Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/627
Spikes 2-6; radiating from the top of a 3lender peduncle, 1-2 in. long, green or purplish ; rhachis slender, compressed or angled, scaberulous. Spikelets 1/15-1/10in- long ; rhachilla produced, very
slender, equalling ½ the length of the spikelet. Invol -glumes lanceolate, acute to subulato-mucronulate, the lower 1/25-1/16 in. long, the upper slightly longer ; floral glume obliquely oblong
to semiovate, about 1/12 in. long, Anthers oblong, 1/25 in. long- Grain 1/24 in. long.
Uses : — By Sanskrit writers the fresh juice of the leaves is considered astringent, and is used as a snuff in epistaxis. The bruised grass is a popular application to bleeding wounds (U. C. Dutt). In the Concan the grass is prescribed in compound decoctions with more active drugs for the cure of dysentery, monorrhagia, &c. (Dymock). A white variety, which appears to be only a diseased state of the plant, is used medicinally by the native practitioners. It is acidulous and is used to check vomiting in bilious complaints (Sakharam Arjun).
A preparation of the plant is applied by the Santals in a parasitic disease, which attacks the spaces between the toes (Revd. A. Campbell). The expressed juice is astringent and is used as an application to fresh cuts and wounds. It is also diuretic and is used in cases of dropsy and anasarca, also as an astringent in cases of chronic diarrhœa and dysentery (Dr. Thornton). The juice of the green grass is useful in catarrhal ophthalmia, is astringent, used also with much benefit in hæmaturesis (Dr. Houston). Antiperiodic and used as an application in scabies (Dr. McConaghey). The decoction of the roots is used in Mysore for secondary syphilis (Dr. North). " A cold infusion often stops bleeding from piles. I generally give it with milk " (Dr. R. L. Dutt). The roots crushed and mixed with curds are used in cases of chronic gleet, dose, two fluid drams (Dr. McCloghry). — Watt's Dictionary.
The expressed juice is used in hysteria, epilepsy, insanity, (B. D. B.)