Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/765

Rh A large, annual herb, 2-4ft. (Trimen), l-3ft, (J. D. Hooker), 6-7ft. (Kanjilal), common on damp fallow lands. Stem stiff, erect, with spreading opposite horizontal branches below, and dichotomously branched above, finely pubescent purple. Leaves opposite, l-5in. long and broad, oval-triangular or short petioles, shortly tapering at base, acuminate, acute, deeply and irregularly laciniate serrate, densely and finely pubescent on both sides, pale, yellowish-green, the uppermost much smaller and nearly entire. Heads ¼in. in diam. small, pedunculate, yellow, subglobose, solitary in the forks of very large lax dichotomous corymbose inflorescence. Involucre-bracts very dissimilar, five outer over ½in., linear spathulate or club-shaped at end, horizontally spreading, with recurved margins, upper surface set with numerous large, extremely viscous, glandular on back. Ray flower red beneath, very short, recurved, 3-toothed. Achenes each enclosed in a boat-shaped bractler, glabrous, slightly rough (Trimen) ; curved, quadrangular, black (Kanjilal).

Uses : — " It has a high reputation as a valuable depurative, and also for its healing properties in gangrenous ulcers and sores. It is strongly recommended in diseases of urethra. ** Dr. Daruty, of Mauritius, writes me that he prescribes it with very good results in the from of an aqueous extract, in syrup and sometimes combined with iodide of potassium, in cases where a powerful alterative, sudorific, and anti-syphilitic is required. He believed it to much more powerful than Sarsaparilla " (Christy's 'New Commercial Plants and Drugs' No. IX., p. 49, 1886)

Externally, a mixture of equal parts of the tincture and glycerine has been tried in Europe with good effect in ringworm and similar parasitic eruptions. Antiseptic properties have been ascribed to the fresh plant, applied to unhealthy ulcers.

Syn.:— Hingtsha repens, Roxb. 609.

Sans. : — Hilamochikâ.

Vern. :— Harhuch (H.) ; Hingcha(B.)

Habitat : — Eastern Bengal, Assam and Silhet.