100G 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Habitat : — From the Himalaya, east of the Sutlej to Ceylon ; 
frequent ; very common in Bengal, also in Thana and Ratnagiri 
Districts. 
A handsome shrub. Stem 4-8 ft. slightly branched, quad- 
rangular. Bark yellow.. Rootstock woody thick, perennial 
annually shooting up fresh herbaceous stems. Youngest shoots 
and inflorescence pubescent, (Brandis) Young parts glabrous, 
says Trimen from Ceylon. Leaves large 4-8 in., passing 
bracts above, oval ovate-oval acute at both ends, very coarsely 
and sharply serrate, glabrous, petiole very short stout. 
Flowers large on short stout compressed, pubescent, de- 
flexed pedicels. Cymes numerous, lax, pubescent, dicho- 
tomous, with a pair of acute bracts at each branching and 
a flower in the fork, each in axil of a large leafy bract, and 
collectively forming a long, lax, terminal erect panicle 6-10in. 
long. Calyx J-in. long, cup-shaped, puberulous, segments very 
short broadly triangular, ciliolate. Corolla-tube short, y-gin., 
somewhat inflated, oblique at mouth, upper and lateral lobes 
£in., broadly oval, flat, spreading, lowest one (lip) |in. long, 
very concave deflexed ; filaments much curved, hairy at base. 
Fruit a drupe about jin. long, depressed, somewhat succulent, 
normally 4-lobed, with a pyrene in each lobe (1-8 often suppress- 
ed). The leaves have a faint scent. Corolla with posterior and 
lateral lobes pale-blue, anterior ' one dark bluish-purplish 
(Trimen). Fruit purple black (C. B. Clarke). Flowers bluish 
white, fruit black (Kanjilal*. 
Uses : — The root is used by natives in febrile and catarrhal 
affections (Ph. Ind.b It is said to be good in malarial fevers 
by the people of Ratnagiri where the tender leaves are eaten 
also as vegetable by the power classes of Hindus (K.R. Kirtikar) 
Leaves boiled with oil and butter made into an ointment 
useful in cephalalgia and ophthalmia. The seeds bruised and 
boiled in butter milk used as aperient and in dropsy (Drury). 
'The authors of the Pharmacographia Indiea write 
“ From enquiries we have made there is no doubt that this plant is largely 
used in many parts of India as a substitute for Premiia herbacea, the true 
Gantu Bhirangi, but if we regard the root of 0. serratum as the true 
Bharangi, and the root of P. herbacea as the Gantu (or knotted Bnarangi,) 
