(Palalam) are sweet in taste and digestion and tend to produce a state of dryness in the organism. They subdue the three deranged humours of the body. Those which vegetate on the stems of sugarcanes (Ikshujam) have a sweet pungent taste. They leave an astringent after-taste in the mouth and are cooling in their potency. Mushrooms growing on decomposed cow-dung (Karisha) should be regarded as possessed of properties similar to those of the preceding class. They aggravate the Vayu, are heat-making in their potency, and have an astringent taste. Those which vegetate on the stems of bamboos (Venuja) have an astringent taste and tend to enrage or aggravate the bodily Vayu. Mushrooms which grow on the ground (Bhumija) are heavy of digestion and do not inordinately generate the Vayu, their tastes varying according to the soil they grow on.
Pinyaka Group:—The Pinyaka {levigated powder or cake of linseed or mustard pressed in an oil-mill), the Tilakalka (the levigated powder of sesamum of which the oil has been similarly pressed out), and the Sthunika-shuska-Shaka (leaves and stems of plants pasted and made into pills or balls) tend to enrage all the deranged humours.
Metrical Texts:—Sthunika balls are long retained in the stomach in an undigested state, thus giving rise to a distension of that organ, and
