OF MADRAS.
63
the Pharmacographia Indica has the following interesting note :—"Supàri
is the fruit of Ar eca. Catechu, but children masticate instead of it the
blunt thorns of B. malabaricum to which they give the name of supári.
In this way the gum has come to be called Supári-ka-phul, which has
misled some into supposing Mocharas to be the produce of the areca."
I made several attempts to extract a gum or resin artificially from
this plant, but failed on every occasion. No gum or resin of any kind
is produced by it on wounding or making incisions, however deep; but
a more or less resinous substance exudes occasionally and spontaneously
from its bark according to its age. If the plant is not very large and
older than thirty or forty years, the exudation is only very small and
occasional. The matter exuded is for some days at the beginning
Yellowish red or of flesh color, and then assumes a brownish hue.
After some months it gradually acquires the form I have described in
the first variety. The second variety of Mócharas is produced in the
same way if the plant is much larger and older. But when the tree is
very large and older than sixty or seventy years the exudation of the
resin occurs every year soon after the rainy season. A large quantity
of thick, brown and viscid fluid flows spontaneously from a natural
crack, fissure, or wound in the bark of the stem or large branch and
collects on the ground. When dry, this forms the most common and
abundant kind of Mócharas in the bazaar, which I have described as the
third variety. In the Pharmacographia Indica Mocharas is described
as the product of diseased action in the cells of the bark. In a village
about seven or eight miles on the west of Madras (Codumbaukum) there
is a very large and old tree of this kind which yields annually a pretty
large quantity of Mócharas in the manner just explained. The
specimen of Mócharas (No. 114) forwarded with my Collection of Drugs
to the Calcutta International Exhibition was partly from this tree and
partly from the bazaar. Whilst the third variety is the cheapest and
most common, the first is the most efficacious as a drug.
The seeds of B. malabaricum are about the size of black pepper,
brown, smooth and roundish, with a very small and short but distinct
ridge on one side of the hilum. I have used these seeds in my practice
and found them to possess the medical properties mentioned under
the heads of " Physiological Actions" and " Therapeutic Uses."
There is much confusion about the Tamil and Telugu name
Maráti-moggu in the bazaar of South India. What are sold in Madras under
that name are very young and tender fruits of either Bombax
m a l a b a r i - c u m
o r
E r i o d e n d r o n a n f r a c t u o s u m ,b
u t m o r e f r e q u e n t l y t h e f o r m e r .
In some other places the buds of poisonous plants, Datura alba and
D. fastuosa, are sold under the same name; and in a few more again,
the buds of Artabotrys odoratissima. In the Materia Indica, Vol II,
page 185, Marati-moggu is said to possess sedative and slightly intoxi-
cating properties. The fact is, that the drug to which the name
Maráti-moggu was applied originally; or ought to be applied at present, is not
known. The young fruits of B. malabaricum being. not only the most
common, but also the most useful of all the drugs to which that name
is often applied; it should, in my opinion, be restricted to them. It is
with this view I have included the name under the head of " Synonyms,"
in the present article.
The young fruits of B. malabaricum, when separated from their
stalks, as they should always be before they are used as a medicine, vary