Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/137

Rh the base of the Himalaya to Malabar and Pegu. (Absent in the Eastern Peninsula). Ceylon.

A small, much-branched, straggling climber. Branches long, slender, twining, striate, hairy-pubescent. Leaves 1-$1/2$ in., deltoid-ovate, very obtuse, apiculate or mucronate, tapering or truncate at base, almost entirely glabrous above (save when young), slightly hairy on veins beneath, ciliate at margin, 3⋅5 veined at base. Petiole $1/4$ in., hairy; Male fl.:—in small cymose panicles on very slender, axillary peduncles shorter than the leaves, bracts subulate, hairy. Female fl.:—2 or 3 together in axillary clusters; Sepals villous, outside petals, bifid, lobed at sides. Male fl.:—Stamens with filaments hairy at base. Female fl.:—Carpels smooth. Drupes (Ripe carpels) small, black-purple, $1/6$ in., endocarp bony, horse-shoe-shaped or rather annular, with the centre perforated, sharply keeled along the back, the sides with strong transverse ridges.

Parts used:—The root and leaves.

Uses:—"The juice of the leaves, mixed with water, has the property of coagulating into a green jelly-like substance, which is taken internally, sweetened with sugar, as cure for gonorrhœa. Roxburgh says—"A decoction of the fresh roots, with a few heads of pepper, in goats' milk, is administered for rheumatic and old venereal pains; half a pint every morning is the dose. It is reckoned heating, laxative, and sudorific."

"In the Concan, the roots rubbed with Bonduc nuts are administered as a cure for belly-ache in children; and in bilious dyspepsia, they are given in 6 massa doses, with ginger and sugar." (Dymock.)

In Sind, the root and leaves are used in headache and neuralgic pains. (Murray.)

The root is said to be alterative and a good substitute for Sarsaparilla.

According to the Pharmacopœia of India, this possesses the bitterness, and probably the tonic properties, of gulancha. (Tinospora cordifolia).

"This is a common hedge-plant in the Konkan, where it is