Sans. : — Doogdhiká.
Vern. : — Gharote (Pb.) ; Guray kheeree, dhoodhee (Sind.) ; Doodhlutta (Beng. and Hind.); Khirai (B.) ; Doodee-palla (Tel.) ; Dudhiká (Bomb.) ; Dudhani (Mar.).
Habitat: — Throughout the plains and lower hills of India, from the Punjab to Assam, and Ceylon.
A very slender, climbing, perennial, deciduous herb ; roots fibrous, form the lower nodes. Stems numerous, long, much-branched, slender, quite glabrous. Leaves deciduous, 4-6 by ½-1in., membranous, lanceolate, linear, rounded at base, tapering to very acute apex, glabrous, thin, pale green, venation pellucid. Petiole ⅜in., slender. Flowers pale, cream-colour, veined and stained with purplish streak, large, drooping, lin. or more in diam., on long slender pedicels, which are thickened upwards, cyme from between the petioles, 3 or 5-fid, lax, racemose, long stalked, much exceeding leaves. Bracts minute. Calyx- segments lanceolate, acute, glabrous, thin. Corolla ¾-1in. diam. Lobes rather shallow, ovate, triangular ; column prominent ; filaments very broad. Follicles rather membranous, 2½in., somewhat falcate, a little inflated, smooth (and often abortive) ; seeds very numerous, broadly ovate, flat, ⅛in., carnose ; coma ¾in. long.
Uses : — A decoction of the plant is used as a gargle in aphthous ulcerations of the mouth and in sore-throat- The milky sap forms a wash for ulcers in Sind. In combination with turpentine it is prescribed for itch (Murray).
Probably on account of the milky juice which it exudes, native practitioners ascribe galactagogue properties to this plant. It has a very bitter taste, and is said to possess marked antiperiodic properties (S. Arjun).
The fresh roots are, in Orissa, held to be a specific for jaundice. (W. W. Hunter).
772. Calotropis gigantea, R. Br. h.f.b.l, iv. 17.
Syn. : — Asclepias gigantea, Roxb. 25. Sans: — Arka.
