86 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
69 . Fumaria parviflora, Lamk. h.f.b.i., i . 128 . 
Syn. : — F. officinalis, Bedd. 
( Sanskrit ) Parpat. 
Vern.: — PitpSpada, (Hind. Dec.); Ban-sulpha ( Beng.) ; 
Pittapapado (Guj.); Khasudlio (Dr. Shah) ; Kshetra Parputi 
(Hindi); Shahatara, Shatra (Pers., Sind.); Tura (Tam.); Cha- 
tarashi (Tel.) Khairuwa (Kumaon.) 
Habitat: — Tndo-Gangetic plain, lower Himalaya and Nilghiri 
Mts. : a weed of cultivation. Guj rat and the Konkan. 
An annual glabrous herb, pale green, much-branched. 
Stem diffuse, 4-24 in. Rootstock usually perennial. Leaves 
pinnately divided ; leaflets deeply-lobed ; segments very narrow, 
flat, lobed or entire. Flower pale pink or white, tips purple, |-y 
in. long, in numerous, short racemes, 1-2 in.; bracts lanceolate, 
outer petals dissimilar, upper one broad, concave, produced at the 
base, in a short rounded spur, less than y the length of the petal ; 
lower one flat, narrow. Inner petals narrow, clawed, keeled 
(Collett). Sepals lanceolate, much smaller than the coronal-tube. 
Pedicels exceeding the bracts. Lower set of stamens spurred at 
the base, the spur projecting inside the petal-spur. Fruit, a very 
small globose, 1-seeded nutlet, rugose, when dry, rounded at the 
top, with two pits. 
Pittapapada is found as a weed, usually cultivated in fields 
in the Dekkan, the Konkan and Sindh. Described by Dalzell 
and by Woodrow. It has been found by Jaya Krishna Indraji 
at Porebunder. 
Part used : — The entire plant, ex ept the root. 
Uses: — The dried plant is regarded as efficacious in low 
fever, and is also used as an anthelmintic, diuretic, diaphoretic 
and aperient, and to purify the blood in skin diseases. (Baden- 
Powell). 
Along with black pepper, it is used in the treatment of ague. 
(Royle). Mahomedan writers describe the plant as diuretic and 
alterative, aperient and expectorant. (Dymock.) 
It has been prescribed by Dr. T. M. Shah of Junagadh 
usefully a6 a tonic in Dyspepsia and in mild fever. 
