Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/496
Uses :-— The arrowroot from this plant is used medicinally in some parts of the country.
A fairly large trade exists in tikhur or tankir arrowroot all over India. It is used as a substitute for ordinary arrowroot, but regarded as less desirable medically. It is, however, a favourite article of food among the Natives especially for children. The Travancore arrowroot is reported to be not infrequently mixed with the starch of cassava or of tapioca (Manihot utilissima, p. 766). In Upper India it is said starch of the sweet-potato is some- times employed as an adulterant, and in Bombay the colourless young tubers of the ordinary turmeric are mixed with those of this plant.
The late Dr. Lisboa (Notes on Mahableshwar and other Indian Arrowroot- yielding PI. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc, 1887, ii., 140-7) gives much useful information regarding this arrowroot. He would appear to think that much of the East Indian Arrowroot of Western India (especially that of Mahableshwar) is derived from the tubers of Hitchena caulina, Baker. [Cf. Cooke, Fl. Pres, Bomb., ii., 728.]— Watt's Commercial Products of India, p. 444.
1232. C. aromatica, Salisb., h.f.b.i., vi. 210.
Syn. : — C. Zedoari, Roxb. 8.
Sans. : — Vana haridra.
Vern. : — Jangli-haldi, ban haldi(H) ; Banhalud (B.) ; Kapur káchali (Guz.) ; Ránhalad, Kasturimanjal (Tam.) ; Kasturi pasupa, kattu-mannal (Tel.) ; Anakúva, kattu-mannar (Mal.) ; Kasturi- arishnia (Kan.).
Habitat : — Throughout India.
An annual herb, biennial, says J. G. Baker ; growing from the previous year's tubers. Rootstock lin. diam.; tubers sessile, yellow, aromatic inside. Petiole as long as the blade which is 1-2ft. by 4-8in. Leaves 3 to 4ft. caudate, large oblong persistently pubescent beneath, base deltoid, plain green above or variegated with lighter and darker green. Flowers in dense compound ; spikes crowned by a coma of coloured enlarged bracts ; lower bracts ovate, membranous, enclosing several bracteolate fugitive flowers which open in succession. Spike with peduncles 1ft. produced from April to June with or before the leaves, the later half as long, 3-4in. diam ; flower-bracts ovate pale-green, l½-2in., those of the coma larger and more or less tinged with pink. Flowers shorter than the bracts. Corolla- tube lin., upper half funnel-shaped. Lobes