86 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.
69. Fumaria parviflora, Lamk. h.f.b.i., i. 128.
Syn. : — F. officinalis, Bedd. (Sanskrit) Parpat.
Vern.: — Pitpapada, (Hind. Dec.) ; Ban-sulpha (Beng.) ; Pittapapado (Guj.); Khasudlio (Dr. Shah); Kshetra Parputi (Hindi); Shahatara, Shatra (Pers., Sind.) ; Tura (Tarn.); Cha- tarashi (Tel.) Khairuwa (Kumaon.)
Habitat : — Indo-Gangetic plain, lower Himalaya and Nilghiri Mts. : a weed of cultivation. Gujrat and the Konkan.
An annual glabrous herb, pale green, much-branched. Stem diffuse, 4-24 in. Root-stock usually perennial. Leaves pinnately divided ; leaflets deeply-lobed ; segments very narrow, flat, lobed or entire. Flower pale pink or white, tips purple, J-§- in. long, in numerous, short racemes, 1-2 in.; bracts lanceolate, outer petals dissimilar, upper one broad, concave, produced at the base, in a short rounded spur, less than |- the length of the petal ; lower one flat, narrow. Inner petals narrow, clawed, keeled (Collett). Sepals lanceolate, much smaller than the coronal-tube. Pedicels exceeding the bracts. Lower set of stamens spurred at the base, the spur projecting inside the petal-spur. Fruit, a very small globose, 1-seeded nutlet, rugose, when dry, rounded at the top, with two pits.
Pittapapada is found as a weed, usually cultivated in fields in the Dekkan, the Konkan and Sindh. Described by Dalzell and by Woodrow. It has been found by Jay a Krishna Indraji at Porebunder.
Part used : — The entire plant, except the root.
Uses: — The dried plant is regarded as efficacious in low fever, and is also used as an anthelmintic, diuretic, diaphoretic and aperient, and to purify the blood in skin diseases. (Baden- Powell).
Along with black pepper, it is used in the treatment of ague. (Hoyle). Mahomedan writers describe the plant, as diuretic and alterative, aperient and expectorant. (Dymock.)
It has been prescribed by Dr. T. M. Shah of Jnnagadh usefully as a tonic in Dyspepsia and in mild fever.
