INDRAVARUNI (Fruit)
Indravaruni consists of dried/peeled cut pieces of the fruit of Citrullus colocynthis Schrad. (Fam. Cucurbitaceae); an annual or perennial creeper growing wild in the warm, arid and sandy tracts of North West, Central and Southern parts of the country.
SYNONYMS
Sansk. : Gavaksi, Indravalli, Aendri
Assam. : Gavadani
Beng. : Rakhal
Eng. : Colocynth
Guj. : Indrayan
Hindi. : Indrayan
Kan. : Havumekke
Kash. : —
Mal. : Kattu Vellarikkai, Valiya Pekkummatti
Mar. : Endrayana
Ori. : Gothakakudi, Indrayanalata, Garukhiya
Punj. : Indrayana
Tam. : Peitummatti
Tel. : Chedupuchcha, Peikummatti
Urdu. : Hanjal
DESCRIPTION
a) Macroscopic
White or pale yellowish-white, light, pithy fragments upto about 6 cm long and 2 cm thick; externally convex with ridges and flattened areas 5-10 mm wide reulting from peeling with a knife; internally irregularly concave and showing numerous ovoid depressions about 10 mm long, left by the removal of the seeds; pulp bitter, seeds flattened, ovoid, yellowish-white to dark brown, about 7 x 5 x 2 mm; endosperm narrow and oily; cotyledons 2, oily; radicle, small; epicarp woody, about I mm thick, buff coloured externally; odourless; taste, intensely bitter.
b) Microscopic
Pulp consists of large, thin-walled, pitted parenchyma of rounded cells showing oval, flat, pitted areas where they are in contact with many slender bicollateral vascular strands having spiral vessels and occasional associated latex vessels; epicarp, where present, with epidermis of radially elongated cells having thick outer walls and thin inner walls and partially thickened anticlinal walls with occasional stomata of the anomocytic type; the adjacent parenchymatous layer about 15 cells thick, and an inner layer of sclereids, the outer sclereids very thick, smaller, about 15 to 30 μ in diameter, isodiaroetric and the inner sclereids layer upto about 60 μ, radially elongated, with thinner walls; seed, testa with outer epidermis of thick-walled unlignified palisade cells having ertical strips of thickening on the anticlinal walls, with inner layers of very thickwalled, striated, pitted, lignified sclereids, and an inner most layer of sclereids with reticulately thickened walls; endosperm and cotyledons parenchymatous with fixed oil and aleurone grains upto 7 μ in diameter.
Powder – Yellowish-brown; shows, groups of pitted parenchymatous cells, annular and spiral vessels, stone cells, oil globules and aleurone grains measuring up to 7 μ dia.
IDENTITY, PURITY AND STRENGTH
Foreign matter Not more than 2 Per cent, Appendix 2.2.2
Total ash Not more than 14 Per cent, Appendix 2.2.3
Acid-insoluble ash Not more than 7 Per cent, Appendix 2.2.4
Light Petroleum solublematter On continuous extraction with light petroleum (b.p. 40° to 60°) and drying at 100°C, not more than 3.0 percent.
T.L.C. –
T.L.C. of the alcoholic extract on Silica gel ‘G’ plate using n-Butanol : Acetic acid: Water (4: 1 :5) shows under U.V. (366 nm) two fluorescent zones at Rf. 0.88 (light blue) and 0.98 (yellow). On exposure to Iodine vapour two spots appear at Rf. 0.88 and 0.98 (both yellow). On spraying with 5% Methanolic-Phosphomolybdic acid reagent and heating the plate for ten minutes at 105°C four spots appear at Rf. 0.65 (blue), 0.84 (blue), 0.96 (blue) and 0.98 (dark blue).
CONSTITUENTS – Resins – Resinous Glycosides (Colocynthin and Colocynthitin), A Phytosterol Glycoside, Citrullol, Pectin and Albuminoids, Cucurbitacins – Cucurbitacin E & I.
PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Tikta
Guna : Laghu, Ruksa, Tiksna
Virya : Usna
Vipaka : Katu
Karma : Krmighna, Vamaka, Visahara, Recana, Slesmahara
IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – Javaraghni Gutika (II)
THERAPEUTIC USES – Krmiroga, Kamala, Svasa, Kasa, Kusta, Gulma, Udararoga
DOSE – 0.125 – 0.5 g. of powder.
0.25 – 0.5 g. of powder .