N. O. AOANTHAOE;E. 
975 
(U. C. Dutt.) It is often administered along with honey, the 
fresh juice or a decoction with pepper being made into a cough 
mixture. The Pharm. Indica states that strong testimony has 
been given in favor of its remedial properties, drawn from per- 
sonal experience, in the treatment of chronic bronchitis, asthma, 
&c., when not attended with febrile action. The flowers and 
the fruit are bitter, aromatic and antispasmodic. The fresh 
flowers are bound over the eyes in cases of ophthalmia. “ The 
flowers, leaves, and root, but especially the first, are supposed 
to possess antispasmodic qualities.” “ They are bitterish and 
sub-aromatic and are administered in infusion and electuary as 
anthelmintic” (Ainslie). The leaves are used as a cattle 
medicine ; in the case of man for rheumatism ; and the flowers for 
ophthalmia (Stewart). 
The leaves dried and made into cigarettes are smoked in 
asthma and their juice is used for diarrhoea and dysentery. The 
powdered root is used in Mysore by native doctors in cases of 
malarial fever. It has expectorant and antispasmodic properties, 
and its use has been recommended in the treatment of colds, 
coughs, asthma, phthisis, and even diphtheria, in which it 
deserves more extended trial. It is said, also, to be a valuable 
antiseptic, antiperiodic, and anthelmintic. Drury mentions 
that the leaves given in conjunction with those of Solanum 
trilobatum and S. xanthocarpum are employed by the Vythians 
internally in decoction as anthelmentic. In Bengal and Upper 
India also the leaves are smoked as cheroots for asthma. In 
Assam, the juice of the plant is considered the best preparation. 
It is extracted from the young shoots and flowers by first washing 
them in an ordinary brass or iron vessel over a fire and then 
applying pressure. It is taken with ghi or honey. In Central 
India, the plant is one of the ingredients used for preparing 
the mixture in which infants up to the age of four months are 
bathed. The Burmese pound the leaves and use them as a poultice 
for fresh wounds, while an infusion of the leaves and twigs is 
given internally for coughs. In the Tenasserim district, the 
leaves are used externally in cases of swellings, bleeding of the 
nose, and headache ; and internally for fever, colic, asthma and 
dysentery. It is prescribed in a spirit for wealthy persons sufier- 
