Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/793

Rh glabrate beneath, irregularly toothed. Radical leaves, with the petioles 2-3ft. long, terminal lobes often a foot in diameter ; cauline leaves 6-1 2in. long, with a short petiole, or sessile, with an auricled ½-amplexicaul base. Heads very hard, subglobose, 1-1½in. diam., sessile axillary, or in a terminal cluster of 2-5. Involucre-bracts numerous, purple, young, pubescent, ovate lanceolate, acuminate, rigid, squarrosely recurved, glabrous. Receptacle bristles very long, ⅔in. Corolla dark-purple, ¾in. long. Anther-tails fimbriate. Achenes upwards of ⅓in., com- pressed, curved with thickened margins and one rib on each face, top contracted and cupped, tip narrowed. Pappus hairs double, all feathery, ⅔in., brown.

Supposed to be the Costus of the Ancients (J. D, Hooker).

Uses : — Kust has been used in Hindu medicine from the earliest ages. It is said to be aphrodisiac and tonic, and useful in diseases arising from deranged air and phlegm, also in asthma and for resolving tumours (Meer Muhammad Husain). It was formerly smoked as a substitute for opium. U. C. Dutt, in his Hindu Materia Medica, states that the " root is described as aromatic, stimulant and useful in cough, asthma, fever, dyspepsia, and skin diseases. Mr. Baden-Powell gives an interesting summary of the uses of kust ; the dried powder is the principal ingredient in a stimulating ointment for ulcers ; it is a useful hair-wash ; it is used as an ingredient in a stimulating mixture for cholera ; the root is a valuable perfume and is a preservative to woollen cloths.

By the native practitioners it is prescribed as a stomachic and tonic, and in the advanced stage of typhus fever. In the Punjab, applied in powder, to ulcers, for worms in wounds, and also in rheumatism ; also considered depurative and aphrodisiac (Murray, 185).

Vern.: — Dhup, dhúpa, gúgal (Pb.).

Habitat: — Western Himalaya, from Kashmir to Kumaon.,

Stemless. Root woody, perennial. Leaves spreading, 6-18 by 1½-7in., oblong-lanceolate, pinnate or pinnatifid, denticulate,