Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/255

Rh acute, irregularly and coarsely dentate or erose, white, with very fine, dense pubescence on both sides, especially beneath, petioles very long, 1-3 in.; jointed near top. Flowers about 1 in., nodding. Pedicel slender, jointed near top. Calyx lobes, shallow, apiculate ; carpels 15-20, readily separating when ripe, sparsely and roughly hairy on back, beak short, sharp, spreading horizontally. Seeds minutely-dotted (Trimen), (Maxwell M. Masters).

Flowers orange yellow, throughout the year (Ceylon), ¼ in. diam., opening in the evening (Masters).

Parts used : —The root ; bark ; leaves ; seeds and fruits.

Use : — An infusion of the leaves or of the roots is prescribed in fevers as a cooling medicine (Ainslie). The seeds are reckoned aphrodisiac and are used as a laxative in piles.

The seeds are burned on charcoal, and recta of children affected with thread worms are exposed to the smoke.

A decoction of the leaves is used as a mouth-wash in cases of tooth-ache and tender gums, and also in gonorrhœa and inflammation of the bladder.

In Western India, the bark is valued as a diuretic, and the seeds on account of their demulcent and mucilaginous properties (Dymock).

The infusion of the root is useful in strangury and hæmaturia

The infusion of the root is said to be useful in leprosy. The seeds are given in the treatment of coughs.

According to the Chinese in Hong-Kong, the seeds are employed as an emollient and demulcent ; the root is used as a diuretic and pulmonary sedative, and the flowers and leaves as a local application to boils and ulcers. Porter Smith states that the seeds and the entire plant are used as " demulcent, lenitive, diuretic, laxative and discutient remedies. Puerperal diseases, urinary disorders, chronic dysentery and fevers are treated with the seeds." Notes on Chinese Materia Medica by Ho Kai and Crow in Ph. J. for Oct. 22, 1887.

The leaves contain some mucilaginous substance which