Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/804

724 The seeds are given boiled or made into a confection, in cases of bronchitis, especially chronic ones. (Calthrop in Watt's Dictionary).

Lettuce poultice acts as a soothing application to painful and irritable ulcers (Shircore, in Watt's Dictionary).

The juice from the incised flower-stalk of Lactuca virosa and other species, collected and dried, is known as Lactucarium. Syrup and tincture of this are used as a sedaftiva in irritable cough.

Vern. :— Titaliya (Patna) ; Dodak fPb.) ; Ratrinta (Tel.); Mhátára (Bomb.)

Habitat : — Throughout India, in fields and cultivated places (J. D. H). Common in Simla fields (Collett). Trimen observes that the plant is found as a weed in cultivated ground in Ceylon.

Annual erect, milky glabrous or sparsely glandular hispid herbs, subumbellately branched above. Stems 2-3ft. Leaves thin, lanceolate entire or pinnatifid, 3-6in., ½-amplexicaul, with acute auricles, terminal lobes large, leteral lobes pointing downwards ; sometimes only one pair ; teeth small ; basal lobes acute entire or pinnatifid. Heads ¾-1in. diam., arranged in umbellate cymes. Achenes compressed ; faces 3-ribbed and muricate between the ribs.

Uses : — According to Dr. Landry, the brownish gum formed by evaporation of the common sow thistle, when taken internally in a close of 2-4 grains, behaves as an " intensely powerful hydragogue cathartic" and acts powerfully upon the liver, duodenum and colon. In its general effects, it is said to most resemble elaterium, producing large and watery discharges, so that it has proved a valuable therapeutic agent in ascites and hydrothorax. It requires, however, great care in its administration, since it has the disadvantage of griping like senna, and producing tenesmus like aloes. To counteract this, and to " correct its fierce attacks on the mucous membrane of the intestinal tract," Dr. Landry recommends that the gum should be administered