A well-known medicinal plant, long in use in Hindu medicine, and called in Sanskrit Guduchi, Pittaghni (bile-destroying), Bhishakpriya (dear to physicians), Nirjara (not perishing), &c. It is considered to be cold and dry, or according to Arabic and Persian writers, hot and dry in the first degree. In native practice it is much valued as an antiperiodic in fevers, and as a tonic and alterative; it is also credited with aphrodisiac properties. The fresh plant is said to be more efficient than the dry; it is taken with milk in rheumatism, acidity of the urine and dyspepsia. The juice with Pakhanbed and honey is given in Gonorrhœa, and is an ingredient in Paushtiks given in Phlhisis. In Guzerat, a necklace called Kamalá-ni-málá (jaundice necklace) is made of small pieces of the stem, and is supposed to cure that disease. The stem, if placed upon a bush in the open air, will retain its vitality through the hot season, and when the rains commence, put forth leaves and long whipcord-like roots, which soon reach the ground, whence the Sanskrit synonym Chinnaruha, or, growing when cut. The plant is very common in many parts of India, and may always be obtained in the green state. Elephants are very fond of the stems, and the hill tribes in Sikkim give it to their cattle to cure pains in the stomach. The dry stem is to be seen in every drug shop; from it is prepared a kind of starch known in Hindustani as Giloe-ka-sat, and in some parts of India as Palo. It is prepared by powdering the stem and washing out the starch with water; the latter retains a little of the bitterness of the drug. T. cordifolia appears first to have attracted the notice of Europeans in India at the early part of the present century, and to have been favourably spoken of by those who have tried it as a tonic, antiperiodic and diuretic, but it has never come into general use in European practice. It is now official in the Pharmacopœia of India, and has lately (1884) been re-introduced to the notice of the profession in Europe as a specific tonic, antiperiodic and diuretic. (Zeitschrift des Oesterr. Apoth. Ver., 1884, 312.)
A footnote marker and its footnote (a reference to Dutt) are left out.