Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/123

Rh Vern. : — Dudiya-kulmi, Kalmilata ; llâlkalmi (Beng.) ; Gul-chandni'(Bomb.) ; Naga-mûghatei (Tam.); Mundavalli (Mal.)'; Nagara-mûkuttykai (Tel.) ; Somavel, banya bauri, chandra Kânt (H.).

Eng. : — Moon flower.

Habitat :— Cultivated throughout India, native of tropical America.

An extensive climber. Stems smooth or not, rarely muricate. Leaves cordate-ovate, acute, glabrous, entire or angular or lobed, 3-8in. Petiole 3-6in. Peduncles 2-6in. long, 1-5-flowered ; bracts caducous. Flowering sepals ovate, obtuse mucronate, or shortly acute, rarely obtuse ; in fruit unaltered, or enlarged. Corolla pure white, tube 3 by 1/5in., linear, many times longer than the sepals ; limb 3-5in. diam., with white or greenish plaits, never with at all purple. Stamens about as long as the Corolla- tube. Anthers shortly exserted or sub-included. Ovary 2-celled. Capsule one inch, ovoid-oblong, narrowed upwards ; peduncle at length somewhat thickened. Seeds ½in. long, polished, yellow, glabrous.

The flower expands at night, closes to wither about one hour after sunrise.

Uses : — The capsules and seeds, as well as the flowers, leaves and roots are included amongst the medicines supposed to have some merit as remedies against snake-bite (Ainslie).

In Brazil, the seeds of Ipomoea bonanox are largely employed against snake-bits. The seeds have the following composition : Water, 9.00 p. c. ; crystalline resin, 0.50 p. c. ; amorphous bitter substance, 0.015 p. c. ; carbohydrates, 17.28 p. c. ; tannoids, 0.81 p. c. ; fatty oil, 9.35 p. c. ; resin acids, 1.25 p. c. ; proteins, 2.70 p. c, ; organic acids, 0.095 p. c. ; ash, 5.00 p. c.

In the leaves of the plant is found a small quantity of a crystalline glucoside. [Peckolt Chemist and Druggist, 1910, quoted in J. Ch. Ind., Jan. 16, 1911, p. 46].

Vern. : — Bârikbhauri (Konkao) ; Gariya (Bomb.).

Habitat: — Himalaya, frequent. from Kangra to Sikkim, Deccan hills; cultivated elsewhere.

A scandent glabrous herb. Stems rough, with smalt tuberculous out-growths. Leaves cordate-ovate, abruptly tapering into