Root - Specimen details
| Catalogue Number: 51698 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Image | Plant Name | 88.00 COMPOSITAE Saussurea lappa | Entry Book Number | ||
| Artefact Name | Root | Vernacular Name | |||
| Iso Country | Not defined | TDWG Region | Not defined | ||
| Parts Held | Root | Geography Description | |||
| Uses | RootUse: MEDICINES User: Man | TDWG use | MEDICINES | ||
| Storage | Bottles, boxes etc | Related Items | |||
| Donor | Cowan Dr JM | Donor No | |||
| Donor Date | 00/00/1930 | Donor Notes | |||
| Collector | Collector No | ||||
| Collection Notes | Collection Date | ||||
| Exhibition | Expedition | ||||
| Number Components | Publication | ||||
| Notes: | Label source: Ait.; Fl.Br.Ind. iii.376; Schl; Ph.Ind.ii.296. This soft, fragrant, whitish root comes from plants grown as a Crown monopoly in Kashmir, and is exported to Persia, India and China. This ancient drug was formerly called Arabian Costus, as it, was carried to Turkey and Europe by Arabs. It is greatly valued as a medicine throughout the East as far as China, and being costly is often adulterated. The root occurs in cylindrical pieces about 2.5 cm or more in diam., light coloured, with an agreeab, le odour and a bitter and biting aftertaste. It contains inulin but no starch. A second sample of Khost (Kust) from Hamadan has a smaller root, spirally twisted and lighter in colour. Various chemical principles have been separated from the root, some of, which account for thw violet -like odour; Costu-lactone isomeric with alantolactone costus acid, dehydrocostus lactone and costol. Costus root is prescribed externally and internally for various complaints, and is taken locally to ward off the effects of, snake and animal bites. | ||||