hairy upwards, anthers bearded at the base. Capsule ¾in. long, tapering at each end. Seeds several, subquadrate, rugose, glabrous (Duthie).
N. B.— The figure given in Bentley and Triman's Medicinal Plants is erroneous as to the seeds being hairy (C. B. Clarke).
Uses .-—This bittter shrub is well known under the name of Kalmegh, and forms the principal ingredient of a house-hold medicine called Alui, extensively used in Bengal. The expressed juice of the leaves, together with certain spices, such as cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, &c, is dried in the sun, and made into little globules, which are prescribed for infants to relieve griping, irregular stools and loss of appetite. The medicinal properties of this plant are many. The roots and the leaves are febrifuge, stomachic, tonic, alterative and anthelmintic. According to Murray, the plant is very useful in general debility, dysentery and certain forms of dyspepsia. It is officinal in the Indian Pharmacopœia. " The Yanadees, a wandering gipsy tribe in the Madras Presidency, constantly carry a supply of pills made of Great fresh leaves, and the pulp of the ripe tamarind, which they consider antidotal to the venom of the cobra. A pill made into a paste with water is applied to the bitten part, and some of it is put into the eyes ; two pills are given for a dose every hour or two internally" (P. Kinsley, Chicacole, Madras). " Green leaves with the leaves of Indian birth wort (Aristolochia Indica) and the fresh inner root-bark of country sarsaparilla, made into an electuary, is used by native hakims as a tonic and alterative in syphilitic cachexia and foul syphilitic ulcers. I have seen many cases successfully treated by this electuary" (Morris, Negaptam). See Watt's Dictionary.
Surgeon-Major Parker, Medical Store-Keeper, Bombay, wrote : " A preparation of this drug has, within the past few years, been largely advertised in England as a substitute for quinine and as a general powerful tonic. Kiryat is the native Chiretta and is used extensively by them as a febrifuge. Preparations — Succus, Fluid Extract, Infusion, Tincture. The whole plant is used and is collected towards the end of the monsoon and dried in the shade. The dried plant is to some extent found in the
