YahGarden

Library · Indian Medicinal Plants, 1918

128. Garcinia indica (parts used and uses)

K. R. Kirtikar and B. D. Basu, p. 147. Transcribed from the page image on September 25, 2026, as printed.

Parts used :—The fruit, seeds, and bark.

Use :—The Apothecaries of Goa prepare a very fine purple syrup from the juice of the fruit, which is used in bilious affections. The bark is astringent, and the young leaves, after having been tied up in a plantain leaf and stewed in hot ashes, are rubbed with cold milk and given as a remedy for dysentery (Dymock.)

The oil of the seeds is officinal in the Indian Pharmacopœia for the preparation of ointments, suppositories and other pharmaceutical purposes. It has been used as a local application to ulcerations, fissures of the lips, hands, &c. (Ph. Ind., p. 31.)

Regarding the oil, Modeen Sheriff writes :—“ I have used it internally in my practice, and have found that its best medicinal properties are its usefulness in phthisis pulmonalis and some scrofulous diseases, and in dysentery and mucous diarrhœa.”

The oil is used by the natives as a remedy for excoriations, chaps, fissures of the lips, &c., by partly melting it and rubbing on the affected part. It is solid at ordinary temperature.

Only the parts used and the uses are transcribed; the names and botanical description (pp. 146–147) are left out. Words hyphenated across a line break are joined.