(U. C. Dutt.) It is often administered along with honey, the fresh juice or a decoction with pepper being made into a cough mixture. The Pharm. Indica states that strong testimony has been given in favor of its remedial properties, drawn from personal experience, in the treatment of chronic bronchitis, asthma, &c, when not attended with febrile action. The flowers and the fruit are bitter, aromatic and antispasmodic. The fresh flowers are bound over the eyes in cases of ophthalmia. " The flowers, leaves, and root, but especially the first, are supposed
to possess antispasmodic qualities." " They are bitterish and sub-aromatic and are administered in infusion and electuary as anthelmintic" (Ainslie). The leaves are used as a cattle medicine ; in the case of man for rheumatism ; and the flowers for ophthalmia (Stewart).
The leaves dried and made into cigarettes are smoked in asthma and their juice is used for diarrhœa and dysentery. The powdered root is used in Mysore by native doctors in cases of malarial fever. It has expectorant and antispasmodic properties, and its use has been recommended in the treatment of colds, coughs, asthma, phthisis, and even diphtheria, in which it deserves more extended trial. It is said, also, to be a valuable antiseptic, antiperiodic, and anthelmintic. Drury mentions that the leaves given in conjunction with those of Solanum trilobatum and S. xanthocarpum are employed by the Vythians internally in decoction as anthelmentic. In Bengal and Upper India also the leaves are smoked as cheroots for asthma. In Assam, the juice of the plant is considered the best preparation. It is extracted from the young shoots and flowers by first washing them in an ordinary brass or iron vessel over a fire and then applying pressure. It is taken with ghi or honey. In Central India, the plant is one of the ingredients used for preparing the mixture in which infants up to the age of four months are bathed. The Burmese pound the leaves and use them as a poultice for fresh wounds, while an infusion of the leaves and twigs is given internally for coughs. In the Tenasserim district, the leaves are used externally in cases of swellings, bleeding of the nose, and headache ; and internally for fever, colic, asthma and dysentery. It is prescribed in a spirit for wealthy persons suffer-
