808 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



the stout midrib ; veins reticulate. Petiole -§-in. Pedicels short, 

 clothed with ovate acute imbricating bracts. Calyx I'oin., long, 

 glabrous outside ; lobes ovate, acute, margins ciliate. Corolla 

 |-in. diam., rotate, green without, purple within, tube very short, 

 lobes fleshy, ovate-oblong, acuminate, valvate. Follicles 4-5in. 

 Seeds Jin., ovate-oblong, flattened, black ; coma lin., pure 

 white. 



Parts used : — The root ; juice. 



Uses : — In the more southern parts of the Concan, the milky 

 juice is dropped into inflamed eyes ; it causes copious lachry- 

 mation, and afterwards a sensation of coolness in the part. The 

 root is tied up in plantain leaves and roasted in hot 

 ashes ; it is then beaten into a mass with cumin and sugar and 

 administered with ghi as a remedy in heat or inflammation of 

 the urinary passages. As a lep, the root is applied to swellings 

 ( Dymock). 



The root is prescribed usually in the form of syrup. Some- 

 times the whole plant is pounded and a congee made with rice, 

 or an infusion prepared of the dried leaves (Watt). 



Roots are officinal in the Indian Pharmacopoeia, and are 

 used as a substitute for sarsaparillla. " They are said to be 

 sweet, demulcent, alterative, diaphoretic, diuretic and tonic. 

 Useful in loss of appetite, disinclination for food, fever, skin 

 diseases, syphilis and leucorrrnBa" (Dutt's Materia Medica). 



" In chronic cough and diarrhoea, the hot infusion with milk 

 and sugar acts as an alterative and tonic, specially in children " 

 (Dr. R. L. Dutt in Watt's Dictionary). 



The aroma and taste of the drug is due to the presence of coumarin 

 which can be obtained in part by boiling the root with water. Crystals of 

 coumarin can be prepared from the residue after distillatian by drying and 

 extracting with alcohol. This is no doubt the substance obtained by Garden 

 in 1837 and called smilasperic acid, and subsequently by Scott in 1843, who 

 described it as a crystalline stearopten. 



(Pharmacographic Indica, Vol. II. p. 448). 



769. Periploca aphylla, Dene, h.f.b.i., iv. 12. 



Vern. : — Bata, barri, barrara (Pb.) ; Shabbi, barrarra (Pushtu); 

 Hum, huma (Afg.) ; Um, nuna (Bel.) ; Buraye (Sind.). 



