KAKKOLA, also Kakkoloka. SANS., TEL. A perfume obtained from a berry. It is oval, with a thick, green, sebaceous, fragrant integu ment, which dries and shrinks with age, becoming a thin, greyish epidermis. Within this is an aro matic kernel, abounding with a resin which is inflammable, slightly soluble in water, and more so in alcohol. The Kakkola is an esteemed drug, being described in the Raja Nightantu and Bhava Prakasa as pungent, bitter, and carminative.
The Kakkola drug is so called from its colour, which is black like that of the crow. The Hindus enumerate in their medical works a class of eight substances, which they denominate the Ashta varga, or class of eight ; they are all roots, and appear to come chiefly from Nepal and the countries skirting the Himalaya. They may be employed either singly or collectively, and are described as cool, sweet, fattening, and aphro disiac; promotive of digestion, sanative, lactiferous, and tonic. They are further said to possess great
efficacy in urinary and phthisical affections, and in removing the sequels; of fevers. Their names are —Jivaka, Pisanabha, Meda, Mahameda, Kakkola, Kshira kakkola, Riddhi, and Vriddhi. The sub stance amongst these termed Kakkola is generally connected with the Kshim kakkola, and these two drugs are procured from Morung and the adjacent districts. Kshira kakkola resembles the root of the Pivari (Asparagus racemosus), and is of a white colour, a fragrant smell, and full of milky sap. The Kakkola is of similar form and character, but of a dark hue. They are both sweet and cooling, they remove fever, and correct a vitiated state of the blood and bile ; the root of the Vidari (Batatas paniculatus) and the Aswagandah (Phy salis flexuosa) are severally substitutes for the Kakkola and Kshira kakkola.— Wilson, As. Res. xiii. p. 411 ; Elliot, Fl. Andh.