Materia Indica

What it is

An account, in two volumes, of the plants and other articles used in medicine, the arts and farming in South India, with their names in Tamil, Sanskrit and other languages and how they were prepared and prescribed.

Whose knowledge it records

Mostly the practice of Tamil physicians and households of South India, with names and uses from Sanskrit and Arabic writers. Written down by Whitelaw Ainslie, a Scottish surgeon of the East India Company at Madras.

Passages transcribed

• CLXXXVII. SAFFRON (the names and the first four paragraphs) (vol. 1, pp. 354–355)
• CXVIII. MARJORAM, SWEET (vol. 1, pp. 213–214)
• CXXXVII. NUTMEG (the names and the opening paragraph) (vol. 1, pp. 249–250)
• LXI. DILL SEED (vol. 1, pp. 109–110)