$34 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.
Corolla of short stamened form, J-iin. long, with longer filaments |in. 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 cases 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 i 9 0, 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 Report of the Indigenous Drugs Committee, p. 29 it is stated that
fl The drug has already been admitted.into the Indian and Colonial Adden- dum of the British Pharmacopazlu It is produced in the Himalaya,
