Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/608

Sans. : — Kaseruk.

Vern : — Kaseru ; (H.), kesûr (B.) ; Kasarâ (M.); Kaserudila, (Pb.) ; Gunda tinga gaddi (Tel.).

Habitat : — Throughout India. Very common in the Konkan, principally Salsette (Thana marshes). (K.R.K.).

A very large annual aquatic or marshy herb. Rootstock stout, with thick root fibres, stoloniferous or not. Stem 6-16 ft., as thick as the little finger, triquetrous, spongy, angles smooth, sides concave. Leaves few, radical, 2-3 ft. long by ½in. broad, triquetrous, finely acuminate, coriaceous, margins smooth or scaberulous. Sheath long, open. Spikelets ⅛-¼in.; globose or globosely ovoid, dark brown, in large corymbiform decompound terminal open or contracted umbels 3-8in. diam. rays rigid, erect or spreading, upto 5in. long. Rhachilla slender. Bracts very large, upto 3ft. by ½-⅔in. broad at the base, flat, leaf-like, margins scaberulous. Glumes rather loosely imbricate, membranous, orbicular, 1/12in. diam. concave, almost hemispheric, slenderly keeled above the middle, tip rounded ; hypogynous bristles, 6, or fewer, unequal, retrosely scabrid. Stamens 3, anthers linear, sub-acute. Nut 1/16in.. obovoid, trigonous, dark brown or black, shining, tip conical, style slender, stigmas 3. (Trimen.)

Uses : — The root has astringent properties, and is given in diarrhœa and vomiting. (Dymock.) If in addition to its value as a delicate article of food it is really useful in diarrhœa a congee made of it with milk will be a very suitable form of nourishment in diarrhœa and vomiting. I can bear testimony to its bland and soothing properties. (K. R. K.)

Kesur is used to remove the taste of medicine from the mouth. It is chewed also for the purpose of checking sickness. I have often seen it used but I cannot say whether it acts beneficially. (Dr. R. L. Dutt in Watt's Dic.)