690 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
proper, that is, “ margined, scabrid, pappus usually of 1-2 
bristles.” 
Uses : — The whole plaint is very acrid, but the flower-heads are 
especially so, having a hot, burning taste, which causes profuse 
salivation. It is on this account that the plant has been named 
Akalkhura by the gardeners. This is a popular remedy for 
children who stammer. The flower-heads are sometimes chewed 
to relieve toothache (Dymock). 
It is considered by the natives a powerful stimulant and 
sialogogue, and is used in headaches, paralysis of the tongue, 
affections of the throat and gums, and for tooth-ache. 
Pyrethrin is obtained from this plant. It is resolved by alcoholic potash 
into pyrethric acid and piperidine. 
653. Guizotia abyssinica, Cass, h.f.b.i., hi. 308. 
Syn. : — Verbesina sativa, Roxb. 606. 
Habitat A native of Tropical Africa, cultivated in various 
parts of India. 
Vern. : — Ramtil ; Kalatil (H. B. and Bomb.) ; Valesulti (Tel); 
Karmadoo (Mysore). 
A stout, erect annual, smooth or scabrid, pubescent upwards. 
Leaves 3-5in., sessile, half-amplexicaul, linear, ovate-lanceolate, 
lanceolate-oblong, or subcordate, serrate, obtuse. Heads J-lin. 
diam., peduncles naked, l-2in. Involucral bracts 5 ; outer 
broadly elliptic or ovate, obtuse, green ; ligules few, broad. 
Achenes dorsally pressed, glabrous, tip rounded, yielding a 
bland oil. 
Use : — The oil is sweet, and may be used for the same 
pharmaceutical purposes as sesamum oil (Dymock). 
The achenes contain from 40 to 45 per cent, of a yellow sweet oil. According 
to Leather seeds from cultivated Indian plants yield on an average 40 per cent, 
of oil. The oil is used in soap-making and as a substitute for linseed oil ; 
in India it is occasionally employed as a substitute for ghee. 
Crossley and Le Sueur in 1898 examined four samples of East Indian oil : 
Specific gravity at I5‘5", 0 9248— 0'9263 ; solidifies below zero ; saponification 
value, 188 9— 192‘2 ; iodine value, I26'6— 183-8 | Reiehert-Meissl value, O'll — 
0'63 ; Maumene test, 81° ; butyro refractometer, 63° at 40°. Fatty scids and 
unsaponifiable, per cent. 94 - ll ; iodine value, 147'5. The oil has slight siccative 
powers and gained 7'2 per cent, in weight in fifteen days. 
