Fruit - Specimen details
| Catalogue Number: 47618 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Image | Plant Name | 121.00 PEDALIACEAE Pedalium murex | Entry Book Number | ||
| Artefact Name | Fruit | Vernacular Name | |||
| Iso Country | India | TDWG Region | India | ||
| Parts Held | Fruit | Geography Description | India | ||
| Uses | FruitUse: MEDICINES User: Not defined | TDWG use | MEDICINES | ||
| Storage | Bottles, boxes etc | Related Items | |||
| Donor | Pharm Soc GB | Donor No | 22 A 5 | ||
| Donor Date | Donor Notes | India Museum Date: 00/00/1880x0Dx0A | |||
| Collector | Collector No | ||||
| Collection Notes | Collection Date | ||||
| Exhibition | Expedition | ||||
| Number Components | Publication | ||||
| Notes: | Label source: A spreading low succulent plant, with oval-dentate obtusely pointed leaves; pedicles axilary, one flowered, shorter than the petiole; one, two, or more dark brown glandular bodies situated near the axils; flowers yellow; tube of corolla abo, ut 1 inch long; fruit pendulous, about 1/2 inch long, and 1/4 inch in diameter at the base, four angled, with a straight spine at the base of each angular ridge, above the spines is a narrow portion which is inserted into the five clawed calyx; when dry t, he fruit is corky, it is divided into 2 cells, the seeds are elongated, narrow, and 4 in number. The young branches, petioles, under surface of leaves, and immature capsules have a frosted appearance, which is due to the presense of numerous small sessile, , brilliant crystaline 4 to 5 partite glands. The substance of the fruit consists in great part of dense fibro-vascular tissue, forming a kind of 4 winged nut; the corky part consists of delicate cellular tissue; when fresh it is green and succulent. The, fresh plant has a peculiar disagreeable musky odour. Simple agitation of the young branches in water, without any crushing produces a viscid mucilage, like white of egg. I find from experiment, that the glandular crystalline bodies described above, are th, e source of the mucilage; if they are gently scraped from the under surface of the leaf and mixed with water the viscidity is at once produced. The mucilage has a faint peculiar taste, but is not disagreeable; its properties have been sufficiently noticed, in the Pharmacopoeia of India. | ||||