PUGA
Puga consists of dried ripe seed of Areca catechu Linn. (Fam. Palmm), a graceful, slender, stemmed, perennial palm, trunk reaching a height of about 25 m cultivated in the coastal regions of Southern India, Bengal and Assam upto an altitude of 1000 m.
SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : Kramuka, Ghona
Assamese : Tamol, Tamul
Bengali : Supari
English : Areca nut, Betle nut
Gujrati : Sopari
Hindi : Supari, Chr alia
Kannada : Adiks
Kashmiri : Supari, Spari
Malayalam : Adakku, Pakku
Marathi : Supari, Pophal
Oriya : Gua
Punjabi : Supari, Spari
Tamil : Kamugu, Pakku, Pakhumaram
Telugu : Paka chekka, Vakka
Urdu : Fufal, Choalia
DESCRIPTION
a) Macroscopic
Ovoid, externally pale, reddish-brown to light yellowish-brown, marked with a net work of paler lines, frequently with adhering portions of silvery brittle endocarp and adhering fibres of mesocorp at base of seed, seed hard with ruminate endosperm of brownish tissue alternating with whitish tissue, odour, characteristic, taste, astringent.
b) Microscopic
Transverse section of seed shows a seed coat consisting of several rows of cells, tangentially elongated, with inner walls more or less thickened, whitish cell of endosperm tissue with thick porous walls containing oil globules and aleuronic grains, brown peri sperm tissue with thick walled cells and delicate trachem. Powder-Reddish brown to light brown, under microscope shows fragments of endosperm tissue with porous walls, irregularly thickened and small stone cells of seed coat, a few aleurone grains and oil globules and a few delicate trachem, starch absent.
IDENTITY, PURITY AND STRENGTH
Foreign matter Not more than 1 per cent, Appendix 2.2.2.
Total Ash Not more than 3 per cent, Appendix 2.2.3.
Acid-insoluble ash Not more than 0.4 per cent, Appendix 2.2.4.
Alcohol-soluble extractive Not less than 19 per cent, Appendix 2.2.6.
Water-soluble extractive Not less than 10 per cent, Appendix 2.2.7.
CONSTITUENTS – Alkaloid (arecoline) tannins and fats.
PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Kasaya
Guna : Guru, Ruksa
Virya : Sita
Vipaka : Katu
Karma : Prabhava: Mohakrt, Dipana, Kaphapittajit, Kledanasana, Malabhedi, Mukhsodhana, Vikasi
IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – Pugakhanda
THERAPEUTIC USES – Aruci, Mukhavikara, Yonisaithilya, Svetapradara
DOSE – 1-2 g of the drug in powder form.
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