Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/428

348 Maimati (Assam) ; Kârik, âmal-bel, gidardâk, drikri, vallur (Pb.) ; Odki, ambat-vel (Mar.) ; Khât-khatumbo, tâmânya (Guz.) ; Kuru dinne, kâdepa tige, kanapatige, mandulamari tige, meka mettani chettu (Tal.) Walratdiyalabu (Sinhalese).

Habitat : — Throughout the hotter parts of India and ascending into the tropical Himalaya. Ceylon.

Stems slender, much-branched, angular, quite glabrous. Tendrils long, slender, wavy, branched, and opposite the leaves. Young shoots glabrous, red. Leaves 3-foliate, 2-6 in., on long peduncles, channelled above. Leaflets small, usually shortly stalked, the middle one the largest and on longer stalk, broadly oval or rotundate, rounded at base, acute or obtuse, very coarsely crenate-serrate, glabrous and shining, thick. Stipules small, ovate, acute. Flowers white, green, says Trimen, shortly pedicellate. Cymes di-or-tri-chotomous, lax, divaricate, terminating lateral branches. Peduncle 2½-3 in., glabrous, petals acute, spreading. Berry ¾ in., or more, depressed-globose, smooth, purple, 3-or 4-seeded, very juicy. Seed acutely trigonous, sharply pointed, bluntly muricate on beak, wedge-shaped on the face.

Parts used. — The seeds and roots.

Use. — The names given to it in many parts of India denote one of its most general uses, viz., the treatment of yoke sores on the necks of bullocks. For that purpose, a poultice of the leaves is employed (Elliot). According to Irvine the seeds and also leaves are employed as an embrocation. Stewart remarks that the root, ground with black, pepper, is applied to boils. The root — Kâmrâj (H.) is used as an astringent medicine.

Vern. : — Bendir, bender-wel, ghorwel (Bom.). The root — Chamarmusli (Bomb.)

Habitat : — Western Peninsula, highest ghats of the Concan and Pulney Mts. Grows very freely in Thana, and is called Bendri.