978 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Vem. : — Palik-juhia, palak-juhi, jui-pani (Hind.); Jui-pana 
(Beng.); Pulcolli, puzhuk-kolli, pushpa-kedal, nagamalliclicheti 
(Mai. S. P.) ; Gachkaran (Bomb.); Gajakarm (Mar.) ; Kabutar- 
ka-jhar (Dec.); Naga-malli (Tam.); Nargamollay, ndga malle 
(Tel.) ; Naga-mallige (Kan.). 
Habitat : — Cultivated throughout India; perhaps wild in the 
Deccan Peninsula. 
A much-branched shrub. Leaves entire, 3-4 by f-l|in., 
usually narrowed at both ends, oblong or ovate-oblong, pubescent 
or glabrate ; margins undulate ; petiole £in. Cymes terminal 
and on short lateral branches, dusky. Flowers often clustered. 
Bracts and bracteoles 0-rgin., linear. Calyx densely pubes- 
cent, join. Corolla-tube 1 by T^in., lobes -jin., 3 lower, each 
twice as broad as the shortly bifid upper. Capsule clavate 
4-seeded, stalk long, solid cylindric. 
Uses: — The fresh root and leaves, bruised and mixed with 
lime juice, are a useful remedy for ringworm and other cutane- 
ous affection's. The seeds also are efficacious in ringworm. 
(Ainslie and ftoyle.) The root-bark is a remedy for the affec- 
tion of the skin which the Europeans call Dhobie’s itch, 
Malabar itch, &c. (Dymock). 
In Sind, it is said to possess extraordinary aphrodisiacal 
powers, the roots boiled in milk being much employed for that 
purpose by native practitioners (Murray). 
The roots are believed in some parts of India to be an anti- 
dote to the bite of poisonous snakes. Of late, it seems to have 
attracted considerable attention in Europe, on account of' 
its reputed value in the treatment of ringworm. It' seems, 
however, to be universally used with good results in cases 
of Tinea circinata tropica, although its utility in ordinary ring- 
worm (Tinea tonsurans) seems very doubtful. Dr. Liborius 
analysed the root at his laboratory at Dorpat, and found that 
it contained a substance which he called rhinaeanlhin, and 
which resembled clirysophanic and frangul.ic acids in its 
antiseptic and antiparasitic properties (Watt). 
Chemical composition . — Liborius has analysed the root in the Dorpat 
Laboratory, finding in it 13'51 per cent, of ash and 187 percent, of Rhiiuicanthiu, 
a quinine-like body, besides the ordinary constituents of plants. 
