Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/155

 Dekkan, but it has been mentioned by Pandit Jaya Krishna Indraji and Dr. Tribhuvandas M. Shah, in their respective works. The flowers of Nelumbium speciosum open at sunrise and close at sunset. Hence, they are called Surya-vikashi or Surya-Kamal; whereas Nymphcea stellata opens at sunset and closes at sunrise, and is hence called Ohandra-vikashi (K. R. K.)

N.B.—It is the 'Lotus' of the Europeans in the East; the Cyamus or 'Sacred Bean' of ancient Egypt, where it does not grow now (Trimen).

Parts used:—The filaments, seeds, leaves, and root.

Uses:—By Sanskrit authors, the filaments are considered astringent and cooling, useful in burning sensation of the body, bleeding piles and menorrhagia. In bleeding piles, the filaments of the lotus are given, with honey and fresh butter, or with sugar.

The large leaves are used as cool bedsheets, in high fever, with much heat and burning of the skin (Dutt's Materia Medica of the Hindus). The seeds are used to check vomiting, and given to children as diuretic and refrigerant. The milky viscid juice of the leaf and flower stalks is used in diarrhoea. The petals are said to be slightly astringent.

The large root stalks are cut into 1 foot pieces, and sold under the name of Bhishi; they afford a cooling, refreshing dish, when cooked in milk or cocoanut juice, with salt or sugar.

A sherbet of this plant is used as refrigerant in small-pox, and is said to stop eruption; used also in all eruptive fevers, The root is used as a paste in ringworm and other cutaneous affections. (Dr. Emerson.)

The flowers are used as an astringent in diarrhoea, also cholera, in fever and diseases of the liver; and are also recommended as a cardiac tonic.

The powdered root is prescribed for piles as a demulcent; also for dysentery and dyspepsia.

The seeds form a cooling medicine for cutaneous diseases and leprosy, and are considered an antidote for poisons.