INSK<TK'IDE AM) \ XTISKI'TK ' 



ADHATODA 



VASICA 



"Ba.Bu.nti 



i:,-,l u 1 (., .annually .-ailed Rod Sandal-wood or C.-ral \V. -,!), the rukla 



clmn, rnkta kmnlml. runinmi, mandakaich, tjiorlagunj, val, bari-gumchi, etc., etc. 

 S.imetiincs incorrectly called rakta-chandan (lfcror-/ii mintaHnux). A large 

 us ire,- met \\ith in the in< lint forests of Bengal, Assam, Bombay, Madras 

 ami Hurma, and readily propagated by seed. A GUM (madatia) is said to be Gum. 

 Led l>y it. The wood is powdered and used as a DYE, and is the red paste Dye. 



with wliirh the Brahmans colour their foreheads after bathing. Taylor 

 (Topog. Stat. Dacca, 1840, 63) says a decoction of both the seeds and wood is used 

 in pulmonary affections, and as an external application in chronic ophthalmia. 

 Thi> TIMUKR is much employed for house-building and cabinet-making. The 

 seeds, which are sometimes oaten, aro bright red and therefore used for 

 lea and as weights (almut 4 Bruins). Ground to a paste with borax they 

 form a useful cement. 



Timber. 



ADHATODA VASICA, \ers : Fl. Br. Ind., iv., 540; ACAN- D.E.P., 

 THACEJE. The arusa, aduhit, Iml-as, vasa, basunti, rus, adhatodi, maya, etc. * 108 10 - 

 A sub-herbaceous bush, found throughout the warmer tracts of India up 

 to altitudes of 4,000 feet, and usually very abundant on the Sub- 

 Himalayan i i acts but much less common in Western and Southern 

 than in Eastern India. Gregarious and found in large patches, but 

 where it does not grow as a weed it is often semi-cultivated in hedgerows, 

 and under these latter circumstances often attains the proportions of 

 a large bush. 



Hooper (Handbook Imp. Inst., 1897, ser. No. 10) incorporates all the in- 

 formation available up to that date and should be consulted. Subsequent 

 investigation has mainly consisted in careful therapeutic tests, with the object 

 of ascertaining the MEDICINAL value of the plant. The results of the inquiries Medicine, 

 will be found in the Report of the Indigenous Drugs Committee of India (i., 38, 

 68, 183, ' 385-418, 497). It may be observed here that the verdicts of recent 

 trials in Indian hospitals may bo said to confirm belief in the plant as affording 

 relief in chronic bronchitis and asthma, but to preclude acceptance of its reputed 

 virtue in cases of phthisis. The medicinal properties of this plant are mentioned 

 in The Bower Manuscript, recently translated by Dr. Hoernle. It is there 

 called vrisha (85, etc.). 



The leaves are sometimes boiled with the sawdust of jack- wood to make a 

 yellow DYE. They seem to be most frequently employed, however, as or with Dye. 

 MANURE, being either put on to the fields just before the rains and ploughed 

 in, or scattered over rice-fields recently flooded. It does not seem established 

 whether this agricultural utilisation is as a preventive against noxious insects (see 

 below), or in recognition of the quantity of potash which they contain. At all 

 events it is one of the principal plants employed in India for the preparation of 

 pearl-ash. It appears also to be used not infrequently for gunpowder CHARCOAL, Domestic, 

 and in Bengal the wood is turned into BEADS. In the Naga hills the stems are 

 used in a kind of augury. 



Considerable difference of opinion prevails regarding the use of Artiuttntia as 

 an insecticide arid antiseptic. In The Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society Insecticide. 

 (April 7, 1888), Hooper announced that ho had discovered the active principle 

 of the plant to be an alkaloid, which he called vasicine, but seven years later 

 Prof. Giacosa of Turin (at the instance of Sir Lauder Brunton) threw some doubt 

 on this discovery, by stating that though he had found the leaves rich in 

 potassium nitrate (and therefore a valuable green manure), he had found no Manure, 

 alkaloid. In 1897, however, Hooper's discovery was fully confirmed by Dr. W. G. 

 Boorsma of Java, who added interesting suggestions as to the use of vasicine 

 both as a drug and as an insecticide. Although the insecticide property would 

 thus seem established, it has been found by practical experiment that vasicine 

 cannot be used, as at present available. A tartrate is in the market, but cheaper 

 and equally efficacious insecticides already exist. The use of the leaves, both 

 as a green manure and as a poison to pests, especially on inundated ground 

 (originally pointed out by me in 1887), might with advantage be further in- 

 vestigated and recommended to culti vators in localities where the plant abounds. 

 [Cf. Taleef Shereef (Playfair, transl.), 1833, 12; Voelcker, Improv. Ind. Agri., 

 1893, 107.] 



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