# Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Lineæ

N. 0. LINEÆ
199. Linum usitatissimum, Linn. H.F.B.I., i. 410. Roxb. 277.
Sans, : — Atasi, Masrinâ,
Vern. : — Alsi, tisi (H.) ; Tisi masinâ (B.) ; Alsi-virai (Tam) Atasi (Tel.); Pesu (Uriya) ; Alasi (Porebundar and Gujrat) : Javas ; (Marathi) Alashi.
Habitat : — Cultivated throughout India, Ceylon, Western Himalayas. ​ An annual herb. Stem cylindric erect, simple below ; 2-4 ft., often solitary, corymbosely branched above. Leaves narrow, linear or lanceolate, sub-3-nerved, without stipular. glands. Flowers 1in. diam., in broad cymes ; sepals 5, ovate-acuminate, 3-nerved, glandular, margins ciliate or not. Petals 5, crenate, contorted, fugacious, blue ; style, quite free ; stigmas linear-clavate. Carpels with, ciliated axile margins in the Indian plant, 5-celled ; cells 2-locellate, 2-ovuled. Capsule scarcely exceeding the narrowly white-margined sepals, 5-celled, septicidally splitting into 5 simple or 10 1-seeded Cocci. Seeds compressed, albumen sparing ; Embryo straight,
Parts used : —The seeds, oil and flowers.
Uses : — The Mahomedans consider it to be cold and dry, and that clothes made with the fibre, cool the body and lessen perspiration ; they recommend fumigation with the smoke, for colds in the head and hysteria, and use the tinder to staunch hæmorrhages. The flowers are said to be cardiacal, the seeds aphrodisiacal, and hot and dry. Linseed poultice is recommended for gouty and rheumatic swellings ; as an emollient, the mucilage is dropped into the eye ; with honey it is prescribed in coughs and colds. The roasted seeds are said to be astringent (Dymock).
The seeds are used internally for gonorrhœa and irritation of the genitourinary system. The flowers are considered a cardiac tonic (Emerson).
It is officinal in the Indian and the British Pharmacopœias. Medicinally, it is used for poultices.
The proteins of linseed were extracted with 0-2 per cent, potassium hydroxide solution and hvdrolysed with hydrochloric acid of sp. gr. 1-16 They yielded glycine traces ; alanine, 1-03 per cent. ; valine, 12.71 ; leucine and isoleucine, 3.97 ; proline, 2.85; phenylalanine, 4.14 ; aspartic acid, 1.65 ; glutamic acid, 11.58 ; 'serine, traces ; trosine, 0.65 ; arginine, 6.06 ; histidine, 1.66 ; lysine, 1.19; ammonia 1.94 ; and tryptophane, traces— in all amounting to 49.43 per cent. The chief feature of the hydrolysis is the very high proportion of valine, 12.7 per cent., as most proteins yield less than 1 per cent, of valine. The amount of tyrosine is exceptionally low and the accuracy of the methods of separating this amino-acid is open to doubt. Basic lead acetate precipitates from neutral or faintly alkaline solutions containing ​ tryosine, an insoluble basic salt, 2Pb(C 9 H 10 O 3 N) 2 ,5Pb(OH) 2 - This separates in a granular state and is readily filtered and washed. J. Oh. I. for Feb , 15, 1911 p. 148.
"My experience has been that Bombay oils usually give the highest iodine value, but that these vary from year to year with the crop and season."
Oil.
Iodine value.
Sp. gr. at 15 3 .
Hexabro- mides. 1 2
M. pt.
Calcutta oil
185
0-9322
39-1 39-3
140-5°C.
Dr. Harry Ingle in the J. Ch. I. for March 31, 1911 p. 344.
200. Reinwardtia trigyna, Planch, h.f.b.i, i. 412.
Syn. :— Linura trigynum, Roxb. 277.
Vern. : — Karkún, kuar, gud batal, basant, bál-basant, gulashruf (Pb.) Abai (Deccan).
Habitat : — Hilly parts of India, Simla. From the Pan jab to Sikkim. Behar, Assam, Chittagong. Southward from the Bombay Ghats to the Nilgiri Hills. Very common in the Dun, and the Hills around.
A tufted glabrous shrub, 2-3ft. high, with erect and prostrate rooting ; terete, rather stout, soft branches ; leaves entire, ovate-lanceolate, 2-4in., narrowed into a slender stalk ; tip obtuse or acute, minutely mucronate, lower surface pale. Flowers about 1in. dia., axillary, solitary or in small clusters, sometimes combined in a terminal corymb. Sepals 5, lanceolate, acute, green. Petals primrose-yellow, much longer than the calyx, obovate. Stamens usually in 2 sets, 3 long, 2 short. Ovary 5-celled. Styles usually 3, sometimes 4-7, longer or shorter than the stamens, more or less united, rarely free. Capsule size of a pea ; papery (Kanjilal), globose ¼in. diam. ; separating into as many valves as there are styles. See Darwin's Forms of Flowers, Chap. VII.
Use : — Said to be used as a medicine for cattle (Dr. Stewart). ​
201. Hugonia Mystax, Linn., h.f.b.i, i. 413.
Vern. : — Agúre (Tam.) ; gatrinta ; tivoa potike ; vendapa ; Káki bira (Tel.) ; Modera Canni (Mal.)
Trimen gives the following names : —
Sinhalese : — Maha-getiya, Bugetuya ;
Tamil : — Motirakanni.
Habitat : — Western Peninsula, from the Concan to Travancor. Ceylon, low country.
In the Konkan, near the sea-coast, at Vingorla ; Northern Circars and the Karnatic ; Ceylon (Trimen, Fl. Ceylon, 1. 189.)
A climbing shrub, scrambling ; branches spreading, set with numerous short, stiff, yellow-tomentose branchlets. " Bark yellowish-white, corky. Wood greyish-white, hard, close- grained. Pores small, very numerous and evenly distributed. Medullary rays very faintly marked, numerous, regular." (Gamble). Branches leafless below, bearing in the axils of the lowest leaves a pair of woody, reflexed, circinate, tomentose pines (modified peduncles occasionally bearing flowers), above them tufts of leaves and axillary flowers. (Brandis). Leaves alternate, stipules subulate. Flowers yellow, 1 in. across. Sepals 5, unequal, imbricate. Petals 5, contorted. Stamens 10; filaments connate at base. Ovary 5-celled, styles 5, distinct- Drupe red or yellow, ½ in. long, endocarp bony, grooved ; Seeds 2-3 (Brandis). Flowering time, May-October.
Uses : — The bruised roots are employed externally in reducing inflammatory swellings, and as an antidote to snake- bites. In the form of a powder, it is administered internally as an anthelmintic and febrifuge. The bark of the root is also employed as an antidote to poisons (Watt).
202. Erythroxylon monogynum, Boxb. h.f.b.i., i. 414. Roxb. 322.
Syn.: — E. indicum, Bedd Fl. Sylv. p. 81. Sethia Indica D.C.
Vern ; Nât-kâ-devdâr (Dec.) ; Devdarum, Chemmanally (Tam.) ; Adivi geranta, pagadapu-katta (Tel.) ​ Habitat : — Hilly parts of the Western Peninsula ; Ceylon, dry country.
A shrub or small tree. " Bark dark brown, thick, rough. Wood very hard. Sapwood white; heartwood dark reddish- brown, with a pleasant resinous smell ; takes a beautiful polish. Pores very small, very numerous, often in radial strings or patches in lighter tissue. Medullary rays short, very fine, uniformly distributed " (Gamble). Leaves cuneate, l-2in. long, dull, not shining, glaucous-brown beneath, when dry; stipules triangular, long, acuminate. Pedicels about as long as the petiole. Flowers greenish-white, axillary generally in fascicles of 1-4, bisexual, pentamerous. Calyx 5-lobed. Petals with a scale, generally bifid at the top of the claw. Stamens 10. Styles 3, combined nearly at the apex, longer than the stamens. Stigmas clavate. Drupe oblong, triangular, 3-celled, 2 of the cells long, abortive ; apiculate, bright scarlet when ripe, supported by the persistent sepals and stamens.
Parts used : — The leaves, wood and bark.
Uses : — Dr. Bidie says that " during the Madras famine the leaves were largely eaten by the starving poor, and as there is nothing in them structurally likely to satisfy the pangs of hunger, it seems probable that they contain some principle like that of E. Cocoa."
Subsequently, the leaves were examined by Dr. Waddel, Officiating Professor of Chemistry, Calcutta Medical College, for alkaloid, but he could not discover any. (Vide I.M.G., September 1884.)
According to Dr. Moodeen Sheriff, an infusion of the wood and bark is stomachic, diaphoretic and stimulant diuretic ; useful in some slight cases of dyspepsia and continued fever, and also in dropsy as an adjuvant to some other and more active medicines. The leaves are refrigerant.
Dr. Bidie mentions the powder as used medicinally as a substitute for sandal wood.
The pulp beaten into a liniment with gingelly oil is used as an external application to the head.
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