Vern. : — Sánt, Gadhâ pûrna, (H.) ; Punarnabâ, seveta punarnabâ (B.); Punarnavâ, khâparâ, ghetuli (Bomb.); Vakha khaparo, dholi sáturdi, moto satodo (Guj.) ; Punárnawn (Satodi-putchee) (Cutch) ; Vasu (Mar.) ; Thikri-ká-jhâr (Duk.) ; Nakbel (Sind) ; Mukaratte-kire, mukúkratt (Tam.) ; Atatamámidi (Tel.);
Itsit (Pb.) ; Tamilama, talutâma, (Mal.); Sanadika, balevadaki-gida (Kan.).
Habitat: — Throughout India; from the Punjab to Assam and South to Travancore.
A diffuselly branched herb ; root stout, fusiform, rootstock woody . Stems 2-3ft. long, slender, prostrate or ascending, swollen at the nodes, minutely hairy and sometimes viscid or subglabrous, often tinged with purple. Leaves rather thick, arranged in unequal pairs at each node, ½-l½in. long, ovate oblong or sub-orbicular, green and glabrous above, usually white beneath ; base rounded or subcordate, margins subunduate, often pink ; petioles about as long as the blade. Flowers minute, subcapitate, 4-10 together in small bracteolate umbels forming slender long-stalked axillary and terminal panicles ; bracteoles lanceolate, acute. Perianth ½in. long ; tube glandular-hairy ; limb red, funnel-shaped, with 5 narrow vertical bands outside. Stamens 2 or 3, slightly exserted. Fruit ½in. long, clavate, rounded, viscidly glandular on the 5 broad blunt ribs (Duthie).
Uses: — "It is used in jaundice, ascites, anasarca, scanty urine, and internal inflammations" (Dutt). In the Punjab, considered useful for the eyes (Ibbetson's Gujrat). In Goa, the herb is esteemed as a diuretic in gonorrhœa, in Bombay is much used for dropsical swellings (Dymock). The use of the root in gonorrhoea appears to have been introduced by the Portuguese ; in the West Indies, the plant is known as Bejuco de purgacion, and is the popular remedy for that disease. The root used in bronchitic asthma. This has been confirmed by the experience of the French in the Antilles, where the plant is called Patagon or Patagonelle-Valeriane. Its diuretic properties have been borne testimony to by numerous medical officers. (Watt, 1. 486.)
