Pankaj Oudhia’s Notes on Anacardium occidentale L. [Kirtikar, Kanhoba Ranchoddas, and Baman Das Basu. "Indian Medicinal Plants." Indian Medicinal Plants. (1918)].
Pankaj Oudhia’s Notes on Anacardium occidentale
L. [Kirtikar, Kanhoba Ranchoddas, and Baman Das Basu.
"Indian Medicinal Plants." Indian
Medicinal Plants. (1918)].
Pankaj Oudhia
Introduction
Based on Ethnobotanical
surveys since year 1990 in different parts of India Pankaj Oudhia has documented
vital information about Medicinal Plants mentioned in the famous publication by
Kirtikar and Basu (1918). Through this research document Pankaj Oudhia has
tried to present original document with additional notes. For complete paper
with pictures, Interactive Tables, Video and Audio clips please visit
pankajoudhia.com
For original publication by Kirtikar and Basu (1918) please visit https://archive.org/details/indianmedicinalp01kirt
327. —
Anacardinm occidentale, Linn., h.f.b.i.,
ii. 20, Roxb.,
342.
Vern. : — Kajii
(H.) ; Hijli-badam (B.) ; Kottaimundi, Rolla
mavu (Tarn.) ;
Kajucba-bi, kaju (Mali.); gidi-mamedi, munda-
n. o.
anacardiacej:. 377
mamddichettu
(Tel.) ; Jidi-vate, kempu gern bija, geru-poppu,
geru-vate,
gerabija godamby (Kan.) ; Parahki-mava kuru,
Parangi-tnavu,
kappal-clierunkuru, kappa-mavakuru (Mai.) The
hon. Inayet
(Burm)..
Eng. : — The
Cashew Nut.
Habitat: —
Hotter parts of India, especially near the sea.
Naturalised from
America.
An evergreen,
10-20ft. high. Bark considerably rough.
In old trees it
is deeply cracked. The juice from the stem is
thickish and
resinous, slightly brownish, blackening on
exposure. From
the bark comes a yellowish hard resin having
mostly the
appearance of yellow amber — the Cashew gum —
soluble and used
for nearly the same purpose as gum-arabic."
Wood dark brown.
Charcoal of the wood used by the iron-
smiths of Tavoy
as the best for their trade. Leaves simple,
smooth,
alternate, ex-stipulate, quite entire, ovate or obovate,
with a slightly
rounded emarginate apex, smooth on both sides,
of a hard
texture ; narrower, but obtuse at base ; 4-8in. by 3-5in.
Venation
well-marked, whitish and permanent on the under
surface. Nerves
10 pair, otten less, nearly horizontal, some-
times
bifurcating faintly. The bark and leaves contain much
tannin. Petiole
£-|in., slightly grooved on ventral side ; at
times cylindric.
Panicles corymbose, branched and spread-
ing. Bracts leafy,
numerous, lanceolate, hairy. Bracteoles at
base of
pedicels, broadly ovate, generally lanceolate, acuminate.
Flowers small
pentamerous, polygamous, Jin. diam ; yellow,
with pink,
longitudinal stripes, often deep-crimson ; odour of
mixed cloves and
cinnamon. Calyx inferior, cleft nearly to
base. Sepals
erect, deciduous ; the base of sepals a crescent,
forming an erect
disk. Corolla alternate, linear-lanceolate,
twice as long as
the sepals. Stamens usually 9, all fertile ; one
of these is
nearly twice as long as the rest. Stamens often
vary
alternately. Filaments connate at base, free upwards.
Anthers
2-celled, introse. Pistil in the male flower minute,
with a very
short style ; both well-devloped in the hermaph-
rodite flower.
Ovary in the hermaphrodite flower free,
campylotropous,
superior, one-celled, ovoid or obcordate. Bail-
48
378 INDIAN
MEDICINAL PLANTS.
Ion describes it
as compresso-obovate or obcordate, hence
gibbous. This is
a more accurate description, I think. Style
simple,
solitary, filiform, eccentric, becoming convolute, as if to
bring the stigma
into contact with the large anther of the long
filament (Roxb).
Stigma minute, often tinged crimson. Ovule
solitary, long,
conical ; inserted at the summit of a suberect,
ascending
panicle. Chalaza superior ; micropyle introse, inferior,
near funicle.
Fruit an ash-coloured nut, kidney-shaped, dry,
shining,
indchiscent. lin. long, ^in. broad at hilum ; some-
what compressed.
Mesocarp soft, corky, lacunose, oleo-resinous.
The epicarp and
pericarp coriaceous, not woody, as Baillon says.
The most
noteworthy part of the plant is the succulent, fleshy,
enlarged
peduncle, soft and juicy, obovoid, slightly sweet, at
times very acrid
and irritating to the throat and tongue ; popu-
larly sold as
the Kaju fruit in the bazaar, and of which much
liquor is
manufactured in Goa. Seed kidney-shaped which is the
real fruit,
corresponding to the pericarp. Testa crisp, mem-
branous, and
easily removable, mottled reddish-brown outside,
deep crimson
inside, of an astringent aromatic taste, separable
from the kernel
or milkwhite cotyledons by a resinous
fracture ;
albumen absent.
Parts used : —
The fruit, seeds and spirit. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: All parts are
used as medicine.]
Uses : — The
bark is said to have alterative properties. The
tar, which
contains about 90 p. c. of anacardic acid and 10 p. c.
of cardol, has
recently been recommended as an external appli-
cation in
leprosy, ringworm, corns and obstinate ulcers ; it is
powerfully
rubefacient and vesicant, and requires to be used
with caution. In
Native practice, it is sometimes used as a
counter-irritant.
In Europe, a tincture of the pericarp (1 to 10
of rectified
spirit) has been used in doses of 2 to 10 minims as
a vermifuge.
According to Basiner, the subcutaneous injection
of small doses
of cardol produces on cold-blooded animals
paresis,
increasing to paralysis of the extremities, stupor, para-
lysis of
respiration and tetanic spasms. In warm-blooded
animals large
doses are not lethal, but stupor, paralysis of the
extremities and
diarrhoea occur, and, after death, congestion of
N. 0.
ANACARDIACE.E. 379
the intestinal
lining is found. Gardol seems to be excreted
chiefly with the
urine, but partially also with faeces. Applied
on a small piece
of lint to the skin of the breast, it raised
a watery blister
in 1A hours (Am. Journ. Pharm., 1882,
Dymock).
Between the
laminae of the shell of the kernel there is a
black caustic
fluid, which contains an acrid, oily principle,
cardol and a
peculiar acid, anacardie acid.
The spirit
distilled from the expressed juice of the fruit
may be used as a
stimulant (Watt.)
The kernel is
nutritive, demulcent and emollient ; and the
oil emollient.
In the form of mixture, the kernel is useful for all
the purposes for
which the Mistura Amygdalae is employed, and
also as a food
in very weak patients suffering from incessant
and chronic
vomiting, with two or three minims of acid hydro-
cyanic dil. in
each dose. The oil is a mechanical as well as a
chemical
antidote for irritant poisons. It not only protects, to
some extent, the
lining membrane of the stomach and bowels
from the
irritation of the poison, and prevents both the solution
and absorption
of it, but also neutralizes it by forming a soap
with it, if it
happens to be an alkaline. It is also a good
vehicle for
liniments and other external applications (Mooden
Sheriff).
[Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: It
is really surprising that ancient as well as modern literature mention very
little about medicinal properties and uses of Anacardium roots, leaves and
bark. In Indian Traditional Healing these parts are used as medicine both
internally as well as externally. In areas where large scale plantations exist
the young Traditional Healers are developing new Herbal Formulations based on
roots, bark and leaves and using it in their daily practice. I have documented
information about thousands of Herbal Formulations in which these parts are
used as individual ingredient and also in form of combinations. Please see
Tables Cashew-1 to Cashew-50 for details.]
The kernels
yield a light, yellow, bland oil. Niederstadt (1902) found the
saponification
value to be 179*84, and the iodine value, 60*6.
The pericarp or
shell yields a black, acrid and powerfully vesicating oil.
Crossley and Le
Sueur determined the following constants : Specific gravity,
0*9594 ;
saponification value, 45*1 ; iodine value, 294*2 ; Reichert-Meissl value,
1*26. Though it
possessed an abnormally high iodine value, practical
experiments
showed it to be a non-drying oil.
E-documents on
Anacardium
Citation
Oudhia, Pankaj (2013).
Pankaj Oudhia’s Notes on Anacardium occidentale L. [Kirtikar, Kanhoba Ranchoddas, and Baman Das Basu.
"Indian Medicinal Plants." Indian
Medicinal Plants. (1918)]. www.pankajoudhia.com
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