Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/751

Rh ovate-lanceolate, coarsely serrate. Heads ½-¾in. diam., about 40-fid, subcorymbose. Involucre-bracts linear, with broad purplish tips. Achenes 1/5in., 10-ribbed, pubescent; outer pappus rather longer, shining, reddish, flattened, deciduous ; inner very short, rigid, paleaceous.

Uses : — In Hindoo medicine, the seeds are of great repute as a medicine for leucoderma and other skin diseases, and also used as an anthelmintic in combination with other remedies (Dutt).

The author of the Makhzan informs us that it is given internally to remove phlegm and worms from the intestines, and that a poultice or plaster of it is used to disperse cold tumors. It is much used as a cattle medicine (Dymock).

The seeds are considered as powerfully anthelmintic, and are also an ingredient of a compound powder prescribed in snake bites. (Ainslie.) On the Malabar Coast an infusion of the seeds is given for coughs and against flatulency. (Rheede.)

In the Concan, the following formula is in vogue as an anteperiodic ; vernonia seeds, chiretta, picrorrhiza root, dikamâli, rocksalt and ginger, p. æq. powder, and give 6 massâs in cold water, in which a red hot tile has been quenched, every morning (Dymock).

The juice of the leaf is given to cure phlegmatic, discharges from the nostrils (Agra Exhibition).

Dr. Æ. Ross speaks favorably of an infusion of the powdered seeds (in doses of from 10 to 30 grains) as a good and certain anthelmintic for ascarides. In Travancore, the bruised seeds, ground up in a paste with limejuice, are largely employed as a means of destroying pediculi. Dr. Gibson regards them as a valuable tonic and stomachic, in doses of 20 to 25 grains ; diuretic properties are also assigned to them (Ph. Ind.).

They are also given in anasarca and used for plasters for abscesses (Watt).

The seeds are in the Punjab considered febrifuge (Baden- Powell).

The seeds on extraction with ether yielded 18.25 per cent, of a dark brown coloured and strong smelling oil with some resinous matter. The expressed