Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/552
Habitat: — Throughout Tropical India.
An herbaceous, tall, branching, glabrous climber. Root-stock of arched, solid, fleshy, cylindric, white or brownish corms, 6-12in. long and 1-1½in. diam., pointed at each end, bifurcately branched (or V-shaped], producing a new joint at the end of each branch. Roots fibrous ; stems 10- 12ft., given off from the angle of the young corms, herbaceous, terete. Leaves sessile, 6-8in., variable in breadth ; base rounded, cordate or amplexicaul ; pedicels 4-6in. ; lip deflexed. Flowers 3-4in. across ; segments linear, lanceolate, crisply waved. Filaments 2in. long, spreading, connective of anthers, ¼in. long, green. Style 2in. long. Capsule 2in., linear, oblong. Flowers at first greenish, passing through yellow-orange and scarlet to crimson from base to apex.
Uses : — According to the Nighantas, the root is purgative, hot, light and pungent ; it increases the secretion of bile, and is useful in leprosy, piles, colic, boils and to expel intestinal worms.
" The root is supposed by Hindu and Muhammadan physicians to have valuable medicinal properties. Dutt writes, "It constituted one of the seven minor poisons of Sanskrit writers and had for one of its synonyms ' garbhaghâtini,' or ' the drug that causes abortion,' but I am not aware of its being used as an abortive for criminal purposes. The tuberous root, powdered and reduced to a paste, is applied to the navel, suprapubic region, and vagina, with the object of promoting labour. In retained placenta, a paste of the root is applied to the palms and soles, while powdered Nigella seeds and long pepper are given internally with wine." Early English writers on Indian botany and materia medica speak of it as a violent poison, but none furnish satisfactory details of a case in which marked ill-effects were produced by its use. It seems highly probable that these ill-effects have been greatly over-estimated, an assumption which is confirmed by experiments recently conducted by Moodeen Sheriff. In a special opinion kindly furnished to the editor he writes: "The root is not so poisonous as is generally supposed. I have taken it myself in small quantities,