Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/43

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N. O. APOCYNACEÆ.
793


used in chronic chest affections, such as asthma, and also in colic and diuresis. They also attribute tonic and aphrodisiac properties to the seeds (Dymock.)

The seeds combined with honey and saffron are made into pessaries which are supposed to favor conception. They are also used after delivery, (Pharmacographia Indica, Vol. II, p. 393).

" The bark constitutes the principal medicine for dysentery in the Hindu Pharmacopoœia. Before the discovery of the efficacy of Ipecacuanha in this disease, many chronic cases which did not get well under European medical treatment, used to be cured by the Kavirajes, by their preparation of this bark. The seeds are also used in medicine, they being regarded as astringent, febrifuge and useful in fever, dysentery, diarrhœa and intestinal worms. The bark is administered in a variety of ways. The expressed juice of the bark is given with honey. A fluid extract is given with the addition of ginger and atis. A compound decoction is also prepared.

" An oil for external application is prepared with sesamum oil, decoction of kutaja bark and a number of astringent and aromatic substances in small quantities.

" The seeds enter into good many prescriptions for fever, bowel complaints, piles, intestinal worms, &c." (Dutt, Mat. Med.)

" When in the Goa territory, I observed that the natives used the root-bark only. This is also the case in the Concan, where the root is given in infusion with Tinospora cordifolia for fevers of long standing ; its juice is also extracted and made into pills with aromatics, as a remedy for diarrhœa and dysentery " (Dymock).

" The bark, dried and ground, is, by the Santals, rubbed over the body in dropsy. The fruit is applied in snake-bite, to allay swelling and irritation, and the seeds yield a medicinal oil" (Revd. A. Campbell).

" Dr. Warden writes that a solution containing the partly purified alkaloid has been used with success in the treatment of fevers and dysentery. Should it even in a smaller degree