Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/518

438 densely covered with shining, silvery, adpressed hair beneath ; flowers dull, dark-purple, the keel yellowish-green, numerous, l½-l¾ in. long, on short pubescent pedicels, usually two or three together at intervals, on a slender pubescent raceme 6-12in, long. Bracts ½in., lanceolate, hairy, soon falling. Calyx densely silky, 2 upper segments completely connate ; lower much longest. Pod 2½-3in. by about ½in. broad, linear, blunt, falcately curved at both ends, a longitudinal rib along whole length of each valve, but without wings, densely covered with close, rather weak, orange-brown, irritant bristles, pointing backward and readily detached, 4-6-seeded, with partitions between them. Seed ovoid, ¼in., compressed, brownish, mottled with black, hilum oblong, not half the length of seed.

Parts used. — The seeds, root and legume.

Use. — According to Susruta, the seeds are aphrodisiac ; the root is tonic and useful in nervine diseases (DuttJ.

Ainslie says that a strong infusion of the root, mixed with honey, is prescribed by the Tamool doctors in cholera.

The use of the hairs of the mucuna pod as a vermifuge to expel ascarides appears to have originated in the West Indies, no mention of such an employment of them being found in Indian works (Dymock).

The pods are officinal in the Indian Pharmacopœia, to be used as an anthelmintic.

In the West Indies, a decoction of the root is reckoned a powerful diuretic and cleanser of the kidneys, and also made into an ointment for elephantiasis. Leaves are applied to ulcers. A vinous infusion of the pods is said to be a certain remedy for dropsy (Drury).

The root is prescribed as a remedy for delirium in fever in Chutia Nagpur. Powdered and made into a paste, it is applied to the body in dropsy, a piece of the root being also tied to the wrist and ankle. The seed is believed to absorb scorpion-poison when applied to the part stung (Revd. A. Campbell).

An ointment prepared with the hairs acts externally as a local stimulant and wild vesicant. (Watt.)