Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/370
as a remedy for gonorrhœa. (Pharm, Ind.) It has of late been prescribed as a substitute for copaiba in modern European medicine. ( Pharmacographia.) The author of Makhzan-ul- Adwiya describes the wood as cold and dry, cardiac, tonic, astringent, alexipharmic, anti-aphrodisiac, a resolvent of inflammatory swellings, &c. He recommends an emulsion in bilious fever on account of its cooling and protective influence over the heart, brain, stomach, etc. As an external application a paste made with rose-water and camphor, or with sarcocolla and white of egg, may be applied to relieve headache or to any kind of inflammatory swelling or skin affection. (Dymock)
In cases of morbid thirst the powder of the wood is recommended to be taken in cocoanut water. A bolus of ground sandal checks hæmoptysis in its mild form, when taken twice a day for two or three days.
The seeds contain an oil which is used in skin diseases. The seeds are also eaten. (B. D. Basu.)
The wood yields an essential oil the amount of which, on the average, varies from 3 to 6 per cent. It has been observed that the wood growing on hard and rocky soil is richer in oil than those growing on comparatively fertile soil. (Puran Singh).
The constants of the oil made by mixing the products obtained in the distillations are as follows :
| Specific gravity at 26°C | .9765 |
| Optical rotation | 15.6° to— 16° |
| Saponification number before acetylation | 9.72 |
| Saponification number after acetylation | 21.13 |
| Santalol content | 99.4 |
1111. Osyris arborea, Wall., h.f.b.i., v. 232.
Vern.: — Bakardharra, bakarja (Kumaon) ; Popli (Belgaum) ; Jhuri (Nepal).
Habitat: — Outer Himalaya, Sub-Himalaya-Tract from the Sutlej to Bhutan. Central Provinces, West Coast from the Konkan south-ward to the top of the Ghats, also in the Hill ranges of South India, Shan Hills, Burma ; Ceylon.
An evergreen shrub or tree, twiggy, as a rule glabrous. Bark dark, greyish-brown, rough, with shallow, vertical fissures. Wood red, hard, close-grained (Gamble). Branches numerous, stiff, virgate. Branchlets 3-sided, with prominent, sharp angles.