Parts used : — The seeds, Lark, leaves and fruit.
Use : — " The seeds are given in coughs. The bark, unripe fruit, and leaves are pungent, bitter and purgative, and are considered to have anthelmintic properties. The African Arabs use the pulp of the fruit as a detergent and the bark to poison fish." (Dymock.)
According to Surgeon Parker of Poona, the seeds are useful in colic (Watt 1 Dictionary, Vol. I.)
The soft parts of the fruit contain 7 per cent, of the Saponin . J. Ch. S. 1901 A I 648,
A sample of oil prepared by the natives of Marogoro (German East Africa) from the seeds was of a light yellow colour and had a pleasant nutty taste and smell. It had the following characteristics :— Sp. gr. 0-9173 (15° C) ; Sapon. Value 195.6 ; Reichert-Meissl Value, 0.55 ; Poleuske Value 0.4 ; iodine Value, 77.2 ; Acid Value 8.5; unsaponifiable, 0.07 percent; Stearic acid content, 2.4 per cent. The oil became cloudy at 8.8°C. J. Ch. I. 15th Ma. 1912 p : 442
251. — Gomphia angustifolia, Vahl. h. f. b. i., i. 525.
Vern. :— Valermani (Mai); Bokera (Sinhalese).
Habitat: — Southern provinces of the Western Peninsula. Ceylon, common in low country, upper zone, rare in the dry region. Also on the Malabar coast, Singapore and the Phillippines.
A small much-branched tree, young parts glabrous. Leaves 2½-5in., distichous, nearly sessile, lanceolate, acute at both ends, finely serrate, glabrous, shining, veins very close and numerous, pellucid, with 2 marginal ones near the edge. Stipules deciduous. Flowers numerous, yellow, about ½in., on slender pedicels, in large pyramidal terminal and axillary panicles. Sepals red, oval, acute, glabrous ; petals twice as long as sepals, clawed, obtuse. Stamens 10, filaments very short, anthers large, oblong. Ovary carpels ovoid, smooth. Style stout, very much exceeding Stamens. Ripe carpels 5 (or fewer), attached near their base to sides of the very large gynophore, surrounded by the persistent sepals, ¼-⅜in., ovoid, reniform, purple black, shining. Seed erect, embryo green.
