Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/617

Ovary smooth ; stigmas 2, densely plumose, purple. Fruit not known. (Duthie.)

Uses : — The root of the sugarcane is said to have been employed in medicine, and to have been considered demulcent and diuretic (U. C. Dutt). In Arabian works on Materia Medica, sugar is described as detergent and emollient, and is prescribed in doses of twenty direms. Many writers speak of it as attenuant and pectoral. It has also been supposed to have virtues in calculous complaints (Ainslie). In the Panjab, Baden Powell says, sugar is considered by the Natives to be " heavy, tonic, and aperient, useful in heat delirium and disorders of the bile and wind." In another part of his work he remarks : " In cases of poisoning by copper, arsenic or corrosive sublimate, sugar has been successfully employed as an antidote, and white sugar finely pulverised is occasionally sprinkled upon ulcers with unhealthy granulations. The Hindus set a great value upon sugar, and in medicine it is considered by them as nutritious, pectoral, and anthelmintic." The use of sugar as an antidote for arsenical poisoning is alluded to by many writers (Chisholm, Voigt, and others).

Syn. : — Saccharum ciliare, Anders. S. Sara, Roxb. 82.

Sans. : — Gûndra, tejanaka, sharâ.

Vern. : — Sara, sarkanda, sarpat, râmsar, mûnja, sarhar, ikar patawâr Palwa (H.) ; Sar, (B.) ; Sar (Santal) ; Sarkara, sarjbar, kharkâna, kandâ (Pb.) ; Dargâ, karre (Trans-Indus) ; Sar (Sind) ; Gundra, ponika, (Tel)

The following names are also given to certain portions of the plant in different localities : — Munj (leaf-sheaths), Sar (leaves) (Pb.) ; Bind or vind, culm or flowering stem (Doab) ; Sararhi (E. Districts of U. P.) ; Sentha, kâna, lower portion of flowering stem; Sirki, til, upper portion of flowering stem; Thili, upper portion of flowering stem (Lahore) ; Majori, the entire flowering stem ; Tilak, tilon, the flowers (Pb.) ; Ghua, the flowers (E, Districts, U. P.).

Habitat : — North- West India.