Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/256
Habitat : — From the Himalaya, east of the Sutlej to Ceylon ; frequent ; very common in Bengal, also in Thana and Ratnagiri Districts.
A handsome shrub. Stem 4-8 ft. slightly branched, quadrangular. Bark yellow. Rootstock woody thick, perennial annually shooting up fresh herbaceous stems. Youngest shoots and inflorescence pubescent, (Brandis) Young parts glabrous, says Trimen from Ceylon. Leaves large 4-8 in., passing bracts above, oval ovate-oval acute at both ends, very coarsely and sharply serrate, glabrous, petiole very short stout. Flowers large on short stout compressed, pubescent, deflexed pedicels. Cymes numerous, lax, pubescent, dichotomous, with a pair of acute bracts at each branching and a flower in the fork, each in axil of a large leafy bract, and collectively forming a long, lax, terminal erect panicle 6-10in. long. Calyx 1/6in. long, cup-shaped, puberulous, segments very short broadly triangular, ciliolate. Corolla- tube short, ¼-⅜in, somewhat inflated, oblique at mouth, upper and lateral lobes ½in., broadly oval, flat, spreading, lowest one (lip) ¾in. long, very concave deflexed ; filaments much curved, hairy at base. Fruit a drupe about ¼in. long, depressed, somewhat succulent, normally 4-lobed, with a pyrene in each lobe (1-3 often suppressed). The leaves have a faint scent. Corolla with posterior and lateral lobes pale-blue, anterior one dark bluish-purplish (Trimen). Fruit purple black (C. B. Clarke). Flowers bluish white, fruit black (Kanjilal).
Uses : — The root is used by natives in febrile and catarrhal affections (Ph. Ind.) It is said to be good in malarial fevers by the people of Ratnagiri where the tender leaves are eaten also as vegetable by the power classes of Hindus (K.R. Kirtikar).
Leaves boiled with oil and butter made into an ointment useful in cephalalgia and ophthalmia. The seeds bruised and boiled in butter milk used as aperient and in dropsy (Drury).
The authors of the Pharmacographia Indica write : —
{{smaller|" From enquiries we have made there is no doubt that this plant is largely used in many parts of India as a substitute for Premna herbacea, the true Gantu Bhárangi, but if we regard the root of C. serratum as the true Bhárangi, and the root of P. herbacea as the Gantu (or knotted Bhárangi,)