354 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
truncate at tap, winged at the angles, valves papery, veiny, 
finely pubescent. Seeds |-| in., globular, glabrous, black, tlie 
aril heart-shaped, white. 
Paris used : — The roots, leaves and seeds. 
Uses : — The Sanskrit writers describe the root as emetic, 
laxative, stomachic and rubefacient. Combined with other medi- 
cines, they prescribe it in rheumatism, nervous diseases, piles 
&c. The fried leaves are said to bring on the secretion of 
the menses (Dutt). The seeds are officinal ; and the root is 
considered by the native practitioners diaphoretic, diuretic and 
aperient. It is mucilaginous, and imparts this property to water, 
rendering it nauseous, and is thus administered in fevers. 
Rheede says that on the Malabar Coast the leaves are adminis- 
tered in pulmonic complaints. According to Ainslie, the leaves 
mixed with castor oil, are employed internally in rheumatism 
and lumbago. 
The whole plant rubbed up with water is applied to rheum- 
atism and stiffness of the limbs. The leaves, mixed with 
jaggery, and boiled in oil, is a good specific in sore-eyes 
(Rueede). 
The whole plant, steeped in milk, is successfully applied to 
reduce swellings and hardened tumours (Drury). 
In the Punjab, the seed is used as a tonic in fever, and a 
diaphoretic in rheumatism (Baden Powell). 
The juice of the plant promotes the catamenial flow during 
the menstrual period. It is also a demulcent in gonorrhoea and 
in pulmonary affections (Baden Powell). 
The Hindu practitioners in South India, especially those in 
villages, frequently employ the leaves and root of G. helicaea- 
hum in the treatment of several diseases, including rheumatism, 
gravel and calculi ; but I have only seen the juice of the leaves, 
in about three-ounce doses, producing a good and satisfactory 
result in two cases of acute rheumatism. In each of these 
cases, the drug acted upon the bowels and produced four or 
five loose motions, but the relief it afforded to the pain and 
other symptoms of rheumatism was distinctly more than that 
