Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/101

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Syn :—Gentiana Chirayta, Roxb. 264. Ophelia Chirata, Griseb.

Vern. :—Charayatah (Hind. and Dec.); Qasabuzzarirah (Arab. and Pers.) ; Shiratkuchchi, nila-vémbu (Tam.); Níla vém (Tel.) ; Nila-véppa (Mal.); Nela-bevu (Kan.); Kiratatikta bhunimba(Sans.); Chirétá (Beng.); Kiráyat (Mr.); Chiravata (Guz.); Sekhági (Burm.); Chiráita, kiráíta (Bom.).

Habitat :—Temperate Himalaya, from Kashmir to Bhotan and Khasia Mts.

Perennial herbs. Stem 2-dft., 4-lineolate or subterete.Leaves 2 by ¾in., the lower often much larger sometimes petioled. Cauline leaves subsessile, elliptic acute, 5-nerved. Panicles many-fid, large, leafy. Pedicies 0-¾in., fascicled, mostly short. Flowers 4-merous. Calyx-lobes 1/6in., lanceolate. Corolla lurid-green, yellow near the base of each lobe, 2 glandular depressions,each terminated by long hairs. Corolla-lobes ¼in., ovate, acuminate, more or less purple-nerved. Filaments linear, free. Anthers oblong. Style cylindric. Stigma oblong. Capsule ¼in., and upwards, ovate, acute; seeds 1/50in., polyhedral, smooth, testa close, not reticulated.

Uses:—The medicinal herb, as met with in the bazars, consists of bundles of dried twigs of brownish colour, “ and very bitter, but pleasant taste. The whole plant is used medicinally, but the root is said to be the most powerful. The natives consider it as tonic, stomachic and febrifuge, and prescribe a decoction or infusion of it, in the quantity of a small tea-cupful, twice daily” (Ainslie, Mat. Med. II., p. 373). Drury says it should not be taken as a decoction, but in infusion or watery extract or asa tincture. The boiling would, according to some others, injure the strength of the drug. Chiretta is much prized in India as a powerful tonic, pure bitter, without aroma or astringency. It is more bitter than English Gentian, and, while little used in Europe, it is reported to be especially serviceable in the dyspepsia of gouty subjects (Bentely & Trimen). The Sanskrit name Kiratatikta means “the bitter plant of the Kiratas, an outcast race of the mountaineers in