Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/606

Holarrhena antidysenterica are ground with whey and molasses and given in 6 massa doses. In famine seasons Nagarmoth has proved a valuable resource to the poor. (Dymock).

Syn. :— C. hexastachyus, Rottb. Roxb. 66.

Sans. : — Mustâgundrâ, bhadramusti, mustakka, dhanakûta.

Vern. : — Mustâ, barikmoth, kore-ki-jhâr (H.) ; Muthâ, mothâ, (Beng.) ; Batha-bijir (Mundari) ; Utrubanda, (Uraon) ; Tandi-sura (Santal) ; Bimbal (Mar.) ; Motha (Guz.) ; Koraikilangu, tulam, (Tam.) ; tunga-muste, mustakamu, (Tel.) ; koranari gadde, tungahullu (Kan) ; Kalanduru (Sing.).

Habitat :— A very common and troublesome weed in Ceylon. A pestiferous weed all over India. The tubers yield a perfume.

Perennial herbs flowering all the year. Rootstock small, tuberous, stoloniferous. Stolons elongate, slender, bearing ovoid, hard, tunicate, black, fragrant tubers ⅓-lin. diam. root-fibres wiry, covered with flexuous root-hairs. Stems subsolitary, 6-24in., slender, trigonous below, triquetrous above, base sometimes tuberous. Leaves subradical, shorter or longer than the stem, narrowly linear, 1/6-⅓in. broad, finely acuminate, or narrowed from the middle to both ends, flat, flaccid, 1-veined. Umbel simple or compound, primary rays 2-8, unequal, very slender, bearing short spikes of 4-10 slender spreading red-brown spikelets (inflorescence sometimes, contracted into a head; ; bracts 3, longest up to 7in. ; spikelets ½-l by 1/16in., linear, acute, slightly compressed, 10-20- fid ; pale or dark red-brown ; rhachilla very slender, wings elliptic ; glumes about 1/15-1/10in., closely or loosely imbricate, suberect, ovate, obtuse, dorsally green, hardly keeled, streaked with red-brown, 5-7- veined, sides broadly membranous, margins and tip narrowly scarious ; stamens 3, anthers long, narrow muticous. Nut ⅓ the length of the glume, obovoid or oblong, obtuse, trigonous, black, opaque, granulate, style shorter than the nut. Stigmas three, capilarry. (Trimen.)

Uses:— Roots are used medicinally as a diaphoretic and astringent. Stimulant and diuretic properties are also attributed to them. They are further described as vermifuge. In native