934 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Corolla of short stamened form, J-Jin. long, with longer 
filaments -jin. long, of the longer stamened form Jin., with 
filaments fin. long. Capsule Jin. long. 
Uses : — By the Hindu writers, the rooot is described as 
bitter, acrid and stomachic and in large doses a moderate 
cathartic. It is used in fever and dyspepsia in many purgative 
preparations. About two drachms of the powdered root, with 
sugar and warm water, act as a gentle aperient (Dutt). 
“From my experience of the root of P. Kurrooa, I can 
say that it is a good stomachic and very useful in almost 
all forms of dyspepsia and in nervous pain of the stomach 
and bowels. Doses, as an antiperiodic, from 20 to 40 grains, 
and as a stomachic and tonic, from 10 to 15 grains, three 
or four times a day” Moodeen Sheriff. “ If a strong de- 
coction of this drug be given three or four times a day 
and continued for three or four days in cases of dropsy, 
copious watery evacuations are discharged, and the dropsical 
effusion is relieved. In some cases the medicine must be 
continued for about a week to bring about the desired result” 
(Surg.-Maj. D. R. Thomson, m.d., c.i.e., Madras.) Watt’s 
Dictionary. 
Major F. J. Crawford, i.m.s. of Madras says : — 
“ This drug in the form of tincture was tried in several oases of 
ill-defined fever. In most it brought down the temperature, but as 
it produced some looseness of the bowels at the same time, its administra- 
tion had to be stopped. Its use, however, might be advised in cases of low 
fever accompanied by constipation. In one case of symptomatic fever 
(elephantiasis) the temperature was appreciably lowered and the bowels 
regulated, they had previously been irregular. In another case a moderate 
attack of malarial fever which had resisted home (native) remedies, this 
drug, after being administered three times in 24 hours, brought the tem- 
perature down from 101°F. to ! 9°'5 next morning, but the bowels became 
loose for a couple of days. This looseness wac. regulated by diminishing the 
frequency of the administration. In this case the fever did not return be- 
yond an evening rise to 99°F. for a week. Subsequently it came to normal 
and remained there till discharge. (Rept. Indigenous Drugs. Com. p : 36.) 
In the Second Repovt of the Indieenous Drugs Committee, p. 29 it is 
stated that 
“ The drug has already been admitted.into the Indian and Colonial Adden- 
dum of the British Pharmacopeia It is produced in the Himalaya, 
