Part 2

The young flowers are cool and drying; have a pleasant aromatic scent, and when taken internally, are cooling and astringent; recommended for the cure of chronic Gonorrhoea or Gleet, purulent expectoration, bilious foulness of the blood and boils. The young unripe fruit has much acidity, and is drying; moderately used, it increases all the animal secretions, and is beneficial in chronic affections of the liver; it promotes appetite, and is lithonthriptic. The fruit, when ripe, is sweet, cooling, mucilaginous and heavy, tending to allay thirst, and useful in nervous affections; strengthens the system, restores impaired appetite, (is said to moderate an increased secretion of bile,) and improves the complexion. The fruit is of various sizes, from a few drachms to a pound weight; but it is usually met with weighing about 4 ounces. It becomes acid about a month after the fall of the flower, in which state it is used as preserves, such as jellies, pickles, &c.; at this time, too, it is used as seasoning for Pilaus, and other dishes; for when the stone or kernel has become hard, it is no longer fit for these purposes. When the fruit has attained its full growth, and when nearly ripe, it is to be taken from the tree, and put into dry grass, straw, or the leaves of the Palass tree, and there allowed to become ripe; this process deprives it of all acidity, and also prevents the formation of a resinous gum, which it contracts when allowed to ripen on the tree, and which renders it too pungent to be eaten with relish.

The fruit is in perfection in the hot winds, and when the rains commence, it ripens very fast; before the cold weather it is usually out of season.

There are some trees that blossom the whole year, and some few that even produce fruit; but instances of this are very rare.

There is a variety of this tree on which the fruit is sweet from its first formation; this requires to be used early, otherwise it will in all probability become a prey to insects.

Some trees produce fruit only once in 4 years. In general, it produces fruit in abundance every second year, and less in the alternate year; some are even perfectly barren every alternate year.

There is a mode of manuring this tree, which it is said improves the flavour of the fruit greatly; this is mixing the juice of its fruit with milk, and pouring it over the roots. It is also said to be possible to communicate the flavor of any particular fruit to the mangoe, by its expressed juice being made use of, as an application to the roots of the tree.

The kernel of the mangoe, roasted, is pleasant to the taste, and grateful to the stomach; it is much recommended in laxities of the bowels, and strengthens the primÊ viÊ; water drank after having eat of this kernel, seems to possess a flavor peculiarly excellent. The usual mode of preparing them, is to allow them to remain exposed to the rains, till the shell shall have become decayed; by this process it is deprived of any heating or irritating property. Prepared in this manner, and kept a short time in lime juice, taken out, bruised and mixed with salt, fennel, &c, it is much extolled for strengthening the stomach, and promoting digestion.

If preserved for 3 years, pounded, and swallowed to the quantity of a tolah, with a little water, no medicine is preferable for strengthening bowels habitually lax.

In the acid state, the fruit is very prejudicial to those who have any disorders in their teeth, a cough, an affection of the chest, or who are subject to cholicky pain in the bowels, but very beneficial when used in irritable habits. The best method of using them is this. The acid unripe fruit, after the outer rind has been peeled off, is to be cut into thin slices, and infused for some hours in water; this water so impregnated, is to be drained off, mixed with a sufficient proportion of sugar, and used as sherbet. It produces a great relish for food, and is in other respects beneficial. The same effects are produced by the unripe fruit, being roasted and allowed to remain in water, as above mentioned. It is recommended in paralysis, from coup de vent. Many physicians have considered the mangoe to be of a cooling nature, but, in my opinion, it is heating in all its stages. The Yunani physicians have stated the ripe fruit to be hot in the 2d, and dry in the 3d degree.

Its virtues may be described in a few words. It strengthens the system, gives tone to the kidnies, restores impaired appetite, &c. It is aperient, improves the complexion, beneficial in piles, an useful deobstruent, braces and increases the bulk of the solids, and removes nervous affections. In some of these disorders I am inclined to doubt of its good effects, but such virtues are attributed to it. It is recommended, in order to prevent any bad effects from the fruit in its unripe state, that raisins be eaten with it. Hukeem Alwee Khan, a man of eminence in his profession in the reign of Mahommed Shah, says, that if ever this fruit disagreed with the system, it must have been eaten when unripe or green.

I had occasion to attend a gentleman of very high rank, who laboured under dropsy; I cured him of the disease, but 3 years afterwards, having eaten a large quantity of mangoes, the disease returned, and I have observed the same effects in other cases.

Hukeem Alli Mughphoor, physician, states, that influenced by the resemblance of the mangoe to the human kidney, he concluded that it must be beneficial in that organ, (disorders of;) he therefore prescribed it in a case of hectic fever, arising from diseased kidney, and completely cured the disease. In this I differ from him entirely; he must have mistaken the nature of the complaint, for a remedy given expressly for the cure of a disease in the kidney, could not, at the same time, have removed the fever, excepting appropriate medicines had been administered along with it!!

The best mangoes are those having a thin juice, sweet and free from fibres; and they ought to be cooled in water or in ice, especially during the hot weather. It is preferable to use the juice of the fruit without eating any of the fibrous parts; a neglect of this may produce various disorders, such as indigestion, cholicky pains, &c. It is very common to eat the expressed juice, mixed with sugar and other things, with rice, or with bread, but this is great imprudence; for in the most healthy subjects it may produce nausea, and general uneasiness.

Should any ill effects follow the use of the mangoe, milk, or the kernel of the fruit, will be found a corrector. My father's opinion is, that these are not the only remedies; for if it produces any heating effect, curdled milk will give relief, or even cold water, or acidulated sherbet, and he himself was always in the habit of using the Phalsa sherbet on these occasions.

Should cholic be produced, the Oil of Almonds or other sweet oils, will remove the complaint; and a diarrhoea is to be cured by the use of the kernel; and a swelling of the abdomen, by milk, in which a little ginger has been mixed; or even ginger by itself will have the effect

A substitute for mangoe, as a medicine, may be had in Chobe Cheenee.

In general, it will be adviseable to abstain from the use of the mangoe, till 2 or 3 showers of rain have fallen; but those of a cold phlegmatic or melancholic temperament do not require to be so particular.

Those for whose complaints mangoes have been recommended, have in a few months derived great benefit from their use, by eating them with camel's milk. There are many kinds of this fruit, and their names are as various; but the stronger the scent, the more effectual they are as a medicine. In Persian it is called Nugzuck.

2 Aramsheetul.--Pungent and cooling; useful in bilious and catarrhal complaints; also recommended in foulness of the blood.

3 Akaholie.--Vermifuge, also recommended in bilious and catarrhal disorders, in seminal weakness and gonorrhoea.

4 Adki.--Vide Arhir.

5 Anula. (nasal N.)--Or Amle, (Phyllanthus emblica, W. Murray IV. 127, Myrobolans.) The fruit round, like a plum. The tree like that of the tamarind, of a pleasant acid, and sweetish astringent taste. It is aperient, cooling, and drying; of great use in eruptions of the skin, arising from a redundance of bile. Other virtues ascribed to this fruit may be found in all Yunani works. It is also called Bidjee and Dhatri Phill, used by the natives for cleansing the hair.

6 Aru.--A variety of plum, much resembling the common sort, both in the tree and fruit; it however possesses more acidity, and is less easy of digestion.

7 Abi.--Pyrus Cidonia. The Quince; slightly astringent, and cool in a great degree; heavy and difficult of digestion, yet it is gently laxative and expectorant, and is recommended for strengthening the powers of virility. In Arabic Siffirjill, Persian Behi.

8 Aak.--Arug, Mudar, Asclepias gigantea. A milky shrub, very common all over India; its pod resembles a mangoe, but rather longer in proportion: when ripe it breaks, and is found filled with a white substance, resembling silk, to which the seeds are fixed. The leaves of the plant resemble the Dak, but are somewhat smaller: its height is generally from 1 to 1 1/2 yard; when its leaves or stalk are broken, a white milky liquid exudes. There are two kinds, white and red; both are purgatives, violently so. It is said to be beneficial in the following disorders. Foulness of the blood, bilious affections, Juzam, Psora, ZÊrbad, boils, cuticular eruptions, diseases of the liver, visceral obstructions, hÊmorrhoids, all internal diseases, dropsy and worms.

("Many and wonderful virtues are ascribed to this plant; but I must refer those who have faith in charms to the original Taleef Shereef, when their curiosity will be amply gratified." Translator.)

All the above virtues have been ascribed to this plant; my opinion is, that the application of the leaves is useful in swellings, promotes suppuration in indolent tumors, and cures eruptions on the skin. The milk blisters, and if applied to the eye, it produces swelling, itchiness, and loss of vision. The powder of the root, mixed with goat's blood and fresh butter, and applied to the eye, is said materially to strengthen vision. In other works it is said, that the milk of every variety of this plant is poisonous, and violently cathartic.

9 Aal.--Vide Mujeet, Rubia, Madder, a wood used for dyeing a red color, and forming a principal article of commerce in some parts of India. In the "Dhara Shakoi" it is called Mujeet, but I suspect that they are different plants, as the Mujeet is thin, and of a fine red color; whereas the Aal is blackish, with a tinge of yellow, though not thicker than the other.