Pankaj Oudhia’s Notes on Adansonia digitata L. [Kirtikar, Kanhoba Ranchoddas, and Baman Das Basu. "Indian Medicinal Plants." Indian Medicinal Plants. (1918)].
Pankaj Oudhia’s Notes on Adansonia digitata 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
175. Adansonia digitata, Linn, h.f.b.i., i. 348.
Roxb. 513.
Vernr — Gorakh amli, amali, (H.) ; kalp briksh (Ajmere);
Hathi-khatyan (Dec.) ; gorakh chintz, choyari chinch (Bomb.)
;
Marjath Anai-puliyaroy Parutri, (Tarn.) ; Sima-chinta (Tel.)
Go-
rakh Amli (Porebunder) ; Rukhdo, Chor Amli (Guj.) ; Gorakh
Chinch (Marathi) ; Katu-imbul (Sinhalese).
Arab. : — Hujed.
Eng. : — The baobab or monkey-bread tree of Africa.
Habitat : —Cultivated in various parts of India and
Ceylon.
A deciduous large tree, 60-70 ft. high, very handsome,
though stumpy when in foliage. Trunk short, thick, of great
diam. Stem grey at base, rapidly narrowing upward, like a
cone, throwing out very widely spreading branches. Bark soft,
glaucous, thick. Leaves digitate, glabrous, pubescent
beneath,
when young ; leaflets generally 5-7, 3-4 in. long, obovate or
N. 0. MALVACEiE. 195
oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, attenuated at base, entire or
sinu-
ate at the margins. Flowers white, solitary, axilllary,
pendu-
lous, long-peduncled (often more than 12 in.). Bracteoles 2.
Calyx thick, coriaceous, fleshy, cup-shaped, 5-cleft,
tomentose (?)
externally and clodded with silky hairs internally. Petals
obovate, adnate below, to the stamens. Stami rial-tube thick,
dividing above into numerous filaments ; anthers long,
linear,
reniform or contorted, 1-celled. Ovary ovoid. Style long,
filiform, divided at summit into as many radiating stigmas as
there are cells to the ovary. Cells of ovary 5 -10. Fruit
pen-
dulous, oblong-obovoid, downy, woody, brownish-green,
indchis-
cent, 8-12 in. long. Seeds about 30, kidney-shaped, brown,
immersed in tough fibres and a mealy, reddish fawn-coloured,
slightly acid pulp, which becomes powdery as the pulp
matures.
Trimen says the Roman Catholics call it " Judas'
Bag," be-
cause the fruit contains 30 seeds." Mr. Crawford of
Ceylon Civil
Service gives the circumference of the largest stem (in 1890)
as
61 ft. 9 in., whilst the tree is only 30 ft. high. A tree at
Put-
talam, in Ceylon, is mentioned by Emerson Tennent as being
70 ft. in height and 46 ft. in girth (1848). In the village
of
Matunga (Bombay), in 1896, along the principal road going to
Sion Hill, there was a large tree on the left hand side, of a
similar enormous size. In the Thana District, 1 have seen
several
such trees in a Mahomedan graveyard on the right hand side
while going from Thana by the Corset public Road to the
Colset
Bunder. Similar trees are mentioned as growing in Bengal.
Originally, a Native of Tropical Africa, it was introduced
into
India and Ceylon by Arabian traders. It is now a naturalized
plant, and grows all over India, along the coast of Gujrat,
Central Provinces, Bengal. Into Ceylon also it was introduced
by the Arabs. The Baobab trees, at Mannar have long been
well-known.
The disproportionately large, short trunk is remarkable.
The wood is pale-coloured, soft and porous. It is said by
Lisboa
that the pulp is refrigerent and diuretic. The bark has been
proposed as a substitute for quinine. Its liber affords
excellent
fibre. The pulp of the fibres is used for paper-manufacture.
196 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.
The following was said by Major Kirtikar at the Mel-
bourne Medical Congress, in exhibiting an extract from the
bark
prepared by the late Mr. M. C, Periera of Bandra : — About
30-40 graius a day, in small doses, are given every third or
fourth
hour in Intermittent Fevers. The fruit pulp is acid and
makes a very pleasant refrigerent drink. When unripe, the
fruit pulp is mucilaginous, but as it gets ripe, it assumes
the
appearance of dry pith, containing dry, powdery, acid,
starch-
like stuff, enclosed in bundles of fibre and surrounding the
seeds.
Walz has extracted an active principle from the Bark, called
Adansonin. The pulp is an astringent in diarrhoea, like
gallic
acid.
Parts used : — The fruit, bark and leaves. [Pankaj
Oudhia’s Comment: All parts are used as medicine internally as well as
externally.]
Use : — It was introduced into India by the Arabians. In
Africa, it is used for dysentery, and the leaves are made
into
poultices and used as a fomentation to painful swellings, or
the leaves dried and reduced to powder are called lalo by the
Africans, and are used to check excessive perspiration.
(Royle.)
Duchassing recommends the bark as an antiperiodic in fever.
In Bombay, the pulp, mixed with butter-milk, is used as an
astringent in diarrhoea and dysentery. In the Concan, the
pulp with figs is given in asthma, and a sherbet made of it,
with the addition of cumin and sugar, is administered in
bilious
dyspepsia. It is also given for this affection with Emblic
myro-
balans, fresh mint, rock-salt, and long pepper. (Dymock.)
[Pankaj
Oudhia’s Comment: The senior Traditional Healers still have much knowledge
about medicinal uses of this species. In different parts of India Gorakh Imli
bark is added in over 55,000 Fever Formulations with over 250 species of herbs
in different combinations. Most of the formulations are not in use but from
documentation point of view and also for future research these Formulations are
very useful. The Healers are aware of management of excess, overdose and
toxicity of this species. From the African Traditional Healers I have collected
information about over 8000 Formulations. Please see Tables Adanson-1 to
Adanson-150 for details.]
The fruit has been analysed by Messrs. Heckel and
Schlagdenhauffen. The authors think that the pulp is rightly
used by the natives as a remedy in dysentery.
The pulp is beneficial in pyrexia of any form of fever, by
diminishing the heat and quenching thirst. It has recently
proved itself very successful in relieving the night-sweats
and febrile flushes in a severe case of consumption. The bark
is useful to some extent in simple and in complicated cases
of
continued and intermittent fevers (Moodeen Sheriff.)
E-documents on Adansonia
Citation
Oudhia, Pankaj (2013).
Pankaj Oudhia’s Notes on Adansonia
digitata L.
[Kirtikar, Kanhoba Ranchoddas, and Baman Das Basu.
"Indian Medicinal Plants." Indian
Medicinal Plants. (1918)]. www.pankajoudhia.com
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