English: Prickly Chaff flower; Devils horsewhip.
Hindi: Latjira, Khara manjari.
Sanskrit: Apamarga.
Bengali: Apang.
Marhati: Aghada.Punjabi: Kurti.
Tamil: Na-yurivt.
Telugu: Apa kharevazbun.
Burmese: Kunela; mon.
Botany: small herb, India. The flowering spikes or the seeds of the plant,
bites of poisonous snakes and reptiles.
Diuretic, renal dropsy and general anasarca
loose, watery stools. diarrhoea and dysentery.
Chemistry: alkaline ash, with potash. (R. N.Khory: Materia Medica of India, vol. II, p.504).
Actions and Uses - Astringent, diuretic and alternative. It is given in menorrhagia, diarrhoea, and dysentery. Khar is largely employed in anasarca, ascites and dropsy. It is also employed in cutaneous affections and enlargements of glands and to loosen expectoration in cough. It has a great reputation in dog - bites and bits of snakes and other venomous reptiles, for which purpose it is given internally and also applied externally. The juice is sometimes applied in toothache, and the paste as eye - salve (anjan) in opacity of the cornea. A medicated oil is dropped into the ear in deafness and noises in the ears. (Ibid., vol. II, pp. 504 - 5).
The diuretic properties of the plant are well - known to the natives of India and European physicians agree as to its value in dropsical affections; one ounce of the plant may be boiled in ten ounces of water for 15 minutes and from 1 to 2 ounces of the decoction be given 3 times a day. (W. Dymock: Pharmacographia Indica, vol. III, p.136).
Ayurvedic Opinions and Uses
Charaka - It is used as a snuff to expel mucus from the nose.
Sushruta - Its root - bark is used in piles. It is also used in worm affections.
Chakradatta - It is used in hemorrhages from the boils; noises in ears and deafness of hearing; acute ophthalmia.
Bhavaprakasha - It is useful in cholera where its rootbark is used.
Sarngadhara - It is very good in bleeding piles.
Bangasena - It is an excellent remedy in insanity, and acute boils.
Harita - It is very useful in general dropsy.
Parts Used - Leaves, root - bark, seeds and branches.
Dose - Juice of the leaves I tola; decoction from one chatak to half a powa; root - bark from four annas to half a tola; powder of the seeds from four annas to six annas.
Personal Experiences of Ayurvedic Uses.
I have observed in out practice that Apamarga leaves are largely used by our native physicians with beneficial results in all sorts of boils, carbuncles, eruptions, foul and poisonous ulcers.
Many of these practitioners have made several patents in the form of oils for boils, carbuncles, ulcers and foul sores, and the principal ingredient of their oil is Apamarga. I know it for certain that Apamarga root and leaves are very good for snake - bites and bites of poisonous insects.
It is a sovereign remedy for burns and is efficacious in subduing burning sensation - excessive burning sensation of the body and of all kinds of ulcers and sores.
Parts Used in the Preparation of Homeopathic Mother Tincture
The mother tincture is prepared from the juice of the leaves and branches.
Boils Achy. Here I would like to introduce an indigenous drug
Achyranthes aspera, a very good remedy for boils. The word specific is not appropriate to homoeopathy, but this drug is just that for boils. Boils with burning pains, wounds with offensive pus, sepsis from insect bites, sepsis from incised wounds; it is like an antibiotic to us.
Diarrhoea Achy. In diarrhoea, a very good indigenous drug is
Achyranthes aspera, referred to earlier for boils. This drug is useful for three conditions (1) intermittent fever (2) boils and (3) diarrhoea. An interesting combination of symptoms, what is popularly called a compound rubric, is fever associated with diarrhoea which is covered by this drug. The symptoms of diarrhoea of this drug are watery, yellowish, offensive stool, pain stomach < after eating or drinking, nausea and vomiting < after or drinking.
Botany: erect or procumbent, annual or perennial herb, 5 cm high, often with a woody base.
Habitat: weed of waysides on roadsides. Although it has many medicinal properties.
Region: widespread; Baluchistan, Ceylon, Tropical Asia, Africa, Australia, America.
LiteratureScholten J.; Veils of Vision; Utrecht. 2014.