Habitat. — Cultivated in South India and in the Ganges, Doab, and in Bengal.
A short-lived, wooded tree, attaining 20-3Oft., with virgate terete branches. Bark light brown, smooth. Wood white, soft. Leaves ½-1ft. long. Leaflets 10-30 pair, oblong, glaucous, 1-1½ft. long. Flowers 2-4in., short axillary racemes, 3in. long, red or white. Calyx lin. deep, glabrous, shallowly 2-lipped. Calyx-cup full of honeyed-juice. Pod 10-12in. long, or more, ⅓in. broad, compressed, tetragonous, falcate, firm, not torulose, the sutures much thickened.
Parts used. — The bark, leaves, flower, and roots.
Use. — In Bombay, the leaves or flowers are made use of by the Natives, their juice being a popular remedy in nasal catarrh and headache : it is blown up the nostrils and causes a very copious discharge of fluid, relieving the pain and sense of weight in the frontal sinuses. The root of the red-flowered variety, rubbed into a paste with water, is applied in rheumatism. From 1 to 2 tolas of the root-juice are given with honey as an expectorant in catarrh. A paste made of the root, with an equal quantity of stramonium root, is applied to painful swellings. The leaves are also said to be aperient (Dymock).
An infusion of the bark is given in small-pox (T. N. Mukerji).
The bark is very astringent and is recommended as a tonic by Dr. Bonavia (Ph. Ind.)
A poultice of the leaves is a popular remedy in Amboyna for bruises. The juice of the flowers is squeezed into the eyes to relieve dimness of vision (Murray).
The flowers and pods are used in Bombay in curries and fritters. The taste of the pods, when cooked as a vegetable is, somewhat mawkish. Some don't mind the mawkish taste, and eat them largely (K. R. K.).
363. Astragalus tribuloides, Delile, H. f. b. i., ii. 122.
Vern. :— Ogái (Pb.).
Habitat : —Plains of the Punjab.
