NAT. ORDER ACANTHACEÆ.
JUSTICIA ADHATODA, Roxb.
Syn. Adhatoda Vasica, Nees.
Sans. Vásaka, Atarusha. Vern. Bákas, B. Arushá, H.
This is a bushy shrub common in most parts of India and used in making fences. The leaves and roots of this plant are considered expectorant and antispasmodic and are much used in a variety of forms in cough, consumption, catarrhal fever and asthma. This medicine was considered so serviceable in phthisis that it was said no man suffering from this disease need despair as long as the vásaka plant exists.
The fresh juice or decoction of the leaves in doses of one tolá, is given with the addition of honey and long pepper in cough. A decoction of vásaka root, chebulic myrobalan and raisins is used in the same cases. Another compound decoction much used in fever with cough, is as follows. Take of vásaka root, gulancha, and the root of Solanum Jacquinii (kantakári) in equal parts, two tolás in all and prepare a decoction in the usual way. This is given with the addition of honey. A ghrita is prepared with clarified butter, a decoction of the plant and a paste of the root taken in the usual proportions and is used in phthisis.
Only p. 214 is transcribed: the recipe for Vásávaleha that begins at its foot and runs onto p. 215, and the oil that follows, are left out. The Sanskrit names in Devanagari, the Sanskrit verses in the footnotes and the note numbers are not transcribed. Words hyphenated across a line break are joined.