Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/337

Perianth 1-1¾in., base globose, tube cylindric, erect, slender, lip erect, linear, as long as the tube, dark-purple with rootute edges, villous, with purple hairs. Anthers six. Stylar column 6-lobed. Fruit a pyriform capsule, lin. long, many grooved. Seeds triangular, cordate.

Uses: — Every part of this plant is nauseously bitter, which remains long, chiefly about the throat. For a purging with gripes, two of the fresh leaves are rubbed up in a little water, and given to an adult for a dose, once in 24 hours (Roxb).

It is well-known by its Hindustani name Kirâ-mâr, from its supposed anthelmintic, properties, and also probably from the fact of the expressed juice of the leaves being applied to foul and neglected ulcers, for the purpose of destroying the larvœ of insects. A belief in the anthelmintic virtues of the leaves is common amongst the natives. In Dalzell and Gibson's Flora of Bombay (p. 225), it is spoken of as possessing " a merited reputation as an antiperiodic in intermittent fevers." Emmenagogue properties are also assigned to it. Dr. J. Newton reports that in Scinde the dried root, in doses of about a drachm and-a-half, in the form of powder or in infusion, is administered during labours to increase uterine contractions (Ph. Ind.).

The leaves are applied to the navel to move the bowels of children, and are also given internally in combination with castor oil as a remedy for colic.

Dr. Hove states that the root and leaf are remarkably bitter, and yield a thick yellowish juice, which is mixed with boiled milk and given in syphilis, and combined with opium is used with great success in gonorrhœa. Ainslie notices the application of the leaf, when bruised and mixed with castor oil, to obstinate psora (the carpang of the Tamils.)

The native doctors in Bombay make a paste, with water, of the plant, along with the seeds of Barringtonia acutangula, Celastrus paniculata, and black pepper, and rub the whole body with it for the cure of malarial fevers.

The evidence collected by Dr. Watt (Diet. Ec. Pr. India, i. 314) shows that it is the opinion of several European phy-