Calotropis
Where TO Find It:Native of Hindustan, but widely naturalized
in the East and West Indies and Ceylon.
The dried root freed from its outer cork layer and called Mudar.
It occurs in commerce in short quilled pieces about 1/5 to 1/10
of an inch thick and not over 1 1/2 inch wide. Deeply furrowed and
reticulated, colour greyish buff, easily separated from periderm.
Fracture short and mealy, taste bitter, nauseous, acrid; it has
a peculiar smell and is mucilaginous; official in India and the
Colonial addendum for the preparation of a tincture.
A yellow bitter resin; a black acid resin; Madaralbum, a crystalline
colourless substance; Madarfluavil, an ambercoloured viscid substance;
and caoutchouc, and a peculiar principle which gelatinizes on being
heated, called Mudarine. Lewin found a neutral principle, Calatropin,
a very active poison of the digitalis type. In India the author's
husband experimented with it for paper-making, the inner bark yielding
a fibre stronger than Russian hemp. The acrid juice hardens into
a substance like gutta-percha. It has long been used in India for
abortive and suicidal purposes. Mudar root-bark is very largely
used there as a treatment for elephantiasis and leprosy, and is
efficacious in cases of chronic eczema, also for diarrhoea and dysentery.
Other Name: Mudar Yercum.
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