490 



PLANTAGINEJ2. 



Uses — The flowering tops and dried leaves are kept by the herbalists, 



The volatile oil is employed as 



but are not used in regular medicine 



an external stimulant in liniments, and also as a perfume. Eosemai 

 popularly supposed to promote the growth of the hair. 



'V IS 



PLANTAGINE^. 



SEMEN ISPAGHULiE. 



Ispagh'iil Seeds, Spoyel Seeds. 



Botanical Origin — Phmtago decnniheiis Forsk. (P. IspaglmU 

 Roxb.)/ a plant of variable aspect, from an inch to a foot in height, 

 erect or decumbent, with linear lanceolate leaves which may be nearly 



The flower-spikes differ ac- 



glabrous, or covered with shaggy hairs. 



to the luxuriance of the plant, being in some specimens 



cording 



cylindrical and IJ- inches long, in others reduced to a globular head. 

 Tlie plant has a wide range, occurring in the Canary Islands, Egypt, 

 Arabia, Beluchistan, Afghanistan, and North-western India. Stewart" 

 says it is common in the Peshawar valley and Trans-Indus generally up 

 to 2000 feet ; also on the plains and lower hills of the Punjab, but that 

 he has never seen it cultivated in the latter region. It is said to be 

 cultivated at Multan and Lahore, also in Bengal and Mysore. 



History — The seeds which are found in all the bazaars of India and 

 are held in great esteem, are generally designated by the Persian word 

 Ispagldd; but they also bear the Arabic name Bazve-qatund,\xTiA^x which 

 we find them mentioned by the Persian physician Alhervi^ in the 10th 

 centuiy, and about the same period or a little later by Avicenna. 

 Several otlier Oriental writers are quoted by Ibn Bay tar ' as referring to 

 a drug of the same name, which may possibly have included the seeds 

 of other species, as Plantago Psyllium L. and P. Cgnops, having similar 

 properties, and known to have been used from an eaily period. 



J- H. Linck, whom we mentioned in our article on Oleum Cajuputi 



4 





in 



(p. 278), described in 1719 the seed under notice, yet without knowm.. 

 its name ; it further attracted the notice of Europeans towards the close 

 of the iast century ,« and lias been often prescribed as a demulcent '" 

 dysentery and diarrhoea. It was admitted to the PharmacopceM 

 India of 18G8. 



Description— The seeds, like those of other species of P/«^^^«^'^''"] 

 of boat-shaped form, the albumen being deeply furrowed on one side an 

 vaulted on the other. They are a little over yV of an inch m lengt> 

 and nearly half as broad, and so light that 100 weigh scarcely thie 



^ After the examination of numcrons 

 specimens, we adupt the course taken by 

 Ur. Aitchison [Calalo<jua of the. PlanU of 

 the, Punjab and Sindh, Loud. 18G9) of unit- 

 ing I . hpa;/hula to P. decumhtm. The 

 nmon of species in tliis group may pro- 

 Ixibly be carried still further.-For a tiji. 



^ Punjab Plants, Lahore 1S69. 174- al^o 



MS. note attached to specimens in HeD- 



1564. i. 357.) . ,,oin\ !•?•' 



« Sontheinier's transl. i. (J^'^^'.J ^'pUniU 

 « Fleming, Catal. of ImhanM'-^i- 



and lJrwj-% Calcutta. 1810. Ai. 



