Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/801

Rh lobes acute, more or less denticulate. Heads solitary. Involucre campanulate. Inner Involucre-bracts erect, often thickened or clawed at the tip ; outer ovate or linear, appressed, more or less recurved. Achenes narrowly obovoid, ribbed. Ribs muricate or echinate, above the middle, contracted into a very slender beak, equalling or exceeding the body. According to Hooker, it is one of the most variable of the order.

Uses : — The root is officinal, being alterative, tonic and cholagogue. It is useful in dyspepsia, chronic hepatic affections, especially in torpor and congestion of the liver, and in jaundice and chronic cutaneous diseases (Pharm. Ind.) It is tonic, aperient and diuretic, and is said to have an almost specific action on the liver, by modifying and increasing its secretion. The dried root, when powdered, is frequently used, mixed with coffee. When roasted and powdered, it has been used as a substitute for coffee (Bentley and Trimen).

A decoction of the roots and leaves is employed in chronic disorders of the liver.

"In Holland, the extract of Dandelion is a common remedy for the intermittent fevers and agues, so prevalent in that marshy country. The roots are taken up about Midsummer, and those only of some year's growth are esteemed valuable, as the active principle they contain increases with age ; this principle is called Taraxacin. In Germany, the roots are cut into pieces, roasted, and used as a substitute for coffee. In this country, Dandelion coffee is sometimes used for medicinal purposes, * *

" Dr. Withering tells us that the diuretic properties of this plant are very certain, and well known to all country people. When a swarm of locusts had destroyed the harvest in the island of Minorca, many of the inhabitants subsisted on this plant. The expressed juice has been given to the quantity of four ounces, three or four times a day ; and Boer have had a great opinion of its utility in visceral obstructions. The roots contain gum and sugar, and a large quantity of inulin, a substance analogous to starch. A kind of beer is obtained by the fermentation of the plant in Canada."— Sowerby's English Botany, Vol. V. p. 145.

Syn. — Prenauthes racemosa, Roxb. 594.

The common garden Lettuce, cultivated throughout India.

Vern. : — Undirá-chá-kán (Mar).