Botanical Name: Pistacia intergerima
Common Name: Kakarsinghi
English Name: Insect gall on Pistacia, Indian mastiche
Parts Used: Insect gall
Habit and Habitat: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Himalaya (Punjab, Nepal)
Description: Deciduous tree to 18 m tall and 2.7 m in girth with a short stout bole. Bark gray or blackish, viscous or aromatic when cut. Leaves pinnate; leaflets lanceolate, 7-12 cm long. Flowers in pannicles, smell, reddish. Gruit a globose drupe, c. 6 mm diameter , rugose, gray when ripe.
Uses: Galls are bitter, astringent, depurative, digestive, constipating, febrifuge, aromatic, tonic, expectorant. They are used in cough, phthisis, asthma, dysentry, diarrhoea, ulcers, leprosy, skin diseases, psoriasis, leucorrhoea, pharyngitis. They are used as antidote to snake bite and scorpion sting and very useful in children at the time of teething. Powdered gall fried in butter is given orally in dysentry.
References: A compendium of Medicinal Plants in Nepal by Sushim Ranjan Baral and Puran Prasad Kurmi (October’ 2006)