Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/568

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INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.

Ovary 3-4-celled. Fruit a large subglobose brown drupe, 6in. in diam. or more, with 1-3 obcordate fibrous pyrenes, enclosed by the enlarged perianth. Seeds oblong, 3-lobed at the top ; albumen uniform, hollow. (Cooke).

Uses : — The juice of this plant is used as a stimulant and antiphlegmatic. The ash of the dry spadix is used as an antacid in heartburn. The saccharine juice, when freshly drawn, is exceedingly sweet, and, if taken regularly for several mornings in succession, acts as a laxative. The light-brown, cotton-like substance from the outside of the base of the fronds, is employed by the Cinghalese doctors as a styptic to arrest hæmorrhage from superficial wounds. The fresh juice is also useful in inflammatory affections and dropsy. Vinegar, toddy and a spirituous liquor are made from this tree. The juice slightly fermented is used in diabetes. The ash of the spadix is given internally in bilious affections. This ash is also used in preparing dyes.

The ash acts as a powerful blister and applied on enlarged liver and spleen in combination with some other demulcents. The pulp of the ripe fruit is applied externally in skin diseases. Palm sugar is antibilious and alterative and used in hepatic disorders and gleet. The juice is diuretic and prescribed in chronic gonorrhæa (T. N. Mukherje). " The root is cooling and restorative. The ashes of the flowering stalk said to be useful in enlarged spleen." (U. C. Dutt.)

" A useful stimulating application, called toddy poultice, is prepared by adding fresh-drawn toddy to rice-flour till it has the consistence of soft poultice, and, this being subjected to a gentle fire, fermentation takes place. This, spread on a cloth and applied to the affected part, acts as a valuable stimulant application to gangrenous ulcerations, carbuncles and indolent ulcers." (Ph. Ind.)

The expressed juice of the leaf-stalk and young root is used in cases of gastric catarrh and to check hiccup. The fermented juice sometimes acts as a drastic purgative. An extract of the green leaves is used internally in secondary syphilis. The ash of dry spadix is largely used as an antiperiodic ; it is feebly so. (Watts Dict.),

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