Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/83

Rh glabrous above, slightly pubescent beneath. Flowers yellowish or greenish white, $3⁄4$ in. diam., small in dense axillary panicles. Sepals ovate or oblong, revolute, puberulous, $1⁄5$ - $1⁄4$ in., margins tomentose. Filaments narrow-linear. Achenes hairy, lanceolate, Style $1 1⁄2$ - 2 in. long, narrow oblong, in fruit very slender, hairy.

Medicinal Properties and Uses:— The leaves of the fresh stems, if bruised and applied to the skin, cause vesication. They abound in an acrid poisonous principle. . ii. 369.

4. Anemone obtusiloba, Don., I. 8.

''Syn. Anemone discolor, Royle.''

Vern.:—Rattanjog, Padar (Pb.). Kakriya (Kumaon).

Habitat:—Temperate and Alpine Himalaya, from Kashmir to Sikkim; altitude 9-15,000 ft.

A perennial herb, densely tufted, glabrate, or softly hairy.

Rootstock woody, fibrous, clothed with old root-sheaths. Radical leaves, many stalked, suborbicular, deeply cordate; Segments broad, cuneate, variously cut and lobed, rarely shortly petiolate. Scapes 6-12 in., 1-3—flowered; invol. leaves 3-fid. Flowers white purplish or golden; pedicels long, slender. Sepals silky outside, generally lead-coloured near the claw. Achenes strigose, rarely glabrous. Very variable in size, hairiness and colour of flower.

Parts used:—The root and seeds.

Medicinal Properties and Uses:—In Hazara the pounded root, which is acrid, is mixed with milk and given internally for contusions. In Bessahir it is said to be used as a blister, but to be apt to produce sores and scars. The seeds, if given internally, produce vomiting and purging. The oil extracted from them is used in rheumatism. .

Anemonin is found in this plant.—It occurs in many of the Ranunculaceæ; it is a toxic substance, and produces paralysis of the central nervous system. The compound has the formula C15 H12 O6, and is deposited in rhombic crystals melting at 152°. It is volatile with steam, and, on exposure to air at ordinary temperatures, is slowly converted into anemonic acid; the oxidation