1350 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Habitat : — Cultivated in damp, marshy places in India ; 

 exceedingly common in Manipur and Naga Hills. 



An aromatic marsh herb. Root-stock creeping, very aroma- 

 tic and branching, as thick as the middle finger. Leaves with 

 a stout mid-rib, 3-6in. by f-ljin., bright-green, acute, thick- 

 ened in the middle, margins waved. Spathe 6-30in. long, 

 pedicel (formed often connate pedicels and spathe) lj-l^in. 

 broad. Peduncle i-fin. broad, leaf-like. Spadix 2-4in. 

 by i-fin. diam. obtuse, slightly curved, green. Sepals as long 

 as the ovary, scarious. Anthers yellow. Fruit turbinate, pris- 

 matic, top pyramidal. 



Uses : — The aromatic rhizome or root-stock is considered 

 emetic in large doses, and stomachic and carminative in smaller 

 doses. (U. C. Dutt.) It is a simple useful remedy for flatu- 

 lence, colic, or dyspepsia, and a pleasant adjunct to tonic or 

 purgative medicines. It is also used in remittent fevers and 

 ague by the native doctors, and is held in high esteem 

 as an insectifuge, especially for fleas. In Voigt's Hortus Subur- 

 banus Calcuttensis occurs the following (taken from Thomson's 

 Mat. Med.) : " The root has been employed in medicine since 

 the time of Hippocrates. By the moderns it is successfully 

 used in intermittent fevers, even after bark has failed, and it is 

 certainly a very useful addition to Cinchona. It is also a useful 

 adjunct to bitter and stomachic infusions." It is also much 

 valued by the Manipuris, especially in the treatment of coughs 

 or sore-throats. For this purpose a small piece is chewed for a 

 few minutes. It contains a bitter principle, acorine and an 

 alkaloid calamine, useful in dysentery (I. M. G. 1875, p. 39.) 



The root used by the free Indians of Hudson's Bay territory 

 in coughs. Mr. Holmes remarks that " it is not a little singular 

 that there is hardly a country where this plant grows that the 

 rhizome is not used in medicine. (Ph. J. Oct. 18, 1884, p. 302.) 



" In Meerut the rhizome, with bhang and ajowain in equal 

 parts, is powdered and used as a fumigation in painful piles." 

 (Surg.-Maj. W. Moir and Asst. Surg. T. N. Ghose, Meerut.) 

 " I found the root extremely useful in the dysentery of children, 

 and also in bronchitic affections— vide Ind. Med. Gaz. for 



