Uses : — In Sanskrit medicine it is principally used as a tonic and deobstruent in hepatic and splenic enlargements, and in various chronic skin diseases. There is a popular opinion that the herb taken internally and applied externally will turn the hair black.
The fresh juice of the leaves is rubbed on the shaven scalp for the purpose of promoting the growth of hair (Dutt).
Mahomedan writers ascribe the same properties to this plant as the Hindus.
In Bombay, the natives use the juice in combination with aromatics, as a tonic and deobstruent, and give 2 drops of it with eight drops of honey to new-born children, suffering from catarrh. The following prescription is used in the Concan for tetanus : — Mâka juice, I tola; Juice of Leucas cephalotes (Tumbâ) ¼ tola; Ginger juice, 2 tolas ; Juice of Vitex trifolia, 1 tola ; and leaf-juice of Sesbania grandiflora, 3 tolas : to be boiled with four times the quantity of cocoanut juice and a little rice and treacle to from a khir, to be given twice a day. (Dymock).
In the Gujrat district of the Punjab, it is used externally for ulcers, and an antiseptic for wounds in cattle (Ibbetson's Gujrat : p. 11.)
The Indian Pharmacopoeia recommends the expressed juice as the best form of administration in hepatic derangements, as a substitute for taraxacum.
The fresh plant is applied with sesamum oil in elephantiasis, and the expressed juice in affections of the liver and dropsy. When used in large doses, it acts as an emetic. It is also considered cooling (Watt).
It is anodyne and absorbent, and relieves headache when applied with a little oil. It is an excellent substitute for taraxacum (Kannye Lal De Bahadur).
In Chutia Nagpur, the root is applied in conjunctivitis and galled necks in cattle (Revd. A. Campbell).
The juice of the leaves is given in one teaspoonful doses in jaundice and fevers. The root is given to relieve the scalding
