_Cortex Calotropidis_; _Mudar_; F. _Ecorce de racine de Mudar_.
=Botanical Origin=—The drug under notice is furnished by two
nearly allied species of _Calotropis_, occupying somewhat distinct
geographical areas, but not distinguished from each other in the native
languages of India. These plants are:—
1. _Calotropis procera_ R. Brown (_C. Hamiltonii_ Wight), a large
shrub, 6 or more feet high, with dark green, oval leaves, downy
beneath, abounding in acrid milky juice.
It is a native of the drier parts of India, as the Deccan, the Upper
Provinces of Bengal, the Punjab and Sind, but is quite unknown in the
southern provinces; it also extends to Persia, Palestine, the Sinaitic
Peninsula, Arabia, Egypt, to the oasis Dachel, and other oases of the
Sahara, to Nubia, Abyssinia, the lake Tsad and through the Sudan.
Lastly it has been naturalized in the West Indies.
2. _C. gigantea_ R. Brown (_Asclepias gigantea_ Willd.), a large erect
shrub, 6 to 10 feet high, with stem as thick as a man’s leg,[1569] much
resembling preceding, indigenous to Lower Bengal and the southern parts
of India, Ceylon, the Malayan Peninsula, and the Moluccas.
Both species are extremely common in waste ground over their respective
areas.[1570]
[1568] _Pharm. of India_, 457; also _Chem. Gazette_, 1843. 378.
[1569] Hence the specific name _gigantea_.
[1570] The botanical distinctions between the two species may be stated
thus:—
_C. procera_, corolla cup-shaped, petals somewhat erect, flower-buds
spherical, appendages of corona with a blunt upward point. See Fig. in
Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 25 (1877).
_C. gigantea_, corolla opening flat, flower-buds bluntly conical or
oblong, appendages of corona rounded.
=History=—The ancient name of the plant, which occurs already in the
Vedic literature, was _Arka_ (wedge), alluding to the form of the
leaves which were used in sacrificial rites. From one of the Sanskrit
names of this plant, namely _Mandāra_, Mudar is a corruption;[1571] the
latter is frequently mentioned in the writings of Susruta.