Pankaj Oudhia’s Notes on Bombax ceiba L. [Kirtikar, Kanhoba Ranchoddas, and Baman Das Basu. "Indian Medicinal Plants." Indian Medicinal Plants. (1918)].

Pankaj Oudhia’s Notes on Bombax ceiba 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

176. Bombax Malabaricum D.C., h.f.b.i.,

i. 349. Roxb. 514.

Syn. :— B. heptaphylla, Roxb.

Sans. : — Shalmali; mocha. Rakta Shalmali. Maha vriksba,

Panch-parni, kalpa vriksa.

Vern. : — Semul or Semal, shembal, semur, pagun, somr,

ragat-seubal, ragat-semar, kanti-seubal (H.) ; Rokto-simul, simul

(B.);simbal, sliivlan (Pb.) Del (Kol); Edel (Santal) ; Bouro,

(Uriya) ; Boicbu, pancbu (Naro) ; Sunglu (Lepcbaj ; Sanvari

Kantesava saer, somr, semuel, shembal, (Bom.) ; La vara, Simbo,

samar, kante-savar, kanteri samar, shevari, tamari savari, (Mar.) ;

Rato-shemalo, shemolo, shimlo, shimul shimar, (Guz.); Kanton-

Ka-Khatyan, kanto-ka-semul, lal-katyan (Dek) ; Mundlaburaga-

chettu (Tel.) ; Pula, Mul-ilava-maram, mulilann (Tarn.) ; Pula-

maram, mul-lilava, mullia-pula (Mai) ; Mullu-buragam-ara, burla,

(Kan.) ; Wallaiki fGond.); Katseori ' v BhiL).

Habitat : — Tropical Eastern Himalaya, and throughout the

hotter forest regions of India, Ceylon, Burma, Sumatra.

A very large deciduous tree, with branches in whorls, 5-7,

spreading horizontally, and stem with buttresses at base. Bark

grey, when young, with conical prickles, with corky base, when

old with long irregular vertical cracks. Wood white when

fresh cut, turning dark on exposure, very soft, perishable.

No heartwood, no annual rings. Leaves digitate, glabrous.

Leaflets 5 or 7, lanceolate, 4-8 in. long, common petiole as long as

or longer than the leaflets. Flowers appearing before the leaves,

large, scarlet, occasionally white ; Calyx inside silky — tomentose.

Petals 2-3 in. long, stellate-tomentose on both faces. Filaments

numerous, pluri-seriate, much longer than the staminal

column ; 5 innermost forked at the top, each with an anther, 10

intermediate. shorter, outer very numerous (Maxwell T. Masters).

Brandis says the filaments are about 70 ; the numerous outer

ones united in 5 clusters. Anthers long, afterwaids twisted.

Petals 5, oblong, recurved, fleshy, twice the length of the

stamens. Style longer than the stamens. Capsule 6-7 in.,

oblong, hard, woody, downy, 5-valved. Valves silky within.

198 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.

Seeds glabrous, embedded in silky wool. This is the silk-cotton

tree of the Konkan.

Parts used : — The gum, seed, fruit, tap-root, bark,' cotton

and flower.

[Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: The insects infesting Bombax are used in Traditional Entomophagy and Entomotherapy.]

Uses : — The gum or dried juice, mocha-ras, which the tree

yields, is used as an aphrodisiac. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: I have documented information about plus 350,000 Traditional Herbal Formulations in which Bombax gum is used as primary, secondary, tertiary to nonary ingredients. Please see Table Bob-2 for this exhaustive list.]  The root has stimulant and

tonic properties. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: I have documented information about plus 150,000 Traditional Herbal Formulations on stimulant and tonic properties of Bombax roots. Please see Table Bob-3 for this exhaustive list.] The bark and the root are emetic[Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Disagree.]. The

young roots, dried in the shade and powdered, form the chief

ingredient in the musla-semul, a medicine highly thought of

as an aphrodisiac ; it is also given in impotence. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: I have documented information about plus 200,000 Traditional Herbal Formulations in which young roots are used as primary, secondary, tertiary to nonary ingredients. Please see Table Bob-4 for this exhaustive list.] The gum

contains a large proportion of tannic and gallic acids, and may

be successfully employed in cases requiring astringents. The

gum has also tonic and alterative properties, and is used in

diarrhoea, dysentery, and menorrhagia.

The dry flowers [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Also many times fresh flowers collected from trees during morning hours. The Healers of Jharkhand many times use fallen flowers but these flowers are less preferred.], with poppy seeds[Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: The Traditional Healers of different regions use different Herbs in place of poppy seeds], goats' milk, and sugar,

are boiled and inspissated, and of this conserve two drachms

are given three times a day in haemorrhoids (Medical Topography

of Dacca, by Dr. Taylor).

" Its gum is useful in diarrhoea ; dose : 20-30 grs., with

equal parts of sugar (Surg. T. Anderson, Bijnor;. The taproot

is used for gonorrhoea and dysentery (Mukerji, Cuttack). The

leaves, [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: I have documented information about plus 5000 Traditional Herbal Formulations for glandular swellings in which Bombax leaves are used.] singed and beaten, or rubbed with water to a pulp, make

a useful application to glandular swellings (Forsyth). Watt's

Diet. i. 491.

The gum is astringent and demulcent ; the seeds nutrient

and demulcent ; the young fruit stimulant, diuretic, tonic,

aphrodisiac, expectorant, and exercises a great beneficial in-

fluence over the membranes of the genito-urinary organs ; the

tap-root is demulcent, tonic, slightly diuretic, and aphrodisiac ;

the bark is demulcent, diuretic, tonic, and slightly astringent ;

and the cotton is employed only externally for its mechanical

properties (softness and elasticity) in padding splints and

covering burned and inflamed surfaces, &c.

The gum is useful in diarrhoea, dysentery and other

affections in which kino and catechu are beneficial[Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Disagree. Kino, Catechu and Bombax gums are entirely different in medicinal properties and uses.]. The

therapeutic uses of the seeds are similar to those of the seeds

N. 0. MALVAOE^. 199

of Gossypium herbaceum, G. Arboreum and G. Barbadense [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Disagree. It is generalized statement.]. The benefit of the dry young fruits in calculus affections and chronic inflammation and ulceration of the bladder and kidneys,

including strangury and all other forms of dysuria, except

those depending on mechanical causes, is remarkable. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Agree. It is popular remedy among the senior Traditional Healers.] The

fruits are also useful in weakness [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Weakness is not right word. Dysfunction can be a better word] of the genital organs and in

most of the disorders in which gentian and calumba are resorted

to. As therapeutic agents, the tap-root and the bark, in the

forms of decoction and extract, are nearly identical in their

usefulness with Mdvdtimoggu, and therefore employed in almost

the same affections. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Disagree.] The cotton of B. Malabaricum is useful in

all the surgical cases, &c, in which the cotton of Cochlosperum

Gossypium. is employed, and the manner of using it is also the

same.

There is no drug in India which enjoys a greater reputation

as an aphrodisiac and tonic in native medical works than the

tap-root of the young plant of B. Malabaricum. There is no

doubt that it is one of the useful drugs in this country, but the

exaggeration of its good effect in some of the Indian writers is

so great, that it is quite ridiculous and not worth mentioning

here. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: So jealous J but the claims of Indian writers are true. If you know the secrets of Traditional Healing only then you can reap the real power of Bombax. I have documented information about hundreds of Herbal Formulations used to enrich plant parts of Bombax. This is our Traditional Allelopathic Knowledge.] I have recently given a trial to this drug in my practice,

and found it to be a good demulcent tonic, and slightly aphro-

disiac, but nothing beyond it. I may also state that even the

good influence, which it does exert occasionally on the genital

organs, is neither certain nor uniform. The great practical

objection to the use of the Semal-mushli is that it is neither sold

in the bazar, nor procurable always in any garden or field.

Besides, there is no medical property in it, which, according

to my own experience, is not possessed in equal degree,

if not more, by the dry young fruits and bark of B. Malabaricum.

In fact, the Marati-moggu is not only the cheapest and most

abundant, but also the best and most useful of all the parts of

the above plant which are used as medicines. The young fruits

seem to possess some soothing or special action on the mucous

membrane of the genito-urinary tract, and have therefore proved

themselves more useful than Pareira Brava in some of the

diseases in which the latter is indicated (Moocleen Sheriff).

200 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.

" The gum exudes only from those portions of the bark which have been

injured by decay or by insects, since incisions in the healthy bark do not

cause the gum to flow. The gum first exudes in the form of a white, opaque,

viscous mass, which readily turns red, and finally dries into hard, brittle,

mahogany-coloured tears, the larger of which are hollow in the centre, the

cavity being produced during the gradual drying of the jelly-like mass which

first exudes from the tree. The fresh exudation contains about 84 per cent,

of moisture which it loses on drying in air. The gum is best collected

during the early part of the hot season— from March till June— since it has

then lost most of its moisture, and consequently is less liable to ferment and

deteriorate when it is stored.**

" Chemical properties of the gum.— The gum contains a considerable quantity

of tannin and belongs, in fact, to that class of tannin materials which Procter

has classified as being of ' mixed and doubtful constitution.' It contains also

catechol tannin."

'* Hydrolysis of the gum.— Boiling the original substance with dilute acid,

probably hydrochloric acid, yields a red coloured solution, together with

an insoluble residue which possesses the colour of crimson lake. For brevity's

sake this amorphous product will be referred to as ' Semul red.' It is only

very moderately soluble in alcohol, and, therefore, this colouring matter does

not possess the solubility ordinarily attributed to the phlobaphenes. The

filtrate from the hydrolysis deposits a small quantity of a dark red, amorphous

powder, and if the tannin substances be removed by means of precipitation

with lead acetate, and the excess of lead in solution be removed from

the filtrate by means of sulphuretted hydrogen, then the residual liquid,

freed from sulphuretted hydrogen, will reduce Fehlings' solution."— J. Ch. I

29-4-1911 p. 469.

Citation

Oudhia, P. (2013). Pankaj Oudhia’s Notes on Bombax ceiba L. [Kirtikar, Kanhoba Ranchoddas, and Baman Das Basu. "Indian Medicinal Plants." Indian Medicinal Plants. (1918)]. www.pankajoudhia.com