Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/115

Rh Uses : — Both H. strigosum and H. brevifolium are laxative and diuretic, their juice is used as an application to sore-eyes, gurn-boils and sores generally, to promote suppuration, and as a cure for the sting of nettles and insects

Sans. : — Hatisunadá, srihastini, bhurundi.

Vern : -Hatta-jurie, hatta-súra, siriari (H.) ; Hátisurá (Uriya and B.); Chappu-tattu (C. P.); Bhurundi (Mar.); Háthi-Sundhâna (Guz) Tet-Kodduki (Tam). Telu-munnie, Nagadanti (Tel); Tel-Kotukka, Teliyanni (Mal).

Habitat : — Throughout India ; very common in the moister parts.

A coarse, diffuse, hairy annual, ½-2 ft. high. Stem stout and somewhat succulent but woody at the base ; branches ascending, clothed with stiff spreading hairs. Leaves alternate or sub-opposite, petioled, 1-4 in. long, ovate or ovate-oblong, obtuse or subacute, sparsely hairy above, minutely pilose beneath, margins undulate or subserrate, base rounded or cordate or decurrent into the petiole, nerves prominent beneath. Spikes 2-6 in. long, usually extra- axillary, simple or forked, ebracteate hispid. Flowers pale-violet, sessile, 2-ranked. Calyx 5-partite, 1/10in. long, sparsely bristly outside ; segments unequal, narrowly lanceolate, acute. Corolla funnel-shaped, 1/5 in. long, hairy outside, tube slender, cylindric, slightly dilated at the base ; lobes very small, rounded, reflexed, Stigma shorter than the style, with an annular frill at the base ; apex short, obtuse. Fruit 1/6 in. long, deeply 2-lobed, each lobe bluntly 4-ribbed, containing 2 angular beaked 1-Seed seeded pyrenes, each with an empty cavity on the inner side. White, subquadrate. (Duthie).

Uses :— The leaves of this widely-distributed plant are held in esteem in various parts of the world as an external application to ulcers, wounds and local inflammations. Their action is probably only that of an emollient. Diuretic properties are also assigned to the plant (Ph. Ind.).