Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/600
Habitat : — Cultivated in damp, marshy places in India ; exceedingly common in Manipur and Naga Hills.
An aromatic marsh herb. Root-stock creeping, very aromatic and branching, as thick as the middle finger. Leaves with a stout mid-rib, 3-6in. by ⅔-1½in., bright-green, acute, thickened in the middle, margins waved. Spathe 6-30in. long, pedicel (formed often connate pedicels and spathe) 1½-1¼in. broad. Peduncle ⅛-⅜in. broad, leaf-like. Spadix 2-4in. by ½-¾in. diam. obtuse, slightly curved, green. Sepals as long as the ovary, scarious. Anthers yellow. Fruit turbinate, prismatic, top pyramidal.
Uses : — The aromatic rhizome or root-stock is considered emetic in large doses, and stomachic and carminative in smaller doses. (U. C. Dutt.) It is a simple useful remedy for flatulence, colic, or dyspepsia, and a pleasant adjunct to tonic or purgative medicines. It is also used in remittent fevers and ague by the native doctors, and is held in high esteem as an insectifuge, especially for fleas. In Voigt's Hortus Suburbanus Calcuttensis occurs the following (taken from Thomson's Mat. Med.) : " The root has been employed in medicine since the time of Hippocrates. By the moderns it is successfully used in intermittent fevers, even after bark has failed, and it is certainly a very useful addition to Cinchona. It is also a useful adjunct to bitter and stomachic infusions." It is also much valued by the Manipuris, especially in the treatment of coughs or sore-throats. For this purpose a small piece is chewed for a few minutes. It contains a bitter principle, acorine and an alkaloid calamine, useful in dysentery (I. M. G. 1875, p. 39.)
The root used by the free Indians of Hudson's Bay territory in coughs. Mr. Holmes remarks that " it is not a little singular that there is hardly a country where this plant grows that the rhizome is not used in medicine. (Ph. J. Oct. 18, 1884, p. 302.)
" In Meerut the rhizome, with bhang and ajowain in equal parts, is powdered and used as a fumigation in painful piles." (Surg.-Maj. W. Moir and Asst. Surg. T. N. Ghose, Meerut.) " I found the root extremely useful in the dysentery of children, and also in bronchitic affections— vide Ind. Med. Gaz. for