Calotropis gigantea, R. Br. (= Asclepias gigantea, Linn.).
Various parts of the Yercum-plant have long been employed for medicinal purposes by the native doctors, and experiments made by Anglo-Indian practitioners have proved that the inner bark of the root, called Mudar bark, is a valuable remedy in leprosy, and that it may also be given with advantage in several other complaints, including intermittent and other fevers. An elastic gum and a valuable fibre are also obtained from the plant. There are two varieties of Yercum, one with white and the other with purple flowers, the former forming a tree fifteen or twenty feet high, and the latter a shrub.
LOGANIACEÆ.
Strychnos Nux-Vomica, Linn.
According to Roxburgh the exceedingly bitter wood of the Nux Vomica is employed as a remedy in fevers of the intermittent kind, and also for the cure of snake-bites, when that of the next species cannot be obtained. The poisonous bark is commonly sold in the Indian bazaars in place of the febrifuge "Rohuna bark," which is in reality the produce of Soymida febrifuga. It is the false Angostura bark of our Materia Medica. Nux Vomica seeds have also been administered with some benefit in intermittent fever. The Strychnos Nux-Vomica forms a small tree, has oval, entire, shining leaves, strongly marked with from three to five longitudinal nerves, and bears small corymbs of greenish-white flowers.
Strychnos colubrina, Linn.
The "Naga musadi" of the Telingas, or "Koochilaluta" of the Bengalese. The wood of this species is greatly esteemed by the natives as a remedy for snake-bites, and is also given in cases of intermittent fever. It is a climbing shrub with thick woody tendrils, elliptic-oblong, blunt-pointed, three-nerved leaves, and small corymbs of yellowish flowers.