1224 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



N. 0. GNETACE^E. 



1212. Ephedra vulgaris, Rich., h.f.b.l, v. 640. 



Vern. : — Amsania, Butshur, Chena (Pb.) Khanda, Khama 

 (Kunawar) ; Phok (Sutlej). 



Habitat: — Temperate and Alpine Himalaya and Western 

 Tibet in the drier regions, altogether 7-12,000 ft., 12-16,000 ft. in 

 Sikkim. 



A low-growing, rigid, tufted shrub, with usually a gnarled 

 stem and erect green branches which are striate and nearly 

 smooth. Bracts connate to the middle, not margined, eciliate, 

 rarely produced into minute linear leaves. Spikelets \ to \ 

 inch, subsessile, often whorled ; fruiting with often fleshy, red, 

 succulent bracts, 1 to 2 seeded. Seeds bi-convex or plano-convex. 

 (Hooker.) 



Uses : — The authors of Phurmacographia Indica write :— -" A 

 specimen of the Persian plant kindly furnished to one of us by 

 Air. K. R. Cama of Bombay, was identified at Kew as E. vulgaris. 

 Dried branches of the Huma are still brought from Persia to 

 India for use in Parsi ceremonial, and it is considered to have 

 medicinal properties. The plant was used by the ancient Arians, 

 and is probably the same as the Soma of the Vedas. * * * 

 * T. V. Biektine (Bolnitch. Gaz. Botkina, 1891, No. 19, pp. 

 473—476) has brougbt to notice the use of a decoction of the 

 stems and roots of E. vulgaris as a popular remedy for rheuma- 

 tism and syphilis in Russia, and of the juice of the berries in 

 affections of the respiratory passages. After administering the 

 decoction himself in a number of cases of rheumatism, acute and 

 chronic, he comes to the conclusion that the plant is especially 

 valuable in acute muscular and articular forms of the disease : the 

 pain is relieved, the pulse becomes less rapid and softer, and 

 the respiration easier. Within 5 or 6 days the temperature 

 becomes normal, the swelling of the joints disappears, and after 

 about 12 days' treatment the patient is cured. In several cases 

 marked diuresis was observed before or about the time that the 

 temperature began to decrease ; the drug was also observed to 

 improve the digestion and promote the action of the bowels. 

 In chronic cases the action of Ephedra was less marked, and 



