1006 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Habitat : — From the Himalaya, east of the Sutlej to Ceylon ; 

 frequent ; very common in Bengal, also in Than a and Ratnagiri 

 Districts. 



A handsome shrub. Stem 4-8 ft. slightly branched, quad- 

 rangular. Bark yellow. Rootstock woody thick, perennial 

 annually shooting up fresh herbaceous stems. Youngest shoots 

 and inflorescence pubescent, (Brandis) Young parts glabrous, 

 says Trimen from Ceylon. Leaves large 4-8 in., passing 

 bracts above, oval ovate-oval acute at both ends, very coarsely 

 and sharply serrate, glabrous, petiole very short stout. 

 Flowers large on short stout compressed, pubescent, de- 

 flexed pedicels. Cymes numerous, lax, pubescent, dicho- 

 tomous, with a pair of acute bracts at each branching and 

 a flower in the fork, each in axil of a large leafy bract, and 

 collectively forming a long, lax, terminal erect panicle 6-10in. 

 long. Calyx -J-in. long, cup-shaped, puberulous, segments very 

 short broadly triangular, ciliolate. Corolla- tube short, i-fim, 

 somewhat inflated, oblique at mouth, upper and lateral lobes 

 •|in., broadly oval, flat, spreading, lowest one (lip) ^in. long, 

 very concave deflexed ; filaments much curved, hairy at base. 

 Fruit a drupe about Jin. long, depressed, somewhat succulent, 

 normally 4-lobed, with a pyrene in each lobe (1-3 often suppress- 

 ed). The leaves have a faint scent. Corolla with posterior and 

 lateral lobes pale-blue, anterior one dark bluish-purplish 

 (Trimen). Fruit purple black (C. B. Clarke). Flowers bluish 

 white, fruit black (KanjilaL. 



Uses : — The root is used by natives in febrile and catarrhal 

 affections (Ph. Ind.l It is said to be good in malarial fevers 

 by the people of Ratnagiri where the tender leaves are eaten 

 also as vegetable by the power classes of Hindus (K.R. Kirtikar). 



Leaves boiled with oil and butter made into an ointment 

 useful in cephalalgia and ophthalmia. The seeds bruised and 

 boiled in butter milk used as aperient and in dropsy (Drury). 



The authors of the Pharmacographia Indiea write : — 



" From enquiries we have made there is no doubt that this plant is largely 



used in many parts of India as a substitute for Premna herbacea, the true 



Gantu Bharangi, but if we regard the root of 0. serratum as the true 



Bharangi, and the root of P. herbacea as the Gantu (or knotted Bharangi,) 



