BILVA (Stem Bark)
Bilva consists of dried stem bark of mgle marmelos Corr. (Fam. Rutacem), an armed, medium sized tree occurring in the plains and upto 1000 m in the hills as well as cultivated throughout the country, particularly in sacred groves.
SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : Sriphala
Assamese : Bml, Vml
Bengali : Bela, Bilva
English : Bengal Quince, Bml
Gujrati : Bill, Bilum
Hindi : Bela, Sriphal, Bel
Kannada : Bilva
Kashmiri : —
Malayalam : Koovalam
Marathi : Bel, Bmla
Oriya : Bela
Punjabi : Bil
Tamil : Vilvam
Telugu : Maredu
Urdu : Belgiri, (Bml)
DESCRIPTION
a) Macroscopic
Bark occurs as pieces of about 0.5 to 1 cm thick, flat or channelled; surface rough and warty due to a number of lenticels, ridges and furrows; fracture tough, gritty in outer and fibrous in inner region; odour and taste, not characteristic.
b) Microscopic
Cork stratified, tangentially elongated, lignified, with four to eight bands alternating with smaller cells of 2 to 16 layers and larger cells of 2 to 20 layers; secondary cortex wide, consisting of parenchyma, and a large number of groups of, or some times single, thick walled, lignified, stone cells showing transverse striations due to radiating canals; smaller ones 16 to 64 n wide and 48 to 160 n long and larger ones 32 to 110 n wide and 160 to 640 n long; secondary phloem consisting of fibres, sieve elements and crystal fibre, traversed by phloem rays; phloem fibres long, tapering, sharply pointed to blunt; fibre groups arranged in rings; phloem rays uni to triseriate, biseriate rays being more common, uniseriate rays 3 to 6 cells high, while biseriate rays 6 to 25 cells high.
Powder – Yellowish; fragments of rectangular elongated, lignified cork cells; pieces of fibres with pointed or blunt ends; sieve elements and crystals fibre pieces; uni to biseriate phloem rays; lignified, thick-walled stone cells in groups or singly, with narrow lumen showing striations and measuring 16 to 640 n in dia.
IDENTITY, PURITY AND STRENGTH
Foreign matter Not more than 1 per cent, Appendix 2.2.2.
Total Ash Not more than 10 per cent, Appendix 2.2.3.
Acid-insoluble ash Not more than 1 per cent, Appendix 2.2.4.
Alcohol-soluble extractive Not less than 4 per cent, Appendix 2.2.6.
Water-soluble extractive Not less than 9 per cent, Appendix 2.2.7.
T.L.C.
T.L.C. of alcoholic extract on Silica gel ‘G’ plate using Toluene: Ethyl acetate (95:5) shows under U.V. (366 nm) five fluorescent spots at Rf. 0.07 (greenish blue), 0.14 (greenish blue), 0.25, 0.39 and 0.67 (all blue). On exposure to Iodine vapour three spots appear at Rf. 0.14, 0.25 and 0.97 (all yellow). On spraying with Dragendorff reagent one spot appears at Rf. 0.25 (orange).
CONSTITUENTS – Coumarins and Sterols.
PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Madhura, Tikta, Kasaya
Guna : Laghu, Ruksa, Tiksna
Virya : Usna
Vipaka : Katu
Karma : Kaphahara, Pittakara, Vatahara, Dipaniya, Sangrahi, Visaghna
IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – Anu Taila, Pusyanuga Curna, Grahani Mihira Taila, Sudarsana Curna, Candnadi Taila
THERAPEUTIC USES – Sula, Medoroga, Vatavyadhi, Chardi, Sotha, Atisara, Raktatisara, Kuksisula, Amasula, Arsa, Grahaniroga, Madhumeha, Pravahika
DOSE – 15-30 ml
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