890 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANT8. 
According to the authors of the Pharmncographia Indlca the Sanskrit 
names are probably applicable to this as well as the next species (S. dulca- 
mara) ; whilst the vernacular names with the exception, perhaps of the 
Hindi, are only applicable perhaps to S. nigrum. 
Habitat : — Common throughout India. 
An erect nearly glabrous annual with much branched and 
somewhat angular stems. Leaves petioled, l-3fin. long, ovate 
or oblong, sinuate-toothed or lobed, petioles about fin. long. 
Flowers small, drooping, subumbellate on rather stout extra- 
axillary peduncles f-fin. long ; pedicels 5-8, slender, fin. loDg. 
Calyx fin. long, 5-toothed, glabrous or sparsely puberulous ; 
teeth small, oblong, obtuse. Corolla white, rarely purple, fin. 
in diam., divided to below the middle into 5 oblong subacute 
lobes, glabrous outside. Filaments hairy at the base. Ovary 
globose, glabrous, style hairy towards the base. Berry fin. 
in diam., supported by the saucer-shaped calyx, black, less often 
red or yellow, smooth and shining. Seeds yellow, minutely 
pitted. (Duthie.) 
Use : — In Hindu medicine, the berries of this plant are 
considered tonic, diuretic and useful in anasarca and heart 
diseases (U. C. Dutt.) 
In Bengal, the berries are employed in fever, diarrhoea, eye 
diseases, hydrophobia, &c. (T. N. Mukerji). 
In the U. P., the juice is used in blood-spitting, piles, 
dysentery, &c. 
In Bombay, the juice is given in doses of six to eight ounces 
in the treatment of chronic enlargement of liver, and is con- 
sidered a valuable alterative (Dymock). 
The juice acts as a hydragogue, cathartic and diuretic (Dy- 
mock). The syrup acts as an expectorant and diaphoretic (S. 
Arjun). 
A syrup prepared from thh plant is used as a cooling drink 
in fevers (S. Arjun). The Chinese employ the juice of the 
leaves to alleviate the pain in inflammation of the kidneys and 
bladder and in virulent gonorrhoea (Rumphius.) 
Dr. Moodeen Sheriff reports having used with advantage a 
