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19. Trichosanthes bracteata (Lam.) Voigt. Cat. Hort. Calc. 52. 1845. (Fig. 177).
CUCURBITACEAE
Trichosanthes pa/mat a Roxb.—Trichosanthes tricuspis Miq.—Modecca bracteata Lamk.—
t'nvolucraria waUichii Ser.—Bryonia palmata Wall.
Sinh. Titlahondala; Tarn. Ankoraltai, Korattai. Shavaripalam; Hindi Indrayan,
Lalindrayan, Mahakal, Makal; Sans. Mahakala.
Long, woody, tendril climber with angular stems and tendrils 2-or 3-fid; leaves simple,
alternate, 10—12.5 cm long and about as broad, variable, more or less deeply palmately 3-or
5-lobed, dark green above, paler beneath, lobes more or less dentate-serrate, glabrous, often
scabrous with small scales above and on the veins beneath, base cordate; petioles 2.5—7.5 cm
long, scaly-scabrous; flowers unisexual, bright pink, regular, dioecious; racemes* of male
flowers 1.5—2.3 cm long, drooping, flowers large over 5 cm long, nearly sessile, distant, each
in the axil of a very large broadly wedge-shaped, glabrous or pubescent, lacerate, persistent
bract 2.5 cm long, often set with broad, fiat glands; sepals 5, fused into a long campanulate
calyx-tube, segments leafy laciniate: petals 5, distinct, rather longer than calyx segments, 2.5 cm
long, wedge-shaped with many long filiform laciniae; stamens 3, inserted on calyx-tube, filaments
short, anthers connate, linear-oblong, cells conduplicate: female flowers a\illary. solitary,
shortly stalked, calyx-tube nearly 5 cm long, segments acuminate, petals shorter and narrower
than in the male; ovary inferior with numerous horizontal or pendulous ovules on 3 parietal,
placentas, slyle long, stigmas 3: fruit large. 5- 6 2 cm long, globose with a blunt nipple, smooth
brilliant scarlet-crimson, pericarp thick: seeds denselv packed. I 2 cm long, oblong, compressed,
smooth, brownish-grey, each enveloped in dark green pulp.
Flowers between February and June.
Illustrations. Wight, III. pis. 104 and 105. 1841—50; Kirtikar and Basu, Indian Med.
Plants, pt. 442B. 1933.
Distribution. Occurs in India, Ceylon, Malaya and China. In Ceylon, it is rather
common in the low-country dry regions.
India. Pen. Ind. Orient., Herb. Wight 1134, Kew Distribution 1866—7. Ceylon. Thwaites
CP. 1626. Eastern Prov., Koddiar, Herb. Peradeniya, Aug. 1885. Uva Prov., Uma Oya,
Bolandawela, J. M. Silva 276. Dec. 1927; Nildandahena, J. M. Silva 245, Dec. 1927;
Ekeriyankumbura, Herb, Peradeniya, Jan. 1888.
Uses. The fruit is a hydragogue cathartic. The pounded fruit is applied on boils
and nlcers. Boiled with coconut or gingelly oil it is applied on the scalp as a cure for hemicrania
and o/uena and dropped into the ear for otorrhoea. In Bombay, the fruit is smoked as a remedy
for asthma.
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