960 
INDIAN MKD1C1NAL PLANTS. 
Use : — The pounded leaves are rubbed on the body during 
the cold stage of intermittent fever (Watt). 
919. Blepharis edulis, Pers. h.f.b.i., iv. 479. 
Vern. : — Uttangan (Pb.); Utanjan(H ) ; Utangan (Bomb.). 
Habitat ; — Punjab and Sindh. 
A rigid shrub. Stems short or 1ft. or more ; branched. 
Leaves often Jiii. broad, spinescent, elliptic or oblong, glaucous 
or pubescent. Bracts more than an inch long, spinous. Brac- 
teole6 linear, hairy, shorter than the bract. Heads few or many- 
fid. Corolla f-fin. Capsule 2-seeded. Seeds heart-shaped, flat, 
covered with long, coarse hairs. 
Use : — Dr. Royle was the first to bring the seeds of the plant 
to the notice of the medical profession. He considered them to be 
the products of some Urtica. Honnigberger had these seeds 
examined by some botanists of Vienna who deemed them to 
belong to Acanthacea. Dr. Burton Brown of Lahore succeeded 
in correctly identifying these seeds as those of Acanthodium 
spicatum, Delrle , which is a synonym of this plant. (B. D. Basu). 
The seeds are considered to be attenuant, resolvent, diuretic, 
aphrodisiac, expectorant, and deobstruent (Dymock). 
Chemical composition.— The bitter principle of the seeds is a white crys- 
talline body soluble in water, amylic and ethyllc alcohol, but insoluble in 
ether and petroleum ether. It gives a reddish colour with sulphuric acid, 
green at the margin if impure, and is best distinguished by the fine violet 
colour its solutions impart when brought into contact with ferric salts. With 
II ’SO" and K’Cr’O' an agreeable odour of salicylous acid is evolved. It is 
associated with a substance which reduces Fehling’s solution. Another 
white crystalline principle is present in the seeds which is not bitter, and 
does not give colour reactions with sulphuric acid and ferric salts. The 
latter crystals melted on the surface of heated mercury at 225”. The aqueous 
extract of the seeds contained much mucilage and vegetable albumen. The 
asb amounted to 7‘1 per cent. (Pharma cogr. lnd., III. 41-42). 
920. Acanthus ilicifolius, Linn, h.f.b.i., if. 48i ; 
Eoxb. 467. 
Sans Harikasa. 
Vern. : — Harkuchkanta (H. and B. ) ; Marandi (Mar.) ; Mor- 
uiina (Goa); Nivgur (Bomb.). Kalutaimulli (Tam), Holeculli 
(Kan.) Payinaculli (Mai). 
