14. Bringaraaja
Names:-
Latin Eclipta erecta
Tamil Karisilaanganni
Telugu Guntakalagara
Canarese Garga
Malayal Kayyunni
Urdu Bringrah, Bringaraj
Bhringaraaja Samaakhyaatah
Kaphasophaama Paandu twak
Hridroga Visha naasanah.
Bhringaraaja is tikta and heating. It is rooksha (non-oily). It checks Kapha, Sopha, and Aamadosha. It is useful in the treatment of skin diseases, Paandu, Hridroga and Visha.
Dose:- Five to ten terminal leaves of Bringaraaja plant mixed with 5 to 7 seeds of pepper, ground together nicely with buttermilk into a pill and given every morning or made into a pill with jaggery and given every morning.
Or a teaspoonful to half ounce of swarasa of the leaves mixed with 2 to 4 ounces of milk and a little sugar or with 4 ounces of buttermilk and a little salt to be given every morning.
Or ¼ to 1 tola of the leaf to be given along with fresh ginger, pepper, salt and other condiments as a chutney.
Action:- Cholagogue (removing bile), antimalarial, febrifuge and tonic.
Uses:- It is one of the most favourite green drugs that are used in Southern India for jaundice. In certain varieties of jaundice. It has a remarkable effect. In low fevers attended with anaemia or Pandu, the pill with pepper has produced very good results. In those cases where digestion is very poor, the preparation with butter milk is to be preferred. As a hair-dye and as cooling to the brain after bath, the oil is used throughout the country and it enjoys a great reputation.
15. Chandanam
Names:- Latin Santalum album
Tamil Chandanam
Telugu Chandanam
Canarese Srigandha
Malayal Chandanam
Urdu Sandal
Chandanam seetalam rooksham
Tiktamaa hlaadanam Laghu
Srama Sodsha Visha Sleshma
Trishnaa Pittaasra Daahanuth.
Chandanam is cooling, drying, bitter, pleasing and light. It relieves tiresomeness, checks wasting, poisons, Kapha, Thirst, Rakta pitta, (haemorrhage) and burning sensation.
Dose:- 10 to 30 grains with sugar and ghee or with ghee, sugar and honey.
Action:- Cooling, antiseptic.
Uses:- Chandanam is very much used in India for its cooling effect and its sedative effect on the urinary tract. It also enters into the composition of many compound powders and oils. Made into a paste with water and combined with one hundredth part of Pacchakarpooram, it makes a very nice cooling paste for reducing high fevers, especially of the Pitta type. Mixed with curd or butter-milk or cream, it makes a nice antiseptic and antiphlogistic paste for boils and carbuncles.
It is specially used in gonorrhoea and leucorrhoea and is very popular. It is a constituent of bathing powders and scent sticks. The oil made from it by distillation with water is a specific for chronic ulcers, gonorrhoea and gleet. But, it acts better in dilution than in concentration. In prickly heat, 1 part of sandal-wood oil with 8 parts of coconut oil or the paste with Pacchakarpuram and rose water applied at midday or evening is very refreshning and effective. The oil is used in gonorrhoea in 5 minim doses either with milk and sugar or as an emulsion or diluted with ghee.
A compound powder of Chandana, Useera, Daaruharidra and sugar given with Thandulodaka (water obtained by washing raw rice) is recommended for prompt action in haemorrhage. In hiccough – chandanam with milk. In Raktatisara or diarrhoea with blood – Chandanam with sugar, honey and water obtained by washing raw rice – Charaka.
16. Chitramulam
Names:- Latin Plumbago Zeylanica
Tamil Chitramoolam
Telugu Chitramoolam
Canarese Chitramoola
Malayal Kodiveli kilangu
Urdu Chitrak
Chitrako Agni Samah Paake
Katukah Kapha Sopha Jith
Vaatodaraarso Grahanee
Kshaya Paandu Vinaasanaah.
Dhanvanthari Nighantu.
Chitraka is equal to fire in promoting digestion. It is pungent. It checks Kapha and swellings. It is useful in checking Vaata, Udata (abdominal distention), Arsas (Piles), Grahani (Dysentery), Kshaya (Consumption), and Paandu (Anaemia).
I often use Chitramoolam as Panchakola Quatham in 60 grain doses (Chitraka being 12 gr.) along with 1 oz. of jaggery as a decotion with water.
It is reputed to be of great benefit in puerperal fevers and other acute infections.
It is recommended for external use in Leucoderma and Elephantiasis.
Dose:- Internally, it is not generally used alone but only as a compound powder or pill in the form of Chitrakadi Vati (Charaka) or panchakola quatha choornam. The leaf is recommended as a vegetable preparation along with that of Punarnava in the treatment of dropsy.
Externally, the root is a vesicant and counter-irritant, the red-flowered variety being more effective than the other.
Action:- In small doses, a digestive and carminative. In large doses irritant.
Uses:- In the Allopathic Pharmacopoeia this drug is known only as a poison, whereas in the Ayurvedic, it is used with great benefit in a number of acute and chronic ailments. In some dyspeptics, it acts as a specific when every other drug fails. It is one of the Panchakolas, a popular appetizer or gastric stimulant. It is used in making certain pills such as Sannipata bhairava where its action is believed to be specific against poison (of microbes) causing fever. It is believed to have a specific action in piles and is given in a special preparation with buttermilk and in various other ways. Butter prepared from curd made out of milk boiled with this root, is used in the treatment of chronic ulcers and sinuses as an external application or as an injection into the sinus. It is an abortifacient both by external and internal use. But, its use is probably attended with danger.
