Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/308
Vern, : — Kanta nutia (Beng.) ; Kante mat (Dec.) ; Mulluk-kirai (Tam.) ; Mah : Kánte bháji, kánte math Chanlai kánte-dár (H.) ; Mullan-chira (Malay); Mullu-tota-kura ; Nalla doggali ; Erra mulu goranta (Tel.).
Habitat: — Throughout India, in waste places, fields and gardens.
An annual erect glabrous herb. Stem l-2ft., hard, terete, leaf-axils with 5 straight spines ⅔in. and under (J. D. Hooker). " Stem," writes Trimen (Ceylon), " polished, much-branched, cylindrical with a pair of very sharp divaricate opposite spines in leaf axils at the base of the bud or branch." This is what I find among the Konkan plants (K. R. Kirtikar). Leaves l½-2¼ in., ovate-lanceolate, tapering to base, obtuse, spinous apiculate ; entire undulate, glabrous above, slightly scurfy beneath, lateral veins numerous, prominent beneath, petiole ½-2in. Flowers very numerous, sessile, pale green, clusters dense, both axillary and in terminal interrupted spikes, male fewer than female. Bracts linear, bristle-pointed. Perianth leaves 5, rather longer than bracts, ovate, bristle pointed. Stamens 5, spreading ; ovary pointed, pubescent. Styles 2, long, spreading, hairy (Trimen). Utricle rugose, nearly equalling the sepals. Flowers 1/24in. long, sepals of male acuminate, of female obtuse apiculate. Stigmas 2. Seeds 1/30in. diam., blacky shining, border obtuse, not thickened. The plant varies from green to red and purple. (J. D. Hooker.)
Uses: — " Considered light, cooling and a promoter of the alvine and urinary discharges. Root said to be, according to Bhâvaprakash, useful in menorrhagia." (Dutt's, p. 221.) "Roots made into poultice are applied to buboes and abscesses for hastening suppuration." (Asst.-Surg. A. C. Mukerji.) The whole plant is used as an antidote for snake-poison, and the root as a specific for colic. It is also considered a lactagogue, and, boiled with pulses, is given to cows (J. P., p. 184). Assistant-Surgeon Ainrita Lai Deb, of Howrah, recorded the root as a specific in gonorrhœa ; also advocated its use in eczema (I. M. G., Nov. 1881).