Indrayan / Bitter Apple
Description :
The Colocynth collected from the Maritime Plain between the mountains of Palestine and the Mediterranean, is mainly shipped from Jaffa and known as Turkish Colocynth. This is the best variety. It is an annual plant resembling the common watermelon. The stems are herbaceous and beset with rough hairs; the leaves stand alternately on long petioles.
They are triangular, manycleft, variously sinuated, obtuse, hairy, a fine green on upper surface, rough and pale under. Flowers yellow, appearing singly at axils of leaves; fruit globular, size of an orange, yellow and smooth, when ripe contains within a hard coriaceous rind, a white spongy pulp enclosing numerous ovate compressed white or brownish seeds.
Details :
Botanical Name : Citrullus colocynthis
Common Name : Bitter Apple, Colocynth, Bitter cucumber, Egusi, Vine of Sodom,Colocynth, Peikkumatti, Hanjal , Paaparbudam
Bengali Name : indrayan, panjot, indrabaruni
Hindi Name : badi indrayan, ghorumba, indarayan
Kannada Name : hamekkae, hara-mekki-kayi
Malayalam Name : kattuvellari Marathi Name : kadu-indravani
Sanskrit Name : atmaraksha, brihadvaruni, brihatphala
Tamil Name : kumatti, pey-komatti
Telugu Name : chitti-papara
Urdu Name : hanzal, indyaran, shahme-hinzal
Synonyms Name : Cucumis colocynthis, Colocynthis vulgaris
Family Name : Cucurbitaceae
Part Used :Fruit
Medicinal Uses :
- It is a powerful drastic hydragogue cathartic producing, when given in large doses, violent griping with, sometimes, bloody discharges and dangerous inflammation of the bowels.
- It has a nauseous, bitter taste and is usually given in mixture form with the tinctures of podophylum and belladonna.