Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/246

166 This is a cultivated, herbaceous plant in Indian gardens from English seed.

Root biennial. Stem in garden-growth in pots, 6-10 ft. high, erect, stout, simple, more or less hispid, with fasciculated branched hairs

Leaves on rather short petioles, cordate, five-to seven- lobed, the lobes angled, unequally serrated; upperside dark green, slightly downy, beneath pale, more downy, with fasciculated stipules, large, unequally bifid. Flowers solitary, large, handsome. Petiole short. Calyx large, five-cleft, downy, striated, the segments acute. Involucre monophyllous, large, cup-shaped, six-to-nine-lobed, striated, downy, the lobes obtuse, often bifid. Staminal tube short. Anthers very numerous, pale yellow. Ovaries numerous, collected around the dilated downy base of the style which latter is cleft at the extremity into several segments. Corolla of five very broad, wavy, obcordate or somewhat cuneate petals, united at the base, often with a pale eye or centre, surrounded with a deep, black-purple, ring.

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

Uses: — The seeds of this plant are demulcent, diuretic and febrifuge. The flowers have cooling and diuretic properties. The roots are supposed to be astringent and demulcent, and are much used in France to form demulcent drinks.

In the Punjab, the flowers are given in rheumatism, and the roots in dysentery (STEWART.)

The leaves and roots are also used for the same purposes as of the preceding species.

Moodeen Sheriff describes the properties, and used A. officinalis and A. rosea collectively. According to him, they are demulcent, refrigerant and emollient. The mucilage of the petioles, stem and roots is generally a very useful adjunct to other medicines in dysentery and mucous diarrhœa, and, in some very slight cases, it is sufficient by itself to relieve these diseases to a great extent. Tormina and tenesmus are the symptoms which are most relieved by it. The decoction of the