Syzygium cumini - Eugenia Jambolana, Java Plum, Jamboo
"CONSTITUENT: -
PREPARATIONS: Jambul seeds in powdered form. Dose: three to ten grains, two or three times a day. Fluid extract jambul seed, miscible with water. Dose, five to ten minims.
Therapy: Its specific therapeutic application lies in the fact that the bark and the seeds possess the property of arresting excessive formation and excretion of sugar in diabetes, the seeds being the most active.
Inasmuch as the pathology of the disease is obscure, and the physiological action of the agent is comparatively unknown, it is impossible to make other than an empirical use of this remedy in these cases. Given in from five to ten grains of the powdered seeds, three times daily, it gradually overcomes the thirst and weariness and diminishes the quantity of urine. After two or three weeks the strength and spirits will return, and wandering and distressing pains and cramps abate, bleeding from the nose or gums, and night sweats will cease, and the quantity of sugar will gradually decline. The dose may be increased until forty grains are given in a day, and the probabilities are that large doses would produce no serious results.
The agent has been widely used in the treatment of this disease, and is as efficient as any other single remedy. The writer's experience proves that it acts best in those cases that have been long continued, with a comparatively small amount of sugar present, where the slow progress of the disease has not materially influenced the general health of the patient.
Among the qualified, observing physicians of India, it is believed that its use will prevent the conversion of starches into sugar to any excessive extent, and that starchy diet can be eaten with impunity during its administration.
(Finley Ellingwood: The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1915)"