Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/783

Rh

Syn. : — Absinthium vulgare, Gœrtn. ; A. officinale, Lam.

Eng. names : — The absinthe ; Wormwood.

Vernacular : — Vilayatî-afsantin (H. and Duk.)

Habitat : — Kashmir.

A perennial, hoary, silky, pubescent, herbaceous plant, very aromatic. Stem erect, angular, ribbed, l-3ft. Leaves ovate or obovate, l-2in., unequally, 2-3 pinnatifidly, cut into spreading linear or lanceolate, obtuse ; segments hoary on both surfaces ; radical and lower cauline narrowed into winged petioles. Heads ⅓-¼in. diam., numerous, but hardly crowded. Flowers yellow, pedicelled, hemispheric in drooping, secund racemes terminating in branches. Ray-corolla dilated below. Outer Involucre-bracts oblong, hoary, narrowly scarious. Receptacle hairs long, straight. Anthers acuminate (not aristate). Achenes elliptic oblong, or somewhat obovoid, 1/24in. long.

Part used: — The whole herb, in the form of decoction, infusion and poultice.

Uses : — The whole herb is an aromatic tonic, and formerly enjoyed a high reputation in debility of the digestive organs. It was also regarded as an anthelmintic. Before the discovery of Cinchona, it was largely used in intermittents. It exercises a powerful influence over the nervous system, and its tendency to produce headache and other nervous disorders is well known by travellers in Kashmir and Ladâk, who suffer severely when marching through the extensive tracts of country covered with this plant (Watt's Dictionary, Vol. 1., p. 324). Pi-escribed in the form of a poultice or fomentation as an antiseptic and discutient.

It yields by distillation a dark green or yellow oil, having a strong odour of the plant and an acrid taste. In large doses it is a violent narcotic poison.

It contains a compound anabsinthin, C18H24O4 soluble in alcohol, benzene, and chloroform, but only slightly soluble in water ; this forms long, white, prismatic needles, which, when dried at 120°, melt at 258—259° ; from acetone, it separates in large and peculiar crystals. With sulphuric acid, it gives a