The unripe fruit and the bark are extremely astringent, being useful in decoction, or infusion, to check diarrhoea; and externally in poultices or lotions, to constringe such relaxed parts as the throat, and lower bowel.    From Wordnik.com.  [Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure] Reference

But the true effect of every one of its fibres is to constringe the heart at the same time they render it tense; and this rather with the effect of thickening and amplifying the walls and substance of the organ than enlarging its ventricles.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Harvard Classics Volume 38 Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology)] Reference

Hence we see why it very seldom thunders when the northerly winds blow; for these winds constringe the earth with their cold, and so hinder the fulminating matter from bursting forth; and when they are burst forth and floating in the air, they hinder their effervency.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to Judge of the Changes of the Weather, Grounded on Forty Years' Experience] Reference

De puellae voluntate periculum facere solis oculis non est satis, sed efficacius aliquid agere oportet, ibique etiam machinam alteram ahibere: itaque manus tange, digitos constringe, atque inter stringendum suspira; si haec agentem aequo se animo feret, neque facta hujusmodi aspernabitur, tum vero dominam appella, ejusque collum suaviare.    From Wordnik.com.  [Anatomy of Melancholy] Reference