Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
salad-plant, particularly widespread in the
Arab West and known there under the
Mozarabic name
ª
arrāliya
or its arabi-
cised form
sarrā
¶
(Castilian
sarraja
), while
in Morocco the Berber term
tīfāf
is mainly
used.
The medicinal effect of endive was
exceptionally extensive, as can be seen in
Ibn al-Bayār's long article, where numer-
ous older sources are indicated. It is above
all effective against eye-diseases and poi-
soning, in minced form also against boils
when in their initial stage, and it strength-
ens the liver and stomach. The root helps
against scorpion-stings, and the juice
against jaundice, constipation, persistent
fever and suppurations. The
ar
¶
a
ª
ū
mentioned above is
taraxacum
, the dande-
lion used in popular medicine because of
its bitter substance.
low, translucent resin from
Ferula Scowit-
ziana
which causes irritation of the skin
and whose smell resembles that of asa-
foetida; and camphor (
kāfūr
), the white,
transparent mass of the camphor tree
Cinnamonum camphora
, indigenous in East
Asia.
The word
am
∞
is usually used alone
for
am
∞
arabī
, gum arabic, so called
because it was exported from Arab ports
and spread by the Arabs. It is the viscous
secretion gained from the bark of the
acacia tree (
al-ara
, in Morocco
al-al
),
which represents several varieties of the
acacia imported from Africa:
Acacia sen-
egalensis
, from the steppe zones of West-
and Central Africa to the right and left of
Senegal,
Acacia abyssinica
and
Acacia nilotica
,
from Africa and India, and many others.
In medicine, gum arabic is used as a
palliative and as an astringent for drying
up putrescent ulcers. It helps the forma-
tion of new flesh in ulcers and stems the
blood which flows from wounds; it also
serves as cough medicine and for the
preparation of collyria. The drug consists
of roundish, colourless or yellowish pieces,
up to a diameter of three cm, which fall
easily into small pieces which shine like
glass.
(A. Dietrich)
Gum resins
am
∞
or
ama
∞
(A., pl.
umū
∞
) indi-
cates gum resins, the desiccated latexes of
several plants and the mixtures of natural
resins (
rātīna
¡
) with gum-like substances.
To the best-known gum resins belong:
ammoniac (
wu
ªª
a
), the product of the
ammoniac gum tree; the so-called dev-
il's dirt (
iltīt
), the latex of the asafoetida
(
an
¡
u
£
ān
) which, when exposed to the
air, hardens into a dirty-yellow gum resin;
wolfs' milk (
yattū
), in several varieties of
the class Euphorbia, with many sub-va-
rieties; galbanum (
inna
), the desiccated
latex of
Ferula galbaniflua
, used as spice and
medicine; myrrh (
murr
), from the bark of
several varieties of thorny shrubs of
Commi-
phora abyssinica
; the often-described frank-
incense (
kundur
) from various Boswellia
varieties, indigenous in South Arabia and
Somalia; sagapenum (
sakbīna
¡
), the yel-
(A. Dietrich)
Anzarūt
Anzarūt
, Greek
σαρκοκολλα
, is a gum-
resin from a thorn-bush which cannot
be identified with certainty; known from
antiquity, it is used for medical purposes.
Synonyms are:
anzarū, anzarūt, kul fārisī,
kul kirmānī
; in Persian:
anzarūt
or
an
¡
arūt,
ta
ª
m
(<
ča
ª
m
),
kan
¡
ubā, kan
¡
u
£
a,
kan
¡
udak, bāzahr-i ča
ª
m
. Much has been
written on this drug. Formerly, the species
Penaea, belonging to the Thymelaeaceae,
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