Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/616

contain water 12.5, albuminoids 9.5, starch 70.7, oil 3.6, fibre 2.0, ash 1.7. American grain contained 1 per cent, more fat than Indians.

In the unrefined state the oil has a specific gravity of .916 at 15°C, the elaidin test shows the presence of a large quantity of olein. Maize oil is of a pale yellowish-brown colour, with an odour and taste like that of freshly ground corn meal ; it belongs to the non-drying group of the vegetable oils, does not easily become rancid, and has no purgative action. With alkalies it forms a white soap ; it contains fatty acids (free) 0.88, total fatty acids 96.75 per cent., mucilaginous bodies 1.34. The loss sustained by purification is under 5 per cent. (J. U. Lloyd, Amer. Journ. Pharm., July 1888.)

Vern. : — Ukh, gannâ, ikh, nai shakar, rîkhû, kumad, kusiyâr, katârî(H.); Ik, âk, ûk, kûshiar, pûri, kullûa, kajûli, (Beng.) ; Akh, ikshu (Sant.) ; Tû (Newar) ; Ghenra (Parb.) ; Uk, akali ehaku (Nep.) ; Aku (Ur.) ; Shakar surkh, khand, ganna, kamând, paunda, ikh (Pb.) ; Kamand (Sind) ; Gândâ, Sherdi, aos, ûs, kabbu (Mar.) ; Sheradi, nai-sakar, uns (Guz.) ; Karûmbû (Tam.); Cheruku, charki, ârukanupula-krânuga, (Tel.) ; Khabbu, basari-mara (Kan.) ; Karinpa, tebu (Mal.).

Habitat : — Cultivated throughout India.

A large perennial grass. Stems many, 6-12ft. high, thick, solid, jointed, polished, yellow purple or stripped ; lower inter-nodes short with fibrous roots above each joint. Leaves very large, crowded, lower ones soon falling off ; ligule short, entire; sheaths about one foot in length, striate, smooth or with mealy pubescence ; blade 3-4ft. long and from 1½ to 2 inches in breadth, acute, smooth on both surfaces, margins minutely serrulate, ciliate at the base ; midrib prominent beneath. Panicles large, compound, drooping, feathery, of a greyish colour. Spikelets small, very numerous, 1-flowered, arranged in pairs on alternate sides of the long slender panicle branches, one stalked and the other sessile, each enveloped in an involucre of long white silky hairs ; glumes 2, nearly equal, lower 2-nerved and ciliate towards the apex, upper 1-nerved ; outer pale wanting, inner shorter than the glumes. Lodicules 2, free, truncate, lobed. Stamens 3 ; anthers linear, oblong.