Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/621

it contains a resin, a bitter extractive, and a volatile oil. The dose of the powdered root is about twenty grains, or it may be given in infusion (two drachms of the bruised root to ten ounces of boiling water), in doses of an ounce or more. As a medicine, as far as is at present known, it is an article of very minor importance. (Ph. Ind.) " The otto is given in two minim doses to check the vomiting of cholera." (Dr. Houston.) "Used in the form of cigarettes with benzoin, it relieves headache." (Dr. Lancaster)— Watt's Dic.

Syn : — A. laniger, Desf.

Sans. :— Lâmajjaka.

Vern. : — Lâmjak, bûr, khâwi, khoi, panni, solâra, san, ibharankusha, karan kusha, ghât-zâri Miriya ban, ganguli, bad, piriya (H. and Pb.) ; Kârânkusa, ibharankusha (B.) ; Izkir Pivala-vâla (Mar.) ; Pilo-valo (Guz.)

Habitat : — Dry desert tracts, Lower Himalayan tract, extending to the plains of U. P. and Sind.

Perennial, cæspitose. Stems erect, thick and woolly below. Leaves smooth, glaucous, stiff ; blades narrow and convolute. Panicles erect, narrowly oblong, composed of distant fascicles of spikes surrounded at the base by blunt boat-shaped yellowish sheaths. Rachis and pedicels of the awnless male spikelets densely clothed with white hairs. Flowering glumes of hermaphrodite florets minute, transparent, bidentate, and with a very slender bent awn from between the teeth. (Duthie.)

Uses : — Used to purify the blood, and in coughs, chronic rheumatism and cholera It is recommended as a valuable aromatic tonic in dyspepsia, especially that of children ; it is also used as a stimulant and diaphoretic both by natives and Europeans, in gout, rheumatism and fever. (Baden-Powell.)

The Arabian and Persian physicians describe Idkhir as hot and dry, lithontriptic, diuretic, emmenagogue, and carminative ; they recommend it to be boiled in wine as a diuretic ; ground into a paste it is said to be a good application to abdominal