Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/327

Vern. : — Packur-mul (B.).

Habitat: — Plains and hills of India, in wet places, from Assam, Silhet, Chittagong and Bengal to N.-W. India, and Madras.

A glabrous, rather robust annual. Roots tufted or shortly creeping. Stems erect and branches ascending, rather stout leafy, 12-18in. high; always glabrous, often glandular; nodes often swollen. Leaves rarely more than 3in. long, sessile or petioled, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, glabrous or with the midrib scabrid beneath. Stipules glabrous or sparsely strigose, very shortly ciliate. Pacemes flexuous, leafy at base, filiform, decurved, interrupted ; bracts glabrous, glandular or not. Perianth pinkish ; mouth naked or minute, ciliate. Nut usually trigonous, opaque, finely granulate, sometimes flat.

Uses :— In China, the juice is used for itch, and also as a diuretic, carminative and anthelmintic (P.J. 20-12-84).

The root is stimulating, bitter and tonic, and is used for these properties in Patna (Irvine.) O'Shaughnessy states that the whole plant is reputed to be a powerful diuretic, but to lose its activity on drying.

" This plant possesses very acrid qualities, and is hot and biting to a degree, so that no animal will eat it, even ; insects avoid it ; and it is said that when dried and laid amongst clothes no moth will touch them. Its bruised leaves are still used in villages instead of a mustard poultice, and they are put into the mouth to cure toothache. It is said to be a powerful diuretic, and a water distilled from it was formerly used in some nephritic complaints." (Sowerby's English Botany, Vol. VIII, pp. 71-72.)

Chem. comp.— Dr. C. J. Rademarker (Amer. Journ. Pharm., Nov. 1879) separated from P. Hydropiper a crystalline principle which he named Polygonic acid. II. Trimble and H. J. Schuchard (Am. Journ. Pharm., Jan. 1885) re-examined the plant with following results :— They found that the peculiar pungent principle, although present in a weak alcoholic tincture, disappeared on distillation, the pungent taste of the herb being absent from the distillate and the residue in the retort.