sometimes prickly on the angles, smooth, shining. Leaves 4in a whorl, ¾-1½in. ; ovate, cordate at base, tapering to acute apex, scabrous above and on the veins beneath, and especially on the margin, with small, white, recurved prickles, 5-or 7-veined from base, stiff, often convex above, with apex hooked, sometimes pubescent beneath. Petiole about twice as long as leaves, usually deflexed, tapering, stiff and branchlike, deeply channelled above, triangular, with many sharp recurved prickles on the angles. Flowers, 5-merous, minute, on short, glabrous pedicels, cymes lax, trichotomous, glabrous. Anthers globose. Corolla-tube thick, very short, lobes ovate, obtuse. Fruit about ⅓in., very didymous, the carpels almost distinct, smooth, shining, purplish black. The Ceylon plant, says Trimen, has the stem almost destitute of prickles. " A very variable plant. The Khasian specimens have usually 3-nerved leaves, not impressed above ; in Western Peninsula the nerves are 5-7, and deeply impressed." (Hooker).
Uses: — In Hindoo medicine, it is chiefly used as a coloring agent. It is useful as an astringent in external inflammations, ulcers and skin diseases, &c. Chakradatta recommends Madder, rubbed with honey, as an application to the brown spots of pityriasis versicolor (Dutt).
The Mahomedans consider the drug to be deobstruent, and prescribe it in paralytic affections, jaundice, obstructions in the urinary passages and amenorrhea, They mention the fruit as useful in hepatic obstruction, and a paste made from the roots with honey, as a good application to freckles and other discolorations of the skin. The whole plant is reputed to be alexipharmic (Dymock).
Ainslie says that an infusion of the root is prescribed by the Hakims to women after delivery, to procure copious flow of lochia.
Dr. G. Playfair, in a note appended to his translation of the Talif-i-Sharifi (p. 150), states that, if taken to the extent of about 3 drachms, several times daily, it powerfully affects the nervous system, inducing temporary delirium, &c, with evident determination to the uterine system (Ph. Ind.).
