Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/593

Vern. : — Kachu, arvi, ghuiyân, cham-kure-ka-gaddah (Hind.); Kochu, ashu-kochu, bun-kochu, guri. (Beng.) ; Dzu (cultivated) and kirth (wild), (Angami Naga) ; Rab alu, kachalu, gandiali, arbi, kasauri gagli, ghuyan (Pb.) ; Alu, Kasalu (Mar.) ; Saru (Uriya) ; Shimak-kizhangu, shima-ikilangu (Tam.) ; chama-kura, châma gadda, chama-dumpa, chema (Tel); Chempa-kizhanna, kaladi (Mal.) ; âvî-gadde, keshavanga-gadde, (Kan.).

Habitat: — Throughout the hotter parts of India, wild as well as cultivated. Ceylon.

A tall, coarse herb. Root-stock tuberous, about Gin. in diameter, short or elongating underground for several feet, giving off long sheathed bulbilliferous runners from the base. Leaves 6-16in., dark green, sometimes clouded with black, bifid half way from the base to the insertion of the petiole, basal lobes rounded, mid-rib beneath very stout, penniveined, with 5-7 veins radiating from the top of the petiole, which is 3-4ft: long, green or violet, sheath narrow. Spathes solitary or fascicled, stoutly peduncled, 8-12in. long, erect, narrow, green, tube 2-3in., narrowly ellipsoid, limb erect, lanceolate, acuminate, convolute, caudate, acuminate. (J. D. Hooker). Spadix about half as long as the spathe, slender, appendage l-3in., cylindric or subulate ; male and female inflorescence each about 1½in. long, separated by an interval covered with flat oblong neuters. (Trimen.) Every part edible.

Uses : — The pressed juice of the petioles is styptic, and may be used to arrest arterial hœmorrhage. Dr. Bholanath Bose reports very highly in favour of this property, and states that the wound heals by first intention after its application. (Pharm. Ind.) It is sometimes used in earache and otorrhœa, and also as an external stimulant and rubefacient. "The juice expressed from the leaf stalks is used with salt as an absorbent in cases of inflamed glands and buboes. The juice of the corm of this species is used in cases of alopæcia. Internally, it acts as a laxative, and is used in cases of piles and congestion of the portal system, also as an antidote to the stings of wasps and other insects." (Dr. Thornton in Watt's Die).

A microscopic examination of a section of a tuber revealed the presence