Materia medica of Hindoostan, and artisan's and agriculturalist's nomenclature / by Whitelaw Ainslie.

  • Whitelaw Ainslie
Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Materia medica of Hindoostan, and artisan's and agriculturalist's nomenclature / by Whitelaw Ainslie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    65/376 (page 47)
    i This fruit the Native Indians, like ns, consider as cooling and laxative. (1.) The leaves of the tree (which grows in every |)art of India) are conamonly used by them in I decoction, in cases which require repellent fomentations ; they are also employed I in the preparation of certain Collyria. Internally, they are supposed, in conjunc- tion with some other ingredients, to possess virtues in what the Tamool FractiiioQers I call Catnalny (Jaundice). T.^PIOCA. JATROPHA MANIKOT. Lih. ! Having found that the Jatroph* Manihot grew in great altundance and luxuriance in the southern provinces of India, I, some months ago, attempted to make Tapioca from the root of it, and succeeded—the first, 1 believe, that had been made in our I Indian dominions. An account of the method of preparing it was published in the ! Madras Courier, under date the 23d March, 1813. An amylwn, or starch, is first to be \ made with the fresh root; (2.) which starch, to fr.rm it into 'iapioca, must be spiinkled with a little water, and then boiled in steam. It is, in this way, roon converted into very viscid, irregular, masses, which are to be dried in the sun, ’till they have become quite hard, and then broken into small grains for use. The Tapioca plant is called Mara vull'te by tbeTamools; and, from the circumstance of its having no Sanscrit, Arabic, or I’ersian name, I am leil to think that it is not a native of Hiatloostan, but was probably brought hither, many years ago, by the Portuguese. It appears to bje the variety oi Jatrophn Manihot called in the West Indies Sweet Cassaila, which is the most safe to use, and which is distinguished from the hitter sort by bearing no flow- ei s, and by having a considerable ])ortinn of woody matter at the lieart of the root. The root of the Mara vuHie, called in Tamools AJdrdvullie kdlung, is much eaten and prized by the Indians, it grows, 1 find, also «n Ceylon, (3 j and Dr. D. White, of the Bombay Establishment, infoiras me, that the dried root is brought, as an article of trade, from Mosambique to the ports of Goa, Din and Damaun. In the interior I parts of the Peninsula, it appears to be iu its most succuleut state tluriiig the months of February and March. THORN APPLE, Karoo Oomaten Lpggfs (Tam.) Kdldh Dahtoora „ ,. Jotez »/cv-»ei'fARAB.) — JJmturd (Sans ) —— — • • A I.IN. (I’EKS.)- -Hummatu (Uort. Ma L.) Dhetoora (HiNnoois) ■ — Kotfirtthung (Malay)- — DATURA FASIUOSA. This, as well as the Datura Rletel, grows wild in many parts of these provinces ; the Species Stramonium, however, 1 am inclined to believe with Dr. Fleming, is not to be found (1.) JVe are tnld ly RvwpMtis that such of the inhubt:ants of Mmloynn as have I teeak diyistion, or ohsiruct/on of the spleen, abstain Jrom the use of Tamarind, unhss ' in coujin chort w)ih iornc aromatic. See liutnphtus, f- ol 2d, page 93. (2 ) irith the flour or meal of the root, hucuit and bread can be prepared; if these are intended to be made, the fresh toot must be tut into small pitets, which, after Lemg u’fll soaked in flesh utiter, ate to le dtitU in the sun, and then pounded into flour for I ttse. (3.) Jf’^htlher it was broughtfom the Isle <f France in 1/86 or 1787 by Governor F’on de Gratf. dee ^dsiaiic Annual he gist er for 1805, F'^ol, 7(h,page 87.