'. The oil probably contains I -pinene together with a small quantity of d- limonene. The presence of pinene was detected in the first fraction by means of amyl nitrite, but a crystalline nitroso-chloride was not isolated. Attempts to prepare the hydro-chloride and bromine additive compound also failed. The white, crumbly resin which remains after distilling the oil has acid number 142, ester number 13, and saponification number 155 ; a 10 per cent, solution in a 100 mm. tube has aD=1°10'. Crystals of a resin acid melting
P. Khasya, P. Merkussi and P. excelsa. The oil from this species, owing to its different chemical composition cannot come up to the American and French oils consisting mostly of pinene, but if prepared by adopting better methods of distillation, it is better than the Russian turpentin oil and is not inferior to the American oil when used for paints, varnishes, &c.According to Messrs Morrison & Co., who examined» and reported on, a sample of oil distilled by Mr. Ferrnandez at Nainital the results of its application in cases of rheumatism were as good as those obtained with French oil.This species is not only abundant in its natural habitat, but has been planted more or less successfully in various Indian plain stations, even in Calcutta. Mr. R. S. Troup has recently published in the Indian Forest Memoirs, the results of his sylvicultural study of this plaint.