l-2in. diam., yellow and sweet when ripe, subglobose, glandular or rusty, usually 4-8-seeded ; seeds embedded in a viscid pulp. Fruiting Calyx persistent, ⅔in across, lobes patent, villous within.
Uses : —The fruit and the bark possess astringent properties. The juice of the unripe fruit makes a good application to fresh wounds. It is full of tannin, and is therefore a useful domestic astringent, so plentiful as to be at the door of even the poorest hut. An oil extracted from the seeds is also used in native medicine, in dysentery and diarrhœa with success. Bark is used in intermittent fevers (Honnigberger).
It is used in dysentery and diarrhœa with success. The infusion of the fruit is used as a gargle in aphthae and sore-throat (Kanai Lai De Bahadur).
The seeds are preserved by the country people, and given as an astringent in diarrhœa (Dymock).
It is officinal in the Pharmacopœia of India.
729. D. melanoxylon, Roxb., h.f b.i., iii. 564 ; Roxb. 412.
Syn. :— D. Wightiana, Wall
Sans. : — Kakundoo.
Vern. : — Tendu, kendu, abnú ('Hind.) ; Kend, kyou (Beng.) ; Tumri, tummer, tumki (Gond.) ; Tumbi, tumbali (Tam.) ; Tumi, tumki (Tel.). Tamrug (Guz).
Habitat : — Deccan Peninsula.
A large, or moderate sized, deciduous tree, attaining 50ft., and 6ft. in girth, greyish black, cleft into small rectangular plates, showing the black inner bark in the clefts. The bark shows alternate layers of brown and black, so that as it wears the surface shows partly of either colour. Wood hard, reddish-brown, with an irregular black heartwood. Young parts covered with grey or rusty tomentum. Leaves alternate and subopposite, says Kanjilal; mostly opposite, says Brandis ; thickly coriaceous, hairy or glabrous on the underside when full grown, elliptic or ovate ; blade 3-12in., petiole ½in., secondary nerves 6-10 pair, as well as the reticulate tertiary nerves raised on the upperside.
