Pods - Specimen details
| Catalogue Number: 60001 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Image | Plant Name | 57.01 LEGUMINOSAE-PAPILIONOIDEAE Astragalus hamosus | Entry Book Number | 129.1884 | |
| Artefact Name | Pods | Vernacular Name | |||
| Iso Country | Iran | TDWG Region | Iran | ||
| Parts Held | Pods | Geography Description | Persia | ||
| Uses | PodsUse: MEDICINES - Circulatory System Disorders User: Man | TDWG use | MEDICINES - Circulatory System Disorders | ||
| Storage | Bottles, boxes etc | Related Items | |||
| Donor | India Museum | Donor No | |||
| Donor Date | Donor Notes | ||||
| Collector | Dymock Dr India Office | Collector No | |||
| Collection Notes | Collection Date | ||||
| Exhibition | Expedition | ||||
| Number Components | Publication | ||||
| Notes: | Label source: These pods have been proved by Dr Stapf to be those of Astragalus hamosus. In Dymocks Pharmacographia India p.404-05 Vol 1. They are referred to under Trigonella uncota, Boiss. There seems much confusion as to their use IRJ May 1901. Opuscu, lar source: History, uses etc. - The small crescent-shaped pods which are imported into Bombay from the Persian Gulf under this name are not that those of Melilotus officinalis, but are considered by Arabian writers to be the Melilotus of Dioscorides. Th, e author of the 'Makhzan-ul-adwiya' gives Maleelotus as the Greek name, and geeah-i-kaisar as the Persian. He goes on to say that there are two kinds of Melileot, both plants are much alike, but the fruit of one is crescent shaped, with small roundish see, ds, something like fenugreek, while the fruit of the other is much smaller, and only slightly curved; both have an odour like fenugreek. The best fruit for medicinal purposes is hard, yellowish white, and aromatic with yellow seeds. The Mahometans, follow, ing the Greeks, hold Melilot in high esteem as a remedy in a great variety of disorders. It is considered to be suppurative and slightly astringent, and is much used as a poltice to dispel tumors and cold swellings. The diseases in which it is administere, d internally are of a widely different nature, and far too numerous for recapitulation here. For an account of them we must refer the reader to the 'Makhzan' article 'Ikleel-ul-Malik.' The Arabian drug appears to have the same properties as M.officinalis,, at any rate it has the same peculiar coumarin odour. Melilotus leucantha, Koch. and M. parviflora Desf., grow in the Bombay Presidency; the first species has a delicate odour of the European Melilot. In the 'Makhzan' an Indian variety of Melilot is menti, oned which has very small fruit; it is called Parang. Description- small sickle shaped greyish yellow pods, with a beak slightly curved outwards; distance from base to apex 1/2inch; length of pod when straightened out about 1 inch. It is grooved on both s, ides, and divided by a central partition into two cells, each of which contains a single row of small greyish yellow rhomboidal seeds, deeply knotched on one side, and seen under the microscope to be marked with numerous black spots. The other kind, with, very small slightly curved pods, mentioned by Mahometan writers, is not found in the shops; it is probably the M. officinalis, or Leucantha, now Alba. Dymock. Pharm Journ. | ||||