Chaulmugra Seed.
Botanical Origin—Gynocardia odorata R. Br. (Chaulmoogra Roxb., Hydnocarpus Lindl.), a large tree[320] with a globular fruit of the size of a shaddock, containing numerous seeds immersed in pulp. It grows in the forests of the Malayan peninsula and Eastern India as far north as Assam, extending thence along the base of the Himalaya westward to Sikkim.
History—The inhabitants of the south-eastern countries of Asia have long been acquainted with the seeds of certain trees of the tribe Pangieæ (ord. Bixineæ) as a remedy for maladies of the skin. In China a seed called Ta-fung-tsze is imported from Siam[321] where it is known as Lukrabo and used in a variety of cutaneous complaints. The tree affording it, which is figured in the Pun-tasao (circa a.d. 1596) has not been recognised by botanists, but from the structure of the seed it is obviously closely related to Gynocardia.[322]
The properties of G. odorata were known to Roxburgh who, Latinizing the Indian name of the tree, called it (1814) Chaulmoogra odorata. Of late years the seeds have attracted the notice of Europeans in India, and having been found useful in certain skin diseases, they have been admitted a place in the Pharmacopœia of India.
Description—The seeds, 1 to 1¼ inches long and about half as much in diameter, are of irregular ovoid form, and more or less angular or flattened by mutual pressure; they weigh on an average about 35 grains each. The testa is thin (about ¹/₅₀ of an inch), brittle, smooth, dull grey; within there is a brown oily kernel, marked with a darker colour at its basal end. The weight of the kernel is, on an average, twice that of the testa. The former encloses in its copious, soft albumen a pair of large, plain, leafy, heart-shaped cotyledons with a stout radicle. The taste of the kernel is simply oily.
Microscopic Structure—The testa is chiefly formed of cylindrical thick-walled cells. The albumen exhibits large angular cells containing fatty oil, masses of albuminous matter and tufted crystals of calcium oxalate. Starch is not present.
Chemical Composition—The kernels afforded us by means of ether 51·5 per cent. of fatty oil, which is almost colourless or somewhat brownish if the seeds are not fresh. Either extracted or expressed it is of no peculiar taste. The pressed oil concretes at 17° C.; that extracted by ether or bisulphide of carbon requires for solidification a lower temperature. The expressed oil is slightly fluorescent, less so that extracted by means of bisulphide of carbon. If the oil, either pressed or extracted, is diluted with the bisulphide, and then concentrated sulphuric or nitric acid is added, no peculiar coloration is produced.
From the powdered kernels deprived of oil, water removes the usual constituents, glucose, mucilage and albumin.
Uses—The seeds are said to have been advantageously used as an alternative tonic in scrofula, skin diseases and rheumatism. They should be freed from the testa, powdered, and given in the dose of 6 grains gradually increased. Reduced to a paste and mixed with Simple Ointment, they constitute the Unguentum Gynocardiæ of the Indian Pharmacopœia, which, as well as an expressed oil of the seeds may be employed externally in herpes, tinea, &c.[323]
Substitute—It has been suggested that the seeds of Hydnocarpus Wightiana Bl., a tree of Western India, and of H. venenata Gärtn., native of Ceylon, might be tried where those of Gynocardia are not procurable. The seeds of both species of Hydnocarpus (formerly confounded together as H. inebrians Vahl) afford a fatty oil which the natives use in cutaneous diseases.[324]