the bladder. Clums—used in menorrhagia, dysentery, diarrhoea and in skin diseases.
The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India recommended the use of the rootstock in dysuria, vaginal discharges and erysipelas.
Dosage Rootstock—50—100 g for decoction. (API Vol. III.)
Dianthus carophyllus Linn.
Family Caryophyllaceae.
Habitat Kashmir; commonly grown in gardens, especially on the hills.
English Carnation, Clove Pink.
Action Flowers—diaphoretic, alexiteric, cardiac tonic. whole plant—vermifuge. Juice of plant— antiviral.
Leaves contain glucoproteins. A related species, Dicentra anatolicus Boiss, found in the Western Himalayas, is used as an antiperiodic in intermittent fevers.
Dicentra canadensis Waip.
Family Papaveraceae.
Habitat The Himalayas from
Kumaon to Khasia Hills. Cultivated in Indian gardens.
English Squirrel Corn. (A related species, Corydalis cucullaria, known as Turkey Pea, occurs in Canada
and the USA.)
Action Diuretic, alterative, antiscrofula. Used for torpid and
sluggish conditions, menstrual disorders and diseases due to vitiated blood. Also employed as a sedative for the relief of paralysis agitans and other muscular tremors.
A large number of physiologically active isoquinoline alkaloids have been isolated from the tubers of many species of Dicentra, but the use of Corydalis is not linked with the alkaloids they contain, only bulbocapnine, present in the tubers, exhibits therapeutic activity. It produces catalepsy in mammals and possesses sympathetic as well as parasympathetic central effects.
212 Dichroa febrifuga Lour.
It has been employed for the relief of paralysis agitans and other muscular tremors, vesticular nystagmus and similar conditions.
D)The root contains protopine, corydeline, bulbocapnine, cancentrine, dehydrocancentrines A and B. Bicuculline (an isoquinoline alkaloid) isolated from the tuber of Dicentra cucullaria, is a centrally-
