MEDASAKAH (Wood)
Medasakah consists of wood of Litsea chinensis Lam. syn. L. glutinosa (Lour.) C.B. Robins, L. sebifera Pers. (Fam. Lauracem), an evergreen shrub or tree, upto 25 m in height and about 1.5 m in girth with a clean bole, found throughout India, ascending upto an altitude of 1350 m in outer Himalayas.
SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : Medasakah
Assamese : —
Bengali : Kukurchite
English : —
Gujrati : Meda Lakadee
Hindi : Meda Lakadee
Kannada : —
Kashmiri : —
Malayalam : —
Marathi : Meda Lakadee, —
Oriya : —
Punjabi : Medalakavi
Tamil : Meda
Telugu : Jeevakamu
DESCRIPTION
a) Macroscopic
Wood – Thick and thin pieces of wood, 14 to 21 cm in length and 0.5 to 2 cm in width; yellowish-white; surface rough with very fine longitudinal striations; fracture, hard, fibrous.
b) Microscopic
T.S. shows vessels, either single or in groups of 2 or 3; xylem fibres arranged in radial rows with thick walls; medullary rays prominent, uni to tetraseriate, radially elongated, upto 30 cells in height as seen in tangential section and containing abundant spherical to oval starch grains, single or in groups, simple or compound, measuring from 3 to 9 n; fibres long, linear, lignified with blunt ends, measuring in length from 530 to 1060 n and from 13 to 24 n in width.
Powder – Pale yellowish-brown, having characteristic odour, slightly bitter in taste; shows fragments of lignified fibres, starch grains, bordered pitted vessels and some vessels showing scalariform thickenings on their secondary wall.
IDENTITY, PURITY AND STRENGTH
Foreign matter Not more than 2 per cent, Appendix 2.2.2.
Total Ash Not more than 3 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 1.5 per cent, Appendix 2.2.6.
Water-soluble extractive Not less than 2 per cent, Appendix 2.2.7.
T.L.C.
T.L.C. of the alcoholic extract on silica gel ‘G’ plate (0.2 mm thick) using chloroform : methanol (80:20) shows under UV (254 nm) three spots at Rf. 0.10 (violet), 0.29 (faint brown) and 0.52 (yellowish green). Under UV (366 nm) three fluorescent spots appear at Rf. 0.29 (brown), 0.52 (yellow) and 0.68 (blue). On exposure to iodine vapour eight spots appear at Rf. 0.10 (brown), 0.13, 0.16, 0.24, 0.29, 0.52, 0.68 and 0.74 (all yellowish brown). On spraying with 10% methanolic-sulphuric acid and heating the plate at 110oC for ten minutes ten spots appear at Rf. 0.10, 0.16 (both brown), 0.26 (grey), 0.31 (brown), 0.40 (purple), 0.44, 0.52, 0.57 (all brown), 0.68 (purple) and 0.77 (brown).
CONSTITUENTS – Alkaloids (Laurotetanine, actinodaphine, boldine, norboldine).
PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Katu, Tikta, Kasaya
Guna : Laghu, Snigdha
Virya : Usna
Vipaka : Katu
Karma : Dipana, Kaphahara, Vatahara, Stambhana
IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – Aileyaka Taila (Citrakadi Taila), Vataghna Lepa (Cintamani Rasa)
THERAPEUTIC USES – Sula, Agnimandya, Sotha, Atisara, Raktasrava, Vatavikara
DOSE – 1 to 3 g powder.
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