Pankaj Oudhia’s Notes on Argemone mexicana L. [Kirtikar, Kanhoba Ranchoddas, and Baman Das Basu. "Indian Medicinal Plants." Indian Medicinal Plants. (1918)].

Pankaj Oudhia’s Notes on Argemone mexicana L. [Kirtikar, Kanhoba Ranchoddas, and Baman Das Basu. "Indian Medicinal Plants." Indian Medicinal Plants. (1918)].

Pankaj Oudhia

Introduction

Based on Ethnobotanical surveys since year 1990 in different parts of India Pankaj Oudhia has documented vital information about Medicinal Plants mentioned in the famous publication by Kirtikar and Basu (1918). Through this research document Pankaj Oudhia has tried to present original document with additional notes. For complete paper with pictures, Interactive Tables, Video and Audio clips please visit pankajoudhia.com

For original publication by Kirtikar and Basu (1918) please visit https://archive.org/details/indianmedicinalp01kirt

62. Argemone mexicana, Linn, h.f.b.i., i. 117.

Roxb. 426.

Engl : — The Mexican or Prickly Poppy.

Sanskrit : — Srigala-Kanta ; brahmadandi.

Vern.: — Bharbhand, piladhutura, farangi-dhutura, ujar-Kanta

Shial-kantn, sial-kanta (H.) ; Baro-Sliial kanta (B.); Gokuhla

janum (Santal) ; Bharbhurwa, ETarwah kantela (N.-W. P.) ;

Kandiari, Snlkanta bhatmil, Satyanasa, bherband, Katci, bhat-

kateya (Pb.) ; Farangi dhatura, bharamdandi, daruri, pila-

dhatura (Dack.') ; Darudi (Guj.); Firangidhotra, daruri, pinvala-

dhotra, kante-dhotra (Mar.) ; Biratna-dandu, Kurukkum-Chedi,

(Tarn.) ; Brahma daudi-chettu (Tel.) ; Datturi, datturi-gidda

(Kan.) ; Brahma-danti (Mai J ; Kanta-kusham (Uriya).

Habitat : — By roadside and Simla 5,000 ft., in fields through-

out India.

An erect, prickly, robust annual herb, with copious yellow

juice and rigid prickles, growing wild in rich roadside places

and rice-fields, after the crops of rice-plants are cut down ; stem

sometimes half-woody below, 2-4 ft., with spreading branches.

Leaves 3-7 in., amplexicaul, glaucous-green, blotched with white,

deeply repand, sinuate, pinnatifid, with thorny teeth. Peduncles

erect, both before and after flowering. Flowers yellow, scentless

1-3 in. diam. Calyx glabrous and prickly ; sepals horned at the

top. Petals 4-6; stamens numerous. Stigmas 4-5, radiating

free, red. Capsules f-lj in. long, terete, prickly, 4-5-valved ;

obovate, or elliptic-oblong, 1-celled ; opening by valves at the

apex. Seeds spherical, shining, black, pitted.

80 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.

Parts used : — The seeds, and roots. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: All parts are of economical importance.]

Uses : — The yellow juice of this plant is used as a medicine

for dropsy [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Documented information on over 5000 Promising Herbal Formulations], jaundice[Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Documented information on over 7000 Promising Herbal Formulations], and cutaneous affections[Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Documented information on over 800 Promising Herbal Formulations]. It is also

diuretic [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Documented information on over 2500 Promising Herbal Formulations], relieves blisters [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Documented information on over 300 Promising Herbal Formulations], and heals excoriations and indolent

ulcers. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Documented information on over 1800 Promising Herbal Formulations] (Watt). The seeds yield on expression a fixed oil,

which has long been in use amongst West India [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Throughout India] practitioners

as an aperient. The unfavorable report of Sir W. O'Shaugh-

nessy [Bengal Oisp., p. 183; led to its being neglected ; but

more recent trials of its properties by several medical officers

in Bengal serve to prove that in half drachm doses it acts as a

gentle aperient, and at the same time allays, apparently by a

sedative action, the pain in colic. The smallness of the doses,

and the mildness of its operation are recommendations to its

employment. Age apparently affects its activity, the freshly

prepared oil proving more energetic and uniform in operation

than that which has been long on hand. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Agree.] Applied to herpetic

and other forms of skin disease, it is reported to exercise a well-

marked soothing influence, according to Dr. Bonavia and

others {Indian Med. Gaz. 18C6, vol. i., p. 206). As a local

application to indolent and ill-conditioned ulcers, the expressed

yellow glutinous juice of the plant is held in much esteem by

the natives. Dr. W. Dymock, of Bombay reports having used

it thus with good effect. The native practice of applying this

juice to the eye in ophthalmia is dangerous. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: This practice is not popular these days.] Both in a chemical

and therapeutical point of view, this plant appears worthy of

investigation. (Ph. Ind.).

" The seeds are laxative [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: The correct sentence may be –The fresh seeds are laxative.], emetic [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Not in all cases.], nauseant, expectorant and

demulcent ; the oil, a drastic purgative, nauseant and expecto-

ant ; and the root, an alterative tonic. The seeds and oil have

also a beneficial effect over asthma. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Documented information on over 2900 Promising Herbal Formulations]

" The seeds are useful in cough and catarrhal affections of

the throat and pulmonary mucous membrane, and in pertussis

and asthma. Though they do not appear to possess any anti-

spasmodic property, they have a distinct control over asthma [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Very important observation. Detailed investigation is required.],

apparently, from their combined actions of nauseant, emetic,

expectorant and demulcent. As their use is often accompanied

by more or less vomiting and nausea, they are more suited

N. 0. PAPAVERACEiE. 81

as a laxative medicine to some pulmonary affections than other

diseases. The oil is serviceable in some cases in which jalap,

rhubarb and castor-oil are indicated, and also in some bronchial

and catarrhal affections. The use of the root is attended with

benefit in some chronic cases of skin diseases. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Please see Tables Arge-1 to 20 for complete list of Herbal Formulations.]

"There is a great difference in opinion as to the action

and dose of the oil of Argemone Mexieana. Some say that

thirty minims of it act as an efficient cathartic, while others

consider it to be quite inert and incapable of producing any-

purgative effect in " ounce doses." I have got this oil prepared

three or four times in my own presence, and tried it in many

cases. The former opinion is quite correct, and with regard to

the latter, it is necessary to say that the oil, so far from being

inert in " ounce doses," is unsafe in more than forty minim

doses, and produces a dangerous hypercatharsis when the dose

is increased to one drachm. If the oil is fresh, its average dose

is twenty-five minims ; and, if old, thirty-five. It is a good

drastic or hydragogue cathartic in such doses, and generally

produces from 5 to 12 motions. Ics advantage over jalap,

rhubarb, castor-oil, &c, is the smallness of its doses ; and over

the croton oil, its freeness from unpleasant, nauseous and acrid

taste. Its disadvantages as a purgative are, firstly, that its

action is not uniform even in its average dose which produces

more than fifteen or sixteen motions at one time, and only

three or four at another ; and, secondly, that it is generally

accompanied by vomiting at tlie commencement of its operation.

Though the latter is not severe, yet it has a very unpleasant

effect in a purgative medicine. Hypercatharsis from the use

of this oil is not generally attended with great debility and

other dangerous symptoms, frequently observed under a similar

condition from croton oil and some other purgatives." (Moodeen

Sheriff's Materia Medica of Madras).

In the Concan, the juice with milk is given in leprosy. * * ® [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Not a popular treatment among young healers.]

An extract made from the whole plant has been found to have

an aperient action, and the milky juice to promote the healing

of indolent ulcers. I have not noticed any bad effects from

its application to the eyes. Its use as an external application

to the eyelids in conjunctivitis was probably introduced into

11

&2 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.

this country by the Portugese [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Disagree.], who appear to have adopted it in

Brazil as a substitute for the Argemone of the Greeks and

Romans which was used for a similar purpose (Dymock).

" The yellow juice mixed with Ghi [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: and with other herbal ingredients.] is given internally in

gonorrhoea (D. R. Thompson, M.D., CLE.)"

"I found the juice very useful in scabies. Asst.-Surgeon

Qowry Coomar Mukerji found the powdered root in drachm

doses useful in tapeworm (R. L. Dutt, M.D.)" — Watt's Dictionary.

The smoke of the seeds is used in Delhi to relieve tooth-ache. [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: Please see Table Arg-21 for interesting observation on this aspect. It is part of Ancient Dental Regeneration Therapy of India. ]

It is also said to be useful in caries of the teeth.

The seeds are used as a purgative in syphilis.

 Approach for syphilis treatment is changing these days.]

In leprosy it is used as follows : —

One tola of the juice, early in the morning, taken on empty

stomach.

It is said to cure leprosy in 40 days.

" The juice is useful [Pankaj Oudhia’s Comment: With other Herbal Ingredients] in malarious fevers of a low chronic

type. How it acts I am not sure, bat I believe it has some specific

effect (germicidal) on the malarial parasites and, secondly, it acts

probably as a purgative.

"I have only tried this juice in a few cases— about six or seven

cases — and it only acted well in one or two cases ; so I cannot

speak with confidence.

cc I believe the oil is a better preparation than the juice, which

is an unstable compound.

"l am certain also the oil is a powerful alterative in syphilis

and leprosy, the same as Neem oil, but I have not used it yet

for this purpose.

" This drug has only lately come to my notice, and I believe

there is a great future before it (Major D. B. Spencer, I. M. S.)

Chemistry. —

Charbonnier claimed to have isolated morphine, and his statement was

confirmed by Ortega. Peckolt, however, concluded that the plant contained

a new alkaloid, argemonine, and not morphine.

To determine this question, Mr. J. O. Schlotterbeck exhausted a large

quantity of the dried plant, with chloroform, and obtained a large yield of

berberine, whilst a second alkaloid, identified as protopine, was extracted

with ether from the filtrate.

In Schlotterbeck's opinion, protopine was the substance regarded as

morphine by Charbonnier. and as a new alkaloid by Peckolt.

IS. 0. PAPAVERACEiE. 8

Potassium nitrate was identified among the salts naturally existing in

the plant. J. S. Ch. I. April 31, 1902, p. 560.

Some crushed seeds were steam-distilled by K. Bhaduri of Calcutta. The

distillate had a slight opalescence and a very pungent odour, but no oil came

over. Extraction of the crushed seeds with petroleum-ether gave 22*3%

of a pale greenish yellow oil with a green fluorescence. The oil obtained by

pressing the crushed seeds was deep brown, mild odour, tasteless, d 2S 0*9117,

32

d 100 0-9007, n D . 43°34, sapon. no. 185*5, acetyl no. t 27'9, acid no. 146,

I. no. 1067, R.-M. no. 0*61, Hehner no. 91*02, glycerol 15*48%, Maumene test 65°.

The oil, very thin at first, gradually thickens on keeping. AcOH and valeric

acid are present. The mixed fatty acids, pale in color and thin, showed :

d 23 09065, d 100 0*8889, sapone. no. 194, 1 no. 147*4 ; temp, of turbidity 22° ; con-

tains 8* 14% of lauric acid. No stearic acid is present.— Chemical Abstracts

for March 20, 1914, pp. 1186-7.

Citation

Oudhia, Pankaj (2013). Pankaj Oudhia’s Notes on Argemone mexicana L. [Kirtikar, Kanhoba Ranchoddas, and Baman Das Basu. "Indian Medicinal Plants." Indian Medicinal Plants. (1918)]. www.pankajoudhia.com