Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/269

Rh acuminate. Stipules ovate-lanceolate, entire or slightly toothed. Peduncles shorter than the petiole. Bractcoles not divided below the middle, equalling the capsule, sometimes, entire or nearly so. Calyx truncate or obtusely crenulate, much shorter than the bracteoles. Petals spreading, ovate or crenulate. Flowers yellow, with a purple centre, rarely wholly yellow or white or purple. Capsule ovate, globose, mucronate, 3-5-valved. Seeds 5-7 in each cell, ovoid. Cotton white, brown, rarely yellowish, overlaying a greenish or greyish down. I have a fabric, a coat made out of cloth, turned out at the Thana Jail (Konkan), nearly twenty years ago out of the fawn-coloured cotton-fibre found on some plants in the Jail gardens, unexpectedly yielding the fawn-coloured cotton. It is unknown whence the seed of such plants came (K. R. Kirtikar).

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

Uses : — The Eastern physicians consider all parts of the cotton plant to be hot and moist ; a syrup of the flowers is prescribed in hypochondriasis, on account of its stimulating and exhilarant effect ; a poultice of them is applied to burns and scalds. Burnt cotton is applied to sores and wounds to promote healthy granulation ; dropsical or paralysed limbs are wrapped in cotton, after the application of a ginger plaster ; pounded cotton- seed, mixed with ginger and water, is applied in orchitis. Cotton is also used as a moxa, and the seeds as a laxative, expectorant, and aphrodisiac. The juice of the leaves is considered a good remedy in dysentery, and the leaves with oil are applied as a plaster to gouty joints ; a hip-bath of the young leaves and roots is recommended in uterine colic.

The cotton- wool is applied to burns ; the seeds are said to increase the secretion of milk, and are also said to be useful in epilepsy, and as an antidote to snake-poison. The root is diuretic, emenagogue and demulcent, and the leaves in decoction are tonic, and said to be used in fever and diarrhœa (Atkinson).

In India, the cotton seeds are employed to procure abortion. Cotton root-bark is officinal in the United States Pharmacopœia,