Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/770

690 proper, that is, "margined, scabrid, pappus usually of 1-2 bristles."

Uses :— The whole plaint is very acrid, but the flower-heads are especially so, having a hot, burning taste, which causes profuse salivation. It is on this account that the plant has been named Akalkhura by the gardeners. This is a popular remedy for children who stammer. The flower-heads are sometimes chewed to relieve toothache (Dymock).

It is considered by the natives a powerful stimulant and sialogogue, and is used in headaches, paralysis of the tongue, affections of the throat and gums, and for tooth-ache.

Pyrethrin is obtained from this plant. It is resolved by alcoholic potash into pyrethric acid and piperidine.

Syn. : — Verbesina sativa, Roxb. 606.

Habitat : — A native of Tropical Africa, cultivated in various parts of India.

Vern. :— Râmtil ; Kâlâtil (H. B. and Bomb.) ; Valesulû (Tel) ; Karmadoo (Mysore).

A stout, erect annual, smooth or scabrid, pubescent upwards. Leaves 3-5in., sessile, half-amplexicaul, linear, ovate-lanceolate, lanceolate-oblong, or subcordate, serrate, obtuse. Heads ½-lin. diam., peduncles naked, l-2in. Involucral bracts 5 ; outer broadly elliptic or ovate, obtuse, green ; ligules few, broad.

Achenes dorsally pressed, glabrous, tip rounded, yielding a bland oil.

Use : — The oil is sweet, and may be used for the same pharmaceutical purposes as sesamum oil (Dymock).

The achenes contain from 40 to 45 per cent, of a yellow sweet oil. According to Leather seeds from cultivated Indian plants yield on an average 40 per cent, of oil. The oil is used in soap-making and as a substitute for Unseed oil ; in India it is occasionally employed as a substitute for ghee.

Crossley and Le Sueur in 1898 examined four samples of East Indian oil : Specific gravity at 15.5°, 0.9248—0.9263 ; solidifies below zero ; saponification value, 188.9— 192.2; iodine value, 126.6 — 133.8 ; Reichert-Meissl value, O.ll— 0.63; Maumene test, 81° ; butyro refractometer, 63° at 40°. Fatty scids and unsapomfiable, per cent. 94.11 ; iodine value, 147.5. The oil has slight siccative powers and gained 7.2 per cent, in weight in fifteen days.