Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.9058

c10.9058

MAMIRAN, MAMIRA, s. A medicine from old times of much repute in the East, especially for eye-diseases, and imported from Himalayan and Trans-Himalayan regions. It is a popular native drug in the Punjab bazars, where it is still known as *mamīra*, also as *piliāri*. It seems probable that the name is applied to bitter roots of kindred properties but of more than one specific origin. Hanbury and Flückiger describe it as the rhizome of *Coptis Teeta*, Wallich, tita being the name of the drug in the Mishmi country at the head of the Assam Valley, from which it is imported into Bengal. But Stewart states explicitly that the *mamīra* of the Punjab bazars is now “known to be” mostly, if not entirely, derived from *Thalictrum foliosum* D.C., a tall plant which is common throughout the temperate Himālaya (5000 to 8000 feet) and on the Kasia Hills, and is exported from Kumaun under the name of *Momiri*. [See *Watt, Econ. Dict.* vi. pt. iv. 42 seq.] “The Mamira of the old Arab writers was identified with Χελιδόνιον μέγα, by which, however, Löw (*Aram. Pflanzennamen*, p. 220) says they understood *curcuma longa*.” W.R.S.