Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/707

Rh

Syn. :— Anethum Panmorium, Roxb. 272.

Sans. : — Madhurikâ.

Vern. :— Bari saunf, Sonp (H.J ; Mauri (B.) ; Sohikire (Tam.) ; Wariaree (Guz.); Bari-shopha (Bomb); Bari-shaup (Mar.) jilakurra (Tel.) ; Badisopu (Kan.).

Habitat .-—Commonly cultivated throughout India.

Tall glabrous herbs, sometimes annual. Leaves 2-3-4-pinnate, ultimate segment linear. Bracts ; braeteoles 0, or few small and linear. Calyx-teeth 0. Petals yellow, emarginate. Fruit not laterally compressed, oblong or ellipsoid ; carpels ½-terete ; ridges prominent, subequal ; furrows 1-vittate ; corpophore 2-partite. Seed somewhat dorsally compressed, inner face slightly concave. (Duthie)

Use : — Used as stimulant, aromatic, and carminative. The root is regarded as purgative, and the leaves diuretic. In Madras, the fruits are used in venereal diseases (Watt).

Fennel fruit yields about 3 per cent, of volatile oil, which consists of anethol or anise camphor and variable proportions of a liquid isomeric with oil of turpentine. The oil is used in Europe in the manufacture of cordials and enters into the composition of fennel water, which is known in India as muhori-ka-arak or arah bâdian.

Vern. : — Fitur asaliyun (Pb. and Bomb.) ; Prangos. Komal (Pushtu) ; Badian Kohi (Pers., according to Aitchison).

Habitat : — Kashmir.

Tall, perennial herbs. Stem 4-5 ft. Leaves 12-18 in., 3-4 pinnate, very compound. Umbels 6-18 in. diam., sometimes very compound. Bracts 4-8, ¾in., linear. Calyx teeth 0. Petals emarginate, yellow. Pedicels 15-25, 1/6-⅓in., whereof 4-8 may produce fruit. Fruit ¼-¾in. ; oblong, commissure broad ; wings ⅛-in. broad ; style bases depressed ; styles short, early reflexed. Carpels ½- terete, dorsally compressed, inner face nearly plane, but the epicarp there thin, introflexed in a deep T-shaped groove ; epicarp spongy ; primary ridges large, sub-equal or the lateral larger ; vittse small, numerous ; carpophore 2-partite. Seed 1/12-1/10in. diam. dorsally compressed, inner face slightly concave, with a deep narrow T-shaped groove. (C. B. Clarke),