SUKSMAILA
Suksmaila consists seeds of dried fruits of Elettaria cardamomum (Linn.) Maton and its varieties (Fam. Zingiberacem), a stout large perennial herb, growing naturally in moist forests of western ghats up to 1500 m, also cultivated in many other parts of south India at an elevation from 750-1500m.
SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : Truti, Ela
Assamese : Sarooplaachi
Bengali : Chota elaich
English : Cardamom
Gujrati : Elchi, Elachi, Elayachi
Hindi : Choti Ilayachi
Kannada : Elakki, Sanna Yalakki
Kashmiri : Kath
Malayalam : Elam, Chittelam
Marathi : Velloda, Lahanveldoda, Velchi
Oriya : Gujurati, Chotaa leicha, Alaicha
Punjabi : Illachi, Chhoti Lachi
Tamil : Siruelam
Telugu : Chinne Elakulu, Sanna Elakulu
Urdu : Heel Khurd
DESCRIPTION
a) Macroscopic
Fruit – 1-2 cm long ovoid or oblong and more or less three sided with rounded, angles, greenish to pale-buff or yellowish in colour, base rounded or with the remains of pedicle, apex shortly beaked, surface almost smooth or with slight longitudinal striations, small trilocular fruit, each containing about 15-20 seeds in a row of doubles, adhering together to form compact mass.
Seed-dark brown to black, about 4 mm long and 3 mm broad, irregularly angular, transverscIy wrinkled but not pitted, with a longitudinal channel containing raphe, enclosed in a colourless, membranous aril, odour, strongly aromatic, taste, characteristic.
b) Microscopic
Transverse section of seed shows flattened, aril, thin-walled parenchymatous cells, testa with outer epidermis of thick-walled, narrow, elongated cells, followed by a layer of collapsed parenchyma, becoming 2 or 3 layered in the region of raphe, composed of large, thin-walled rectangular cells containing volatile oil, a band of 2 or 3 layers of parenchyma and an inner epidermis of thin-walled, flattened cells, inner integument 2 layered, an outer palisade sclerenchyma with yellow to reddish-brown beaker shaped cells, 20 n long in radial direction and 12 n wide, thickened on inner and anticlinal walls, each cell with a small bowl shaped lumen containing a warty nodule of silica and an inner epidermis of flattened cells, peri sperm cells thin-walled, packed with minute rounded polyhedral starch grains, about 1-2 to 4-6 n in diameter and containing 1-7 small prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate, about 10-20 n long, endosperm of thinwalled parenchyma containing protein as a granular hyaline mass in each cell, embryo, of small thin-walled cells containing aleurone grains, starch absent in endosperm land embryo, fibres sclerenchymatous, large vessels present in pericarp.
IDENTITY, PURITY AND STRENGTH
Foreign matter Not more than Nil per cent, Appendix 2.2.2.
Total Ash Not more than 6 per cent, Appendix 2.2.3.
Acid-insoluble ash Not more than 4 per cent, Appendix 2.2.4.
Alcohol-soluble extractive Not less than 2 per cent, Appendix 2.2.6.
Water-soluble extractive Not less than 10 per cent, Appendix 2.2.7.
Volatile oil Not less than 4 per cent, Appendix 2.2.10
CONSTITUENTS – Essential oil.
PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Madhura, Katu
Guna : Laghu
Virya : Sita
Vipaka : Madhura
Karma : Anulomana, Dipana, Hrdya, Mutrala, Rocana
IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – Eladi Modaka, Eladi Curna, Sitopaladi Curna
THERAPEUTIC USES – Aruci, Svasa, Chardi, Kasa, Mutrakrcchra
DOSE – 250-500 mg of the drug in powder form.
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