Botany names

Description - A small or middle-sized evergreen tree, sometimes only a much-branched large shrub; young parts densely covered with minute red hairs. Leaves alternate, borne on long stalks, variable in shape, 7-20 cm long, their lower side dotted with reddish glands, prominently veined. Flowers minute, male and female on separate plants. Female flowers in erect 5-8 cm long spikes; male flowers yellow, in 8-15 cm long, drooping bunches. Fruit 8-13 mm, roundish, 3-lobed, densely covered with a reddish brown, powdery substance, and minute hair, which are easily rubbed out.

Chemical Constituents- It contains rottlerin (mallotoxin) and isorottlerin. Rottlerin is a derivative of phloroglucin. It contains also resinous Matter

Use - The red glandular and hairy substance separated from the fruits forms the drug. Kamela is chiefly, used for destroying tapeworms Kamela powder is taken with milk or curd, etc. if one dose does not expel the worm dose is repeated. Some times a dose of castor oil is necessary to expel the worm. Kamela itself is a purgative. It is also used externally in treatment of skin diseases like scabies, etc. The hairs on the fruits have been tried as oral contraceptives; they have been found to reduce fertility of female rats and guinea pigs.