Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/502

{̪rh|1252| INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.|}}

cylindric. Leaves sub-orbicular, sub -sessile 3-6in. long, aromatic, spreading flat on the ground, tip deltoid, thin, deep green, 10-12-ribbed, margin not thickened nor coloured. Petiole short, channelled. Flower 6-12in. fugitive, sweet-scented, opening successively ; bracts lanceolate, green, small. Calyx as long as the bract. Corolla-tube lin. ; segments lanceolate, ½in. Staminodes half an inch long and broad, obovate — cuneate white ; lip white with a lilac throat deeply bifid below in middle, lin. broad, lobes obtuse. Anther-crests, small, quadrate, with 2 shallow obtuse lobes. Fruit not seen by me among the Bombay grown species. (K. R. K.)

Uses : — It is probable that the tubers of this species as well as of K. rotunda are used indiscriminately in Hindu medicine. They are fragrant and of a warm, bitterish, aromatic taste. (Ph. Ind.) Used by the Hindu ladies as a perfume for the hair. The tubers reduced to powder and mixed with honey are given in coughs and pectoral affections. Boiled in oil it is externally applied to stoppages of the nasal organs. (Rheede.)

Chem. comp. — The fatty matty matters dissolved out of this tuber by either consisted of a fragrant liquid oil, and a solid white crystalline substance separated by petroleum ether. The alcoholic extract, amounting to 2.76 per cent., contained some white transparent prisms of an alkaline nitrate, and a few nodules of a circular-shaped crystals of a yellowish colour. This extract contained a small quantity of alkaloid, and some sweet body reducing Fehling's solution. A large quantity of starch is present, and 4.14 per cent, of gum. The tubers dried at 100°C lost 4.11 per cent, of moisture, and yielded 13.73 per cent, of mineral matter. (Pharmacogr. Ind., III. 416.)

Vern. :— Kanjan-búra, madú-nirbisha (H. & B.).

Habitat : — Foot of the Eastern Himalayas ; also in Bengal.

Rootstock tuberous ; root fibres slender or cylindric. Leaves ascending, lanceolate, many, 6-8in. by lin. or less sessile. Flowers few, in a central sessile spike ; bracts small. Calyx lin. Corolla-tube white, twice as long as the calyx ; segments lin., linear, very narrow, white, reflexing. Staminodes erect, oblong, white, ½-¾in. Lip reflexed, ½ by ¾in., lilac, deeply cut into