Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/99

Rh to diminish the fever of phthisis (Peacock)- Used for urinary affections (Roxb.).

The authors of the Pharmacogrophia Indica (vol. II p, 510) write: — "In the Dictionary of the Economic Products of India (111 p. 486), it is stated that G. Kurroo is largely exported to the plains along with the P. Kurrooa as the officinal Karu or Katki, but we have been unable to find anything like the root of a Gentian in the original parcels of that drag which arrive from the hills. We believe that all the references to this plant, as a drug in use in the plains, belong properly to Picrorhiza, and that G. Kurroo is only used in the Himalayas and northern districts of the Punjab."

The roots contain a bitter principle similar to that of the European species, it is soluble in water and alcohol, and is not thrown down by neutral acetate of lead, but is precipitated by ammoniacal acetate; and liberated from the precipitate by sulphuretted hydrogen. It can be extracted from an aqueous solution by agitation with benzine or ether but more readily by chloroform. Ferric chloride does not precipitate it nor does tannin. Sulphuric acid colours it reddish and the dilute acid decomposes it with the production of sugar. The root also contains a yellow, transparent, brittle resin, resembling mastic, in softening at the temperature of the mouth ; it is odourless and tasteless, neutral in reaction, and insoluble in alkaline liquors. The presence of this resin to the extent of nearly 20 per cent, of the dried root should at once distinguish this Gentian from other species. (Pharmacographia Indica, Vol.11, p. 510-511.)

Habitat : — Baltistan and Western Tibet, eastwards to Lahoul ; common on the Karakorum.

Stoutish herbs. Rootstock stout. Flowering stems 2-10in., simple. Radical leaves 2 by ¼-½in. ; cauline leaves l-l½in., oblong or elliptic, connate at the base into a tube. Flowers 1-2, subsessile in each upper axil, the upper 3-7 approximate, sub-capitate, the axillary clusters subremote or wanting. Calyx very unequal, often spathaceous or some of the teeth ovate, suddenly linear — pointed ; Calyx-tube ⅓in.; lobes 1/5in. but the tube is often split one side nearly to the base ; the lobes very unequal, 2-4, linear, 1-2, ovate, obtuse or obovate, with linear teeth. Corolla ¾-lin., funnel-shaped, lobes rounded. Capsule ½ by 1/6in., stalk ¼-⅓in. Seeds oblong, trigonous, falcate, twice as long as broad, subobtuse at both ends, testa close.

Uses :— A tincture prepared of this plant has been used as a stomachic by the Lahoul Missionaries (Stewart).