Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/344

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
1094
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.


" Its leaves, in conjunction with lime and the nut of Areca Catechu, are almost universally employed as a masticatory. The juice of the leaves is regarded as a valuable stomachic. Amongst the Indo-Britons of Southern India a use is made of the leaves, which merits notice. In catarrhal and pulmonary affections generally, especially of children, the leaves warmed and smeared with oil are applied in layers over the chest ; and the Editor, from personal observation in many instances, can testify to the relief afforded to the cough and dyspnÅ“a, far more than can be accounted for by the warmth and exclusion of air, or by any rubefacient effect it produces, which, indeed, is very slight in most cases. Dr. Gibson, who corroborates this statement, states that he has often seen the application afford marked relief in congestion and other affections of the liver. Mr. J. Wood reports that the leaves warmed by the fire and applied in layers over the mammas are used effectually for arresting the secretion of milk. Their use in this manner is also noticed by Dr. J. Shortt, who adds that the leaves are similarly employed as a resolvent to glandular swellings" (Ph. Ind.).

An essential oil obtained from the leaves by distillation at Samarang, by Herr Schmity, has been credited by him with having given good results in the treatment of catarrhal disorders and as an antiseptic, and the claim has been confirmed in the experience of Dr. Kleinstuck, of Jena (Ph. J., Oct. 2, 1886, p. 268, also Ph. J. for 20th Nov., 1889, p. 423).

In the Konkan, the fruit is employed with honey as a remedy for cough, and in Orissa, the root is said to be used to prevent child-bearing.

" The juice of the leaves is dropped into the eye in painful affections of that organ ; it is also used to relieve cerebral congestions and satyriasis, and to allay thirst (Dr. Thompson, in Watt's Dict.)." The juice of the leaves is dropped into the eye in night-blindness (B. D. Basu).

Messrs. H. H. Mann, D. L. Sahasrabuddhe and V. G. Patwardhan of Poona have published in Memoirs of Depart, of Agric. in India," for July, 1913 and June 1916, their