Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/70

820 in. Seeds 1/6 in. long, ovate, flat, minutely crenate at the lower end. (Duthie).

Use. : — The flowers are officinal in the Punjab (Stewart),

In Bombay, the dry roots given in decoction are considered astringent (S. Arjun),

Syn. :— Asclepias echinata, Roxb. 256.

Sans : — Phala Kantaka, in allusion to its echinate follicles.

Vern. :— Utran, jutuk, sagovânee (H.); Trottoo, seealee, kureal (Punj.); Kharyal (Sind.) ; Chhágul-báti (B.) ; Velipparutti, uttámani (Tam.) ; Jittupáku, gurti-chettu(Tel.) ; Hálakoratige, Kuntiga; Juttiwe, Talaváranaballi. (Kan.); Utarni (Bomb); Nâgala dudheli (Guz) ; Utarani ; Utarandi (Mar).

Habitat: — Throughout India, from the Salt Range and the N.-W. Himalaya to Lower Bengal and Ceylon.

A perennial fœtid herb. Stems twining, more or less hispid, with short spreading hair and minute prickles. Leaves 2-4in., and nearly as broad, deeply cordate at base, with rounded lobes, acute, slightly hairy on both sides, ciliate, thin. Flowers pale-green, in long slender, pubescent pedicels. Cymes at first corymbose, afterwards racemose, peduncles coming off from between the bases of petioles, much longer than leaves. Bracts linear, acute. Sepals lanceolate, acute, slightly ciliate. Corolla nearly ¾in. diam., lobes acute, hairy above, ciliate, concave, spreading. Follicles 2-2½in., reflexed, long-beaked ; spines long, soft (Trimen). Seeds ¼in. long, broadly ovate, pubescent, margin quite entire (J. D. Hooker).

Uses : — In Southern India, a decoction of the leaves is given to children as an anthelmintic ; and their juice in asthma, and, combined with lime, in rheumatism (Ainslie).

In Western India, the plant has a general reputation as an expectorant and emetic. In Goa, the juice of the leaves is applied to rheumatic swellings (Dymock).

Dr. Oswald states that it is used as an expectorant in the