Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/492
Habitat : — Plains of India ; from the Punjab to Oudh, Bengal, Chittagong, and the Deccan.
Roots tuberous ; hypogæal. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate. Scape 6-18in., stout or slender, unbranched, from a deformed tuber. Sheaths sub-suppressed, acute. Flowers many, subsecund appearing before the leaves. Racemes many-fid. Sepals ½-⅔in., linear-lanceolate, acute 5-7-nerved, slightly attached to the base of the lip, acute or acuminate, yellow or green, striped with pink. Petals oblanceolate, 3-5-nerved, narrower. Lip as long as the sepals, cuneate-obovate or oblong ; side-lobes short, mid-lobe orbicular, usually purple. Spur conical. Disk with 3 central nerves lamellate at base and tubercled and spinulose on the mid-lobe. Column rather slender. Capsule fin., ellipsoid.
Use :— It furnishes Salep which is esteemed as a tonic and aphrodisiac.
1227. E. nuda Lindl., h.f.b.l, vi. 5.
Vern. : — Ambarkand (H.).
Habitat : — Tropical Himalaya, from Nepal eastwards, Assam, the Khasia Hills, and Mainpur ; the Deccan Peninsula, from the Concan southwards.
Roots tuberous hypogæal ; tall. Tuber large. Leaves 10-14in., elliptic-lanceolate, very variable in breadth. Scape l-3ft., stout. Sheath appressed ; bracts scarcely equalling the ovary. Sepals lin. Men turn rounded or conical. Lip shorter than the sepals. Capsule l½in., fusiform. Flowers large, green or purple.
Uses : — It furnishes salep. Sir George Watt, in his work " Commercial Products of India," p. 963, writes regarding Salep, that
The article obtained in the Indian bazars has been ascertained to be chiefly the product of several species of Eulophia, vis., E. campestris, E. nuda and E. virens (mankand or Lahore salep of the shops), though probably also from the species of a few other genera, and is produced on the hills of Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Persia and Bokhara ; but the Nilgiri hills and Ceylon are said to furnish part of the Indian supply. The salep of European commerce is procured chiefly from the Levaut, and to some extent from Germany, etc., derived mainly from the tubers of Orchis mascula. The tubers are dug up after the plant has flowered, and the plump, firm ones are washed and set aside, and subsequently strung on threads, scalded, and dried in the sun or by artificial heat. The commercial article is met with in three forms— palmate, large ovoid, and small ovoid.