- Specimen details
| Catalogue Number: 54957 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Image | Plant Name | 69.01 LYTHRACEAE Ammannia baccifera | Entry Book Number | ||
| Artefact Name | Vernacular Name | ||||
| Iso Country | India | TDWG Region | India | ||
| Parts Held | Geography Description | India | |||
| Uses | Use: MEDICINES User: Man | TDWG use | MEDICINES | ||
| Storage | Bottles, boxes etc | Related Items | |||
| Donor | India Museum | Donor No | |||
| Donor Date | Donor Notes | Govt Central Museum Madrasx0Dx0A | |||
| Collector | Collector No | ||||
| Collection Notes | Collection Date | ||||
| Exhibition | Expedition | ||||
| Number Components | Publication | ||||
| Notes: | Label source: History and Uses - The properties of this plant and its use by the natives as a blistering agent appear to have been first brought to the notice of the Europeans by Roxburgh. Ainslie quotes him, and remarks that the plant has a strong muria, tic smell, but not disagreeable ; the leaves are extremely acrid, and are used by the natives to raise blisters in rheumatism, fevers etc. ; the fresh leaves bruised and applied to the part intended to be blistered, perform their office in half an hour an, d most effectually. The authors of the 'Bengal Dispensatory' state that they made a trial of the leaves in eight instances ; blisters were not produced in less than twelve hours in any, and in three individuals not for twenty four hours. The bruised leave, s had been removed from all after half an hour. The pain occasioned was absolutely agonizing until the blister rose ; they caused more pain than cantnarides and are far inferior to the Plumbago rosea in celerity and certainty of action. According to Flemi, ng, the leaves are applied to cure herpetic eruptions. The authors of the Pharmacopoeia of India merely notice the unfavourable opinion of the drug expressed in the Bengal Dispensatory. I have made some experiments with an ethereal tincture ofthe leaves w, hich leads me to form a much more favourable opinion of them; in several instances it blistered rapidly, effectually and without causing more pain than the liquor epispasticus ; upon evaporation of the ether a dark green resinous extract is left. A spirit, uous tincture was also tried, but it was not nearly so efficient. I have met with no mention of A.vesicatoria in standard native works on materia medica. The plant is common in low moist ground in the neighbourhood of Bombay, and appears in November and D, ecember. Its properties are retained after the plant has been dried. Description - An herbaceous erect, much-branched plant, having something the foliage of rosemary ; stems four-sided ; leaves sessile opposite, lanceolate, attenuated, about an inch long,, and 1/8 inch broad, much the smaller on the upper parts of the plant ; calyx 4-cleft to the middle, lobes acute ; accessory teeth very small ; flowers very minute, aggregated in the axils of the leaves, almost sessile ; tube of calyx at first narrow and, tightened round the ovary, in fruit, cup-shaped petals wanting ; capsule longer than the calyx, 1-celled ; flowers red. The whole plant has an aromatic and rather agreeable odour which it retains when dry. | ||||
| Determinations: | 69.01 LYTHRACEAE Ammannia baccifera L. 69.01 LYTHRACEAE Ammannia vesicatoria Roxb. | ||||