After mixing the pulp with water the liquid is strained through a woolen cloth; the material which remains in the strainer is washed with a little more cold water which is added to the other liquid and the two are evaporated to the consistency of the extract.
Dose.—15–30 grams.
Dr. Irving states that the root is a very energetic purgative. In Concan the juice of the tender leaves is used in the treatment of impetigo.
Botanical Description.—A tree with trunk about as thick as the human body, with leaves opposite and abruptly pinnate. Leaflets, the lower ones smaller, 5 pairs, ovate, lanceolate, glabrous and rather tough. Common petiole, cleft at the base, lacking glandule. Flowers bright yellow, in long, pendulous racemes. Calyx, 5 ovate sepals. Corolla, 5 unequal petals. Stamens 10, free, 3 longer than the rest. Ovary unilocular, many-ovuled. Pod cylindrical, pointed at the end, woody, black, 1–2° long, with many circular seeds, surrounded by a blackish pulp and separated by partitions.
Habitat.—Common in Luzon and Panay. Blooms in March.
Cassia occidentalis, L.
Nom. Vulg.—Tighiman, Balotag̃aso, Tag.; Tambalisa, Vis.; Western Senna, Styptic Weed, Eng.; Negro Coffee, Indo-Eng.
Uses.—In Brazil they use an infusion of the root as a tonic and diuretic, 4 grams of the root bark and 180 of boiling water to be taken in one day. In Dahomey the leaves are used as a febrifuge. Thirty grams of fresh leaves are boiled in 300 grams of water till the liquid is reduced to 250 grams. The patient takes this decoction hot the first day of the fever and a profuse perspiration promptly breaks out. As a rule the effect is immediate and the fever does not recur. This treatment of fevers is more common in that country than that by quinine and they claim that it has the advantage over the latter of acting as a stomachic tonic. By adding a small quantity of the roots to the decoction it is rendered diuretic. The seeds possess the same properties and are used in decoctions of 30 grams to 300 of water. According to De Lanesan the roasted seeds are used in La Réunion in infusion similar to coffee in the treatment of gastralgia and asthma. In some countries they mix them with coffee just as chicory is used in Europe.
Heckel and Schlagdenhauffen have made a very complete study of the plant and we quote the following from their works:
Chemical composition of the seeds.—