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INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.


and produces good effects in dysmenorrhoea. In inflammations around the uterus (pelvic cellulitis and peritonitis) it has been used with much benefit.

" S. anacardium is a powerful diaphoretic. It is very useful in scaly skin diseases.

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" It is believed by the Indians that if the drug be taken internally in small, but gradually increasing, doses in the winter, it makes one free from coughs and colds and senile degenerations.

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" Winter is the best season for the use of S. anacardium. It being a very heating remedy, its dose cannot be pushed to any length in summer.

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" I have been using this drug for more than six years, without seeing any bad effect other than erythematous rash. In the Campbell Hospital I have made many bed-ridden cases of disseminated sclerosis walk about in the hospital compound. As an alterative, it is very useful in secondary and tertiary stages of syphilis.

" I have used it successfully in two cases of epidemic dropsy of the legs recently."


332. Holigarna Arnottiana, Hook f. h.f.b.l., ii. 36.

Vern. : — Bibu ; hulgeri (Bom.) ; Holgeri (M.) ; Kagira, Kutugeri (Kan.)

Habitat :— Western Peninsula, from the Concan southward on the Ghats.

Leafy handsome trees with stout-branches, Leaves 6-9 by 2-3in., coriaceous shining above reticulated or glaucous not beneath ; cuneate-obovate decurrent. Nerves 10-20 pair, strong nearly straight ; petrole ¼-1in., rather slender. Panicle of compound racemes, axillary and terminal, shorter or longer