Fruits - Specimen details

Fruits - Specimen details

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Catalogue Number: 63052

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Plant Name 43.01 MELIACEAE Melia dubia Entry Book Number
Artefact Name Fruits Vernacular Name
Iso Country India TDWG Region India
Parts Held Fruits Geography Description India, Bombay
Uses FruitsUse: MEDICINES - Digestive System Disorders User: Man TDWG use MEDICINES - Digestive System Disorders
Storage Bottles, boxes etc Related Items
Donor India Museum Donor No
Donor Date Donor Notes
Collector Collector No
Collection Notes Collection Date
Exhibition Expedition
Number Components Publication
Notes: Label source: Melia superba - Local name of drug, Kala, Khajur, or Kurroo Khajur. The dried fruit of this tree is sold in all the shops under this name, which means black or bitter date. In size, shape and colour it is very much like that fruit, but upo, n closer examination the pulp is found to adhere firmly to a large and very hard stone. The remains of the peduncle may also be seen to be different from that of a date. When soaked in water it soon losses its shrivelled appearance, and becomes like a l, arge oval yellowish green plum. The skin is now seen to be thick and easily separated from the pulp which consists of a delicate parenchyma supported by fibrous bands attached to the stone. The apex of the fruit is blunt, and studded with small tubicles, . At the base is attached the five partite calyx and a small portion of the fruit stalk. The stone is an inch in length, obscurely five furrowed, oblong, perferated at both ends; apex five toothed around the perforation, five celled; seeds solitary, lan, ceolar, attached from the apex, perisperm in small quantities, embryo straight, inverse; cotyledons lanceolate; radicle oval, superior. The seed is 3/4 of an inch long and 3/6 of an inch broad, testa dark brown or black, polished; kernel very oily sweet, tasted. Under the microscope cells of the fruit pulp are seen to be full of oil globules and fine granular matter, and the skin to consist of one row of columnar cells covered by a horny epidermis. This drug has a bitter nauseous taste. It is a favourit, e remedy amongst the labouring classes for colic; half a fruit is the dose for an adult. It appears to have hardly any purgative properties but is said to relieve the pain most effectively. Melia superba is a native of Soonda and is a large forest tree., Dymock Pharm Journal.
Determinations:43.01 MELIACEAE Melia dubia Cav.
    43.01 MELIACEAE Melia superba

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