438 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
densely covered with shining, silvery, adpressed hair beneath ; 
flowers dull, dark-purple, the keel yellowish-green, numerous, 
lj-l-fin. long, on short pubescent pedicels, usually two or three 
together at intervals, on a slender pubescent raceme 6-12in. long. 
Bracts fin., lanceolate, hairy, soon falling. Calyx densely silky, 
2 upper segments completely connate ; lower much longest. 
Pod 2f-3in. by about fin. broad, linear, blunt, falcately curved 
at both ends, a longitudinal rib along whole length of each 
valve, but without wings, densely covered with close, rather 
weak, orange-brown, irritant bristles, pointing backward and 
readily detached, 4-fi-seeded, with partitions between them. 
Seed ovoid, pin., compressed, brownish, mottled with blacky 
hilum oblong, not half the length of seed. 
Parts used . — The seeds, root and legume. 
Use . — According to Susruta, the seeds are aphrodisiac ; the 
root is tonic and useful in nervine diseases (Dutt). 
Ainslie says that a strong infusion of the root, mixed with 
honey, is prescribed by the Tamool doctors in cholera. 
The use of the hairs of the mucuna pod as a vermifuge to 
expel ascarides appears to have-originated in the West Indies, no 
mention of such an employment of them being found in Indian 
works (Dymock). 
The pods are offleinal in the Indian Pharmacopoeia, to be 
used as an anthelmintic. 
In the West Indies, a decoction of the root is reckoned a 
powerful diuretic and cleanser of the kidneys, and also made 
into an ointment for elephantiasis. Leaves are applied to 
ulcers. A vinous infusion of the pods is said to be a certain 
remedy for dropsy (Drury). 
The root is prescribed as a remedy for delirium in -fever in 
Chutia Nagpur. Powdered and made into a paste, it is applied 
to the body in dropsy, a piece of the root being also tied to the 
wrist and ankle. The seed is believed to absorb scorpion- 
pioson when applied to the part stung (Revd. A. Campbell). 
An ointment prepared with the hairs acts externally as a 
local stimulant and wild vesicant. (Watt.) 
