Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/764

684 Vern. :— Chhotâ-gokhru ? (Hind.) ; Bun-okra (Beng.) ; Shan keshvara ; Dhupâ (Bomb.) ; Marlumulta (Tam.) ; Veritel-nep (Tel.) ; Gokhroo, kullan (Sind ; Pb.)

Habitat : — Throughout the hotter parts of India, usually near houses ; ascending the Western Himalaya to 5,000 ft.

An annual coarse, rough, unarmed herb. Stem short, stout, slightly branched, spotted, harsh with bristly hairs. Leaves petioled, 2-3in. long, scabrid, triangular-cordate or orbicular lobed and toothed, base cuneate. Heads in terminal and axillary racemes, fruiting involucres ⅝in. long, ovoid or oblong, beaks erect or diverging. Achenes enclosed in the hardened involucral cells, ovoid thick ; pappus absent.

Use : — The whole plant is supposed to possess powerful diaphoretic and sedative properties. It is generally administered in the form of decoction, and is said to be very efficacious in long standing cases of malarious fever (S. Arjun). Mr. Baden- Powell says that the root is a bitter tonic, useful in cancer and strumous diseases. The prickly fruit considered cooling and demulcent and is given in small-pox (Stewart).

In America and Australia, this plant has been observed to prove fatal to cattle and pigs. Its hairs and prickles are employed as medicine in China (Dymock).

In Southern India, the prickly involucre is applied to the ear, or tied in a bunch to the ear-ring, to cure hemi-crania (Elliott).

Has proved very useful in urinary diseases, a good diuretic, diminishes the irritability of the bladder. Very useful also in gleet and leucorrhœa, given as infusion or in one drachm doses in powder. Has also been given in menorrhagia (Penny, in Watt's Dictionary).

The fruits are slightly narcotic (Surgeon Mukerji, in Watt's Dictionary.)

Syn. : — S. brachiata, Roxb. 605.

Habitat : — Throughout India, ascending to 5,000ft., in the Himalaya and other mountains.