# Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Menispermaceæ

N. O. MENISPERMACEÆ.
38. Tinospora tomentosa, Miers. H.F.B.I., I. 96.
Vern.:—Padma-guluncha (B).
Habitat:—Tropical thickets in Bengal; always rare.
A climbing shrub. Bark pustular. Shoots tomentose. Leaves orbicular-cordate, more or less 3-lobed, pubescent above, tomentose beneath, 3-6 in. diam. Petioles as long. Racemes usually simple, solitary or fascicled. Flowers fascicled in the axils or deciduous bracts. Sepals 6. 2-seriate, inner longer, membranous. Petals 6, smaller. Male-flowers: Stamens 6, filaments free, tips thickened. Anther cells obliquely adnate, bursting obliquely. Female-flowers: Staminodes 6, clavate; Ovaries 3. Stigmas forked. Drupes 1.3, dorsally convex, ventrally flat; fusiform, orange-yellow. Endocarp tubercled, dorsally keeled, ventrally concave. Seed grooved ventrally or curved round the intruded sub-2-lobed endocorp. Albumen ventrally ruminate. Cotyledons foliaceous, ovate, spreading.
Use:—It possesses the tonic properties of the common Gulunchâ, T. cordifolia (Prain's Flora of the Sunderbans, Page 286).
39. T. crispa, Miers. H. F.B.I., 96.
Syn:—Menispermum verrucosum. Hm. Rox. Fl. Ind.
Vern.:—Titha-Kinda (Sinhalese).
Habitat:—From Sylhet and Assam to the Eastern Peninsula. Ceylon.
Stem widely climbing and twining, strongly warted. Leaves 4-5 in., broadly orbicular-cordate, suddenly acuminate, 7-veined, glabrous on both sides, thin. Petioles 3.4 in., thickened and twisted at base, smooth. Flowers 1/6 in. long, green, campanulate, 1-3 together, on very slender pedicels, in the axils of fleshy, small persistent bracts, rather distantly arranged in slender pendent spicate racemes or panicles 4-6 in. long from axils of old leaves. Male-flowers:—stamens adnate to base of petals. Female-flowers:—Anthers, square, stamens adnate ​to the base of the petals. Drupe elliptic, oblong, 1 in. long, size of an olive, pale-yellow.
Properties and Uses:—Possesses the bitterness and probably the tonic properties of gulanchâ (Ph. Ind.)
40. T. cordifolia, Miers. H.F.B.I., I. 97.
Syn.:—Menispermum cordifolium, Roxb., Cocculus cordifolius, D.C.
Habitat:—Throughout tropical India, from Kumaon to Assam and from Behar and the Concan to the Carnatic. In the Dun and Shaharanpur forests, fairly common.
Sans.:—Guduchi (bitter plant), Kundali (coiled) Chhina(cut) Vayasthâ (old), Amrita-Vallari (immortal Creeper), chhinnodh-hana (growing after being cut), Chhinnaruha, Amrita (nectar), Jwara-nâshini (febrifuge) Vatsâdani (eating its own offspring), Chandrapasa (deriding the moon), Jivanti (living), Chakra-Lakshana (wheel-shaped.)
Vern.:—Gurach, gurcha, giloe, gulancha, gul-bet, (extract)-palo, sut-gilo, satte-gilo (root)-ghlancha-ki-jar, (Hind.); gulancha, gurach, giloe, nim-gilo, gadancha (Beng.); zakhmi haiyat, gilo, garum, garham, batindu, (Pb.) (Extract)-palo, sut-gilo (Sind); Gulwel, (CP.); Gulvel, guloe, gharol, giroli, ambarvel; (Bomb.); Gulaveli, gulavela, gulwail, guloe, gharol, (Mar.); Gado, gulvel, galo, (Guz.); gul-wail, gul-bel, gulo, (extract)-polo, sat-gilo, gulbel ka-sat, (Dec); Shindil-kodi, (extract)-shindil-shakkarai (root)-shindil, kodi-ver, (Tam.); Tippa-lige guluchi, guduchi, guricha, manapala, tippatingai, (extract) Tippa-tige-sattu, (root)-tippa-tege veru (Tel.); Amrita-Calli, amruta-Calli, (Kan.) ; Amruta valli, citamerdu, amruta, chitramruta (Malay); Amritvel, amritwel (Goa).
A glabrous, succulent, climbing shrub, often reaching a great height and sending down long thread-like aerial roots, closely warted. Bark grey or creamy-white, deeply cleft in spiral longitudinal clefts, the space between the clefts usually dotted with large rosette-like corky lenticels. Wood white, soft, porous. Pores small to large, rather scanty, irregularly arranged between the few broad medullary rays (Gamble). Leaves 2-4 in., broadly ​cordate, glabrous, thin, acute or acuminate. Petiole l1/2-3 in., slender, thickened and curved at base. Flowers greenish-yellow, or yellow, large for the order, 3/4 in. diam. Males in clusters of 1-6 on slender branches of a drooping panicle exceeding the leaves. Females in shorter racemes, solitary. Male-flower:—stamens, free, but wrapped in the petals. Female flower:—Stigma dilated, laciniate, Ovaries 3. Drupe of 1-3, ripe carpels size of pea, somewhat ovoid, apiculate, smooth, red, succulent. Endocarp smooth. Seed generally curved round the intruded endocarp.
Uses:—The following pharmaceutical preparations can be made of the plant:—
1. Tincture of Gulwel.—Take 4 ounces of the stem, not very young and thin, nor very old and thick, but of medium age and size, together with the aerial roots (Kanjilal); cut into thin slices, and steep them in a pint of proof-spirit for seven days and press out of a Tincture-press. Dose 1-2 drachms.
2. Cold Infusion.—Take one ounce of the stem, as directed above, cut into thin slices, steep them in ten ounces of cold water for four hours, and strain. Dose 1-3 ounces.
3. Extract of Gulwel.—The well-grown stem is sliced finely and bruised in cold water, well steeped in it for four hours and then kept on a slow fire, until it thickens into a semi-solid or almost pliable mass. Dose 5-15 grains.
4. Gulwel "Satwa," which means the separation of the solid parts, principally the Starch. Slices of a well-formed stem are finely pounded into a pulp with water and strained. The water so strained is allowed to remain in a pan, undisturbed. Much white powdery matter will, after a time, deposit at the bottom of the pan. The supernatant water is removed and the deposit allowed to dry in the air or in the sun, but never heated on fire. Pandit Jaya Krishna Indraji says that, as soon as the deposit settles, the sooner it is dried the better, The quantity thus obtained is small, but clear white. If the mashed product, together with the water, be left over-night, the deposit, after settling down, turns blackish, although a larger quantity of the starch and other solids is obtained from the sediment. Dose ​10-30 grains. The starchy matter is administered in ghee, or with molasses, or in sugar and water, or in milk. This information is collected from the works of Dr. Tribhuvandas Motichand Shah of Junagadh and Pandit Jaya Krishna Indraji of Porebundar. (1909-1910).
In a paper, entitled "A note on some Indian Drugs," with exhibits of medicinal preparations, read before the section of Pharmacology of the 2nd Session of the International Medical Congress of Australasia, held at Melbourne (Victoria) in January 1889, Surgeon K. R. Kirtikar made the following observations on T. cordifolia (Gulwel or garola). The preparation exhibited was a powder of the dried stem of the plant prepared by the late Mr. M. C. Pariera of Bandra, who was for a long time connected with the Government Medical Stores of Bombay, under the late Brigade-Surgeon W. Dymock. Surgeon Kirtikar said as follows:—"The powder of the stem is used in making an infusion in the proportion of one ounce of the powder to ten fluid ounces of cold water. The medicinal value of the plant is due to a small quantity of Berberine. It is used as an alterative and tonic, and has enjoyed the reputation among ancient Hindu writers of being an aphrodisiac; but as a drug it being never prescribed alone as an aphrodisiac, its reputation as such is of a doubtful nature. The dose of the infusion is one to three ounces. There is a starch obtained from the roots and stems of the plant which goes under the name Gulweliche-satwa (the starch of Gulwel), which is similar to Arrow-root in appearance and effect. It answers not only as a remedial medicinal agent in chronic diarrhœa and some forms of obstinate chronic dysentery, but it is also a valuable nutrient, when there is intestinal irritability and inability to digest any kind of food. I have myself had experience of the usefulness of this starch. Dr. Dymock says 'through not having been washed, the starch has been found to retain some of the bitterness of the plant.' I have several times tasted the starch myself and have not found it bitter to any appreciable degree, probably from the fact that my specimens were different from those of Dr. Dymock (and perhaps fresh and better-washed); but I have no doubt that the starch has some medicinal property ​in it from the minute traces of berberine which the plant is supposed to contain. I think also that this drug is useful where there is an acid diarrhœa, due to an acidity of the intestinal canal or acid dyspepsia. It is useful in relieving the symptoms of rheumastism. There is another preparation of this plant—the succus (juice), fresh prepared from the fresh plant. It acts as a powerful diuretic. It is prescribed by ancient Hindu physicians in gonorrhœa with advantage. Considering that in the earlier stages of gonorrhœa we now try to reduce the acidity of urine by alkaline mixtures, it is probable this drug acts by reducing the acidity of urine in gonorrhœa. Dose of the succus 2-3 drams in water, milk or honey, thrice daily." (See Congress Proceedings, Melbourne p. 947. 1889).
In the Bombay Druggists' shops the starch of Gulwel is found not unoften adulterated. "I was supplied not once, but several times, with the English-made powder of Zea Mays—our common Makâ (corn-flour) for the Satwa of Gulwel. Sometimes I was given masses of the common Attah (wheat flour)." (See K. R. Kirtikar's Presidential Address 5th All-India Ayurvedic Conference, Muttra, 1914, p. 14).
Speaking of its employment as an antiperiodic, Waring states, that he employed it in twenty cases of ordinary quotidian fever in Burma; and in each case it prevented the accession of the cold stage, but it did not appear to diminish the severity, or prevent the regular return of the hot stage, a peculiarity, he adds, not observed by him in the use of any other remedy of the same class. Gulancha is also regarded by the natives in certain parts of India as a specific for the bites of poisonous insects and venomous snakes.
41. Anamirta Cocculus, W. and A. H. F.B.I., I. 98.
Syn. A. Paniculata, Colebr. Menispermum cocculus, Linn.
Habitat:—Eastern Bengal; Khasia hills; Assam; and from Concan and Orissa to Ceylon, up to 2,000 ft.
Sansk.:—Kâkamâri.
Vern.:—Kâkamâri (H. and B.); Kâkaphala; Vâtoli (Bomb.); ​Kakkây-Kolli-Virai (Tam.); Kâki-Champa; Kâka-Mâri; Vittu (Tel.); Kâkamâri-bija (Kan.); Karanta-Kattin-Kâya; Polluk-Kaya (Mal.); Titta-wel (Sinhalese).
A large woody twiner, bark thick, vertically furrowed or corrugated, young shoots glabrous. Leaves 3-6 in., broadly ovate, acute or obtuse, rounded or subcordate at base, sub-coriaceous, glabrous above, paler and with very small tufts of hair in the axils of the veins beneath. Petioles 2-4 in., thickened and prehensile at lower ends. Flowers pale, greenish-yellow, sweet-scented, 1/2 in. diam, with 2 or 3 small bracts at base, on short, thick, divaricate pedicels, arranged on the horizontal branches of large glabrous panicles, 8-12 in. long, springing from the old leaves, buds globular. Sepals equal ultimately reflexed. Petals O; Male Fl.:—Anthers forming a globose head on the short, stout column of coherent filaments; Female Fl.:—Carpels usually 5, on short, globose gynophore, surrounded at base by a ring of ten very small bifid, fleshy staminodes, smooth, stigmas reflexed. Ripe carpels 1-3 (usually 3) on thickened branches of enlarged gynophore, nearly globose, ½ in., smooth, black.
Parts used:—The berries, and leaves.
Uses:—The bitter berries are sometimes used in the form of an ointment. This ointment is employed as an insecticide, to destroy pediculi, and in some obstinate forms of chronic skin diseases. (Bentley and Trimen).
The fresh leaves are used in Bengal as a snuff in the treatment of quotidian ague.
Bromopikrotoxinin, C$_{15}$H$_{15}$BrO$_6$, which is most readily obtained by adding bromine water to a hot, nearly saturated aqueous solution of pikrotoxinin until the solution remains permanently yellow, may be purified by recrystallisation from absolute alcohol; it separates in glistening needles, melts at 259-260° (Schmidt gives 250-255°; Paterno and Oglialoro give 240-250°), and has [a]17/D=—132⋅5°.
Chloropikrotoxinin crystallises from alcohol in a mixture of needles and plates, melting at 272°.
Iodopikrotoxinin, obtained by the action of iodic acid and a solution of iodine in potassium iodide C$_{15}$H$_{14}$O$_6$Ac$_2$, as it can readily be obtained by the action of acetic chloride on pikrotoxinin; it sublimes in slender needles melting at 254°—255°, and forms an unstable compound with bromine.
Pikrotin, C$_{15}$H$_{18}$O$_7$, is best obtained from the filtrate from bromopikrotoxinin, part separating out on cooling, whilst the remainder may be obtained by evaporation; it can be purified by several extractions with small quantities of hot chloroform, followed by recrystallization from water; it forms small, felted needles, or thick, rhombic prisms, melting at 248-250°, is readily soluble in absolute alcohol or acetic acid, but only sparingly in ether, chloroform, or benzene. Its specific rotatory power [a]D=—64⋅7°, and it reduces Fehling's solution, etc., but only on warming. Its molecular formula has been determined by molecular weight determinations and by the analyses of its benzoyl and acetyl derivatives.
Benzoylpikrotin, C$_{15}$H$_{17}$O$_7$BZ, crystallises from absolute alcohol in colourless needles, melts at 236°, and is readily soluble in chloroform, sparingly in ether or alcohol.
Dibenzoylpikrotin, obtained when pikrotin (1 mol.) is heated with benzoic chloride (3 mols.) at 190°, crystallises from alcohol in needles melting on a hot aqueous solution of pikrotoxinin, crystallises from alcohol in colourless needles and melts at 198-199°.
Dromopikrotoxic acid, C$_{14}$H$_{16}$BrO$_6$⋅COOH+H$_2$O, is obtained when 10 percent. potassium hydroxide solution is slowly added to finely divided bromopikrotoxinin suspended in 10 times its weight of boiling water, until all has dissolved; on the addition of hydrochloric acid, the acid crystallises out in colourless needles, melting at 245-246°; it has no bitter taste, and is optically ​active [a]D=—62⋅6°. The calcium salt, (C$_{15}$H$_{16}$BrO$_7$)$_2$Ca+5H$_2$O, potassium salt, with 2H$_2$O, ammonium salt, and mercurous salt have been prepared.
Picrotoxic acid, C$_{15}$H$_{18}$O$_7$, obtained in small amount by the removal of bromine from the bromo-acid by the aid of sodium amalgam in alkaline solution, crystallises from water in needles melting at 229-230°, and has no bitter taste; its aqueous solution has strong reducing properties, and it readily undergoes decomposition in both aqueous and ethereal solution.
The substance obtained by Paternò and Oglialoro by the action of sodium acetate and acetic anhydride on pikrotoxin, and described as an unsaturated acid, is shown to be diacetylpikrotoxinin, at 247-248°. When a large excess of benzoic chloride is employed, no definite product is obtained.
Acetylpikrotin, C$_{15}$H$_{17}$O$_7$Ac, crystallises from benzene, alcohol, or acetic acid in glistening plates melting at 244-245°, and is probably identical with the compound described by Paternò and Oglialoro as diacetylpikrotoxinin and melting at 227°. When pikrotin is allowed to remain in contact with acetic chloride for 24 hours at the ordinary temperature, and then heated until complete solution ensues, two compounds are obtained. Anhydrodiacetylpikrotin, C$_{15}$H$_{14}$O$_6$Ac$_2$, which is precipitated, on the addition of alcohol, in crystalline masses melting above 300°, and diacetylpikrotin, C$_{15}$H$_{16}$O$_7$Ac$_2$, which is obtained as an oil from the alcoholic mother liquor; when it is hot, aqueous solution is allowed to cool, drops of oil separate, which solidify to crystalline needles melting at 207-210°; these contain 2H$_2$O.
Attempts to convert pikrotin into pikrotoxinin by removal of the elements of water have not proved successful.
When warmed with fuming nitric acid, pikrotin yields a nitro-derivative, C$_{15}$H$_{15}$O$_6$. No$_2$, anhydronitropikrotin, melting at 260°.
42. Coscinium fenestratum, Colebr. H.F.B.I., I. 99.
Syn.:—Menisperum fenestratum, Gaertn.
Vern.:—Jhâr-ki-haldi, or Jhâdi haladi (Dec.); Haldi-gach (B.) Mara-Manjal (Tam.); Mânu pasupu (Tel.); Marada-arishina (Kan.) Veniwel. (Mar.; and Sinhalese).
Habitat:—Western Peninsula, Central and South India. Malacca, Singapore, Ceylon.
A woody climber, bark smooth, young shoots densely but finely yellow-tomentose. Leaves large, 4-8 in., broadly ovate or rounded, suddenly acute, truncate, rounded, subcordate or slightly peltate at base, entire, glabrous above, densely felted, with fine yellow tomentum beneath, strongly 5-7-nerved; ​nerves and reticulated veinlets very prominent beneath. Petioles 3-4 in. Flowers sessile in small dense rounded heads, which are long-stalked and umbellately or racemosely arranged in the axils of the leaves. Pedicels yellow-tomentose; bracts beneath the flowers numerous, small, imbricated. Sepals rounded, persistent. Petals ovate, spreading. Female fl.:—Carpels hairy, styles filiform, reflexed. Ripe carpels (Drupes) l-3, globose, $^3$⁄$_4$ in., densely tomentose, brown.
Part used:—The root.
Use:—The root is extensively used in the hospitals of the Madras Presidency as an efficient bitter tonic. A writer, quoted by Christie, says of Ceylon that this root is viewed "as a very good substitute for Calumba. I have used it with good results in the form of tincture and infusion. It has also antiseptic properties to a great extent, and can be used for dressing wounds and ulcers." The wood is of a bright yellow colour, and is valued as a bitter tonic by the Sinhalese.
Dr. Moodeen Sheriff considered the action of the drug to be "antipyretic, antiperiodic, tonic and stomachic," and useful "in slight cases of continued and intermittent fevers, debility, and certain forms of dyspepsia. It may be used in place of Cinchona, Gentian or Calumba, called "False Calumba." A yellow dye is also obtained from it.—Trimen. "Used in diabetes, and also in cases of suppression of lochia." (Watt).
43. Cocculus villosus, DC. h.f.b.i., I. 101.
Syn.:—Menispermum hirsutum, Linn; Holopeira villosa, leviscula and auriculata, Miers.
In the Concan the Vaids give this plant the Sanskrit name of Vana-tiktika. Pâtâlgarudi, Vatsâdani (Sansk.).
Vern.:—Jamti-ki-bel, hier, dier, (H.); Kursan, Zamir (Sind); Vasana-vela Hundir, Tânvel (Mar.); Wassan-wel, parwell, (Bomb.); Vevdi (Guj) Vadhino vel (Porebunder) Kâttukkodi (Tam.); Dusari-tige, Chipura-tige, Katletige (Tel.).
Habitat:—Throughout tropical and sub-tropical India, from ​the base of the Himalaya to Malabar and Pegu. (Absent in the Eastern Peninsula). Ceylon.
A small, much-branched, straggling climber. Branches long, slender, twining, striate, hairy-pubescent. Leaves 1-$^1$⁄$_2$ in., deltoid-ovate, very obtuse, apiculate or mucronate, tapering or truncate at base, almost entirely glabrous above (save when young), slightly hairy on veins beneath, ciliate at margin, 3⋅5 veined at base. Petiole $^1$⁄$_4$ in., hairy; Male fl.:—in small cymose panicles on very slender, axillary peduncles shorter than the leaves, bracts subulate, hairy. Female fl.:—2 or 3 together in axillary clusters; Sepals villous, outside petals, bifid, lobed at sides. Male fl.:—Stamens with filaments hairy at base. Female fl.:—Carpels smooth. Drupes (Ripe carpels) small, black-purple, $^1$⁄$_6$ in., endocarp bony, horse-shoe-shaped or rather annular, with the centre perforated, sharply keeled along the back, the sides with strong transverse ridges.
Parts used:—The root and leaves.
Uses:—"The juice of the leaves, mixed with water, has the property of coagulating into a green jelly-like substance, which is taken internally, sweetened with sugar, as cure for gonorrhœa. Roxburgh says—"A decoction of the fresh roots, with a few heads of pepper, in goats' milk, is administered for rheumatic and old venereal pains; half a pint every morning is the dose. It is reckoned heating, laxative, and sudorific."
"In the Concan, the roots rubbed with Bonduc nuts are administered as a cure for belly-ache in children; and in bilious dyspepsia, they are given in 6 massa doses, with ginger and sugar." (Dymock.)
In Sind, the root and leaves are used in headache and neuralgic pains. (Murray.)
The root is said to be alterative and a good substitute for Sarsaparilla.
According to the Pharmacopœia of India, this possesses the bitterness, and probably the tonic properties, of gulancha. (Tinospora cordifolia).
"This is a common hedge-plant in the Konkan, where it is ​generally used as a refrigerant, and also as a gentle laxative. It has been extensively used as an alterative in chronic rheumatic and venereal diseases. I exhibit two preparations:—(1) A liquid extract obtained from the root. Dose one dram in water, or goat's milk, thrice daily. (2) A syrup of the leaves. Dose one to two drams. Both the preparations were made for me by Mr. M. C. Pareira of Bandra, for exhibition at this Congress." (Surgeon Kirtikar at the Pharmacological Section, Melbourne Medical Congress, Australasia. See Proceedings, p. 947-1889.
44. C. Leaeba, D.C. h.f.b.i, I. 102.
Vern.:—Vallur, illar-billar; parwatti (Guj.); vehri (Pb. and Sindhi); Ullar-billar (Sindh).
Habitat:—Drier parts of Western India, the Punjab, Sindh, and the Carnatic valleys,; below Simla, plains of India ascending to 3,000 ft.
Part used:—The whole plant.
A climbing shrub. Branchlets puberulous, long, slender; leaves very variable, linear-oblong, oblong or trapezoid, entire or 3-5-lobed, glabrate, usually obtuse and mucronate; base cuneate, rounded, young, hoary, old, often glaucous on both surfaces. Pedicels $^1$⁄$_6$-$^1$⁄$_4$ in. Male flowers fascicled in small sessile clusters in the axils, and on woody tubercles. Females solitary, 1-3, sessile, at the end of short axillary stalks. Drupes dark purple, $^1$⁄$_{12}$—$^1$⁄$_6$ in.
Uses:—It is used in Sindh and Afghanistan in the treatment of intermittent fevers and as a substitute for Coccalus Indicus.
45. Pericampylus incanus, Miers. h.f.b.i., i. 102.
Vern.:—Baiak Kanta (B).
Habitat:—Sikkim, Assam, the Khasia hills, Chittagong, throughout the Eastern Peninsula, Malay Peninsula and Archipelago.
A tomentose climbing shrub. Stem cylindrical and grooved. Wood in wedges, separated by broad medullary rays. Branchlets ​tomentose, then glabrous. Leaves membranous from a straight or cordate, sometimes slightly peltate base, suborbicular, obtuse, acute or retuse; pale beneath; 5 basal nerves (Brandis). Petiole 1-2 in. Inflorescence. Cymes 2-3-chotomous, often many and superposed. Peduncles 1-2 in., axillary. Sepals villous, 6, with three bracts, outer smaller, inner spathulate. Petals 6 cuneate-acute, says Hooker, margins incurved. Male flowers:— 6 stamens; filaments cylindrie, anthers adnate, bursting transversely. Female flowers:— Staminodes 6, clavate, ovaries 3; styles bifid, segments subulate. Drupes red, subglobose, the size of a pea. Endocarp horse-shoe-shaped, dorsally crested and echinate; sides excavated, seed curved. Cotyledons elongate, flat, scarcely broader than the radicle.
Part used:—The root.
Use:—The roots have long been held in great repute among snake-charmers in India as an antidote to the bites of poisonous snakes. Surgeon-Colonel D D. Cunningham has proved that a fluid extract of the roots, when injected into the bitten place, possesses decided remedial power, though it has no general action. It acts by precipitating the poison, and thus rendering it inert when brought into direct relation with it, prior to the absorption of the venom into the system generally.
46. Stephania hernandifolia, Walp. H.F.B.I., I. 103.
Syn.:—Cissempelos hexandra, Roxb, G. hernandifolia, Willd., Clypea hernandifolia, W. and A. Wight Ic. t. 939.
Sans.:—Ambasthâ; pâthâ,
Vern.:— A'knâdi; Nemuka; agnad (B.) Lupukêtiya-wel (Sinhalese).
Habitat:— From Nepal to Chittagong. Singapore, Ceylon, Malaya.
A slender twiner, shoots glabrous. Leaves 2-4 in., round-ovate, acute or obtuse, peltate, cordate or truncate at base, glabrous, glaucous beneath. Petiole 1-2 in., slender, divaricate. Flowers greenish- white, very small, nearly sessile in small umbels ​at ends of branches of long-stalked, axillary umbels; bracts subulate. Male flowers:—Sepals nearly equal, obovate, obtuse; petals much shorter, staminal column short, summit expanded. Female flowers:—Sepals acute; petals shorter, styles subulate. Fruit scarlet, solitary, sessile, small, ⅓ in., compressed, glabrous. Endocarp strongly tubercled on back and sides. Seed curved almost into a ring.
The head of fruit looks as if it were the produce of a single flower, instead of an umbel of several sessile ones (Trimen).
Use:—The root is regarded as light, bitter, astringent and useful in fever, diarrhoea, urinary diseases, dyspepsia, etc. Sir W. O'Shaughnessy speaks highly of this plant.
47. S. rotundifolia, Lour, h.f.b.i, i. 103.
Vern.:—Purha (Dehra Dun).
Habitat:—Tropical and temperate Himalaya, from Sindh eastward to the Khasia Hills and Pegu. Valleys below Simla; in the ravines of Dun and the Lower Hills. Southern Hills of the Western Peninsula. Siam, Cochin-China.
A tuberous-rooted, large, climbing shrub. Roots subglobose. "Wood soft, spongy, with large, loose pith arranged in wedges, separated by broad medullary rays, and concentrically by a belt of soft similar tissue. The bark gives fibre, sometimes used for fishing lines." (Gamble), Branchlets glabrous. Leaves peltate, with 9-10 radiating nerves, ovato-rotundate, broad-ovate or sub-orbicular, often repand or sinuate-lobed, glabrous, 3-7 in. diam., obtuse, acute or acuminate, pale beneath. Petiole 3-9 in. Peduncle variable, usually slender; of the females, stout. Umbels axillary, compound, in lax cymes; rays of umbels long or stout; bracts subulate. Flowers, yellow or yellowish-green, 1/6-1/4 in. dram. Sepals narrow, cuneate, puberulous Petals shorter. Drupes red, pisiform, Endocarp horse-shoe-shaped-sides excavated. Cotyledons elongate, flat, scarcely broader than the radicle.
Part used:—The root.
Use:—Roxburgh states that the acrid root is used medicinally in Sylhet, presumably for the same purpose as S. hernandifolia, Walp. ​ 48. Cissampelos Pareira, Linn, h.f.b.i, i. 103.
Sansk.:—Laghu Patha; Ambashtha, Brihattikta (very pungent), Prachinambastika (Eastern Ambastika), Rasa (juicy), Varatikta (very pungent), Papanelil (creeper of sin), Sreysi (auspicious), Vridhakarnika (long-eared).
Vern.:—Kardhiyun-bang (Poreb) Akanadi; dakb, nirbisi, pari harjeuri (H.); Akanadi, nemuka (B.; Tejo mulla (Santal); Batulpoti (Nepal); Katori, tikri, parbik, pataki, bat bel, Zakhmi baiyat, batindu path (leaves) pilijari, pilajur (root) <Pb.); Nirbisi (root) (Dek.); Venivel (Guj and Bomb.); Parayel (Goa); Po-mushtie, pun-musbtie; Pahadvel, pabadmul (Bomb.); Vata tirupie (Tarn.); Pata (Tel.). Padavali (Kan.). (Pari kuman)Pabre (Dun). Diya-mitta (Sinhalese).
Habitat:—Tropical and sub-tropical India, from Sindh and the Panjab to Ceylon, up to 4,000 ft. In India ascending up to 6,000 ft. Cosmopolitan, common in the valleys of Simla and Dun.
A climbing, softly pubescent shrub. A lofty climber (Hk. and Th.), with herbaceous or slender woody branches, on a very short stout stem. Trimen says it is a woody twiner, usually of small size, with straggling branches, long shoots pubescent or tomentose. Wood brown, divided by very broad medullary rays and regular concentric bands of similar texture into small rectangular divisions, each with two to eight small to very large pores. The stem yields strong fibres, which are made into ropes. Leaves orbicular or broadly ovate, 1-4 in. across, peltate or cordate, obtuse and mucronate, rarely acute; base sometimes truncate. Petiole equalling the leaf, or longer. Flowers greenish-yellow, small. Male-flowers:—on stalked branched cymes, clustered in leaf-axils, or borne on long axillary raceme-like shoots, each cyme in the axil of a small leaf-like bract. Sepals 4, hairy, ovate, spreading. Petals united into a shallow 4-lobed cup. Stamens 4, filaments united into a very short column, top dilated, peltate; anthers sessile round the margin. Female flowers:—clustered in axils of orbicular bracts crowded on long solitary racemes. Sepal one, pubescent, broadly ovate. Petal one, opposite the sepal, similar, but smaller and ​deeply lobed; ovary 1, hairy, style shortly 3-fid. Drupe hairy, globose scarlet, 1/6 inch diara. Endocarp transversely ridged and tuberculate. Seed horse-shoe-shaped.
Parts used:—The root, bark and leaves.
Uses:—Sanskrit writers consider the root to be light, bitter, astringent and useful in fever, diarrhoea, urinary diseases, dyspepsia, etc.
Ainslie writes:—"The leaves of this plant are considered by the Vytians as of a peculiarly cooling quality, but the root is the part most esteemed ; it has an agreeable, bitterish taste, and is considered as a valuable stomachic. It is frequently prescribed in the later stages of the bowel complaints, in conjunction with aromatics." It is reported to be antilithic (Dymock).
"Used locally in cases of unhealthy sores and sinuses. Root given for pains in the stomach and for dyspepsia, diarrhoea, dropsy and cough; also for prolapsus uteri.—and applied externally in snake bite and scorpion sting." (Watt.)
It is officinal in the Pharmacopoeia of India, where its medicinal properties are described as " mild tonic and diuretic exercising apparently an astringent and sedative action on the mucous membranes of the genito-urinary organs.
PLATE No. 33.
Tinospora tomentosa, MIERS.
PLATE No. 34.
Tinospora crispa, MIERS.
PLATE No. 35.
Tinospora cordifolia, MIERS.
PLATE No. 36.
Anamirta cocculus, W. & A
PLATE No. 37.
Coscinium fenestratum, COLEBROOKE.