Herbal remedy for leprosy

Thankuni (Thol-kuri) is a very popular small herbaceous plant belonging to the Umbelliferae, and comprising about 70 species which are found in wet places in temperate and tropical regions, more especially of the Southern hemisphere. In Bangladesh it is found in damp places, by the side of the pond, ditches and streams and also by the side of the zigzag paths in rural areas. Its botanical name is Hydrocotyle asiatica. The leaves are sometimes made into soup, which, however, probably serves more as a medicine than as a food. It is familiar to the villagers in the name of Thankuni.

Medicinal Properties: The plant has a bitter, bad taste; soporific, sedative to the narves, tonic, cardiotonic, bechic, stomachic, carminative, diuretic; clears the voice and the brain; cures hiccough, asthma, bronchitis, scalding of urine, headache; improves appetite (Yunani). The plant is considered a useful alterative and tonic in diseases of the skin, nerves, and blood. The people are in the habit of taking the powdered dried leaves with milk for improving their memory, and as an alterative tonic. The leaves are said to be useful in syphilitic skin diseases both externally and internally; and on the Malabar Coast, the plant is one of the remedies for leprosy. Dr. A. Hunter, after it in the Madras Hospital, came to the conclusion that it had no claim to consideration as a specific in leprosy, but found it most useful in ameliorating the symptoms and improving the general health.

In Bombay, it is a popular remedy for the slight dysenteric derangements of the bowels to which children are subject: three or four leaves are given with cumin and sugar, and the pounded leaves are applied to the navel. In the Konkan , one or two leaves are given every morning to cure stuttering; and the juice is applied (generally as a lep with Cadamba bark, ghi, and black cumin) to skin eruptions supposed to arise from heat of blood. In Java, according to Horsfield, the leaves are considered diuretic. In Ceylon, the leaves are taken as a tonic and blood purifier; also for indigestion, nervousness and dysentery. In Indo China, the plant is considered diuretic. It is used internally as an alterative tonic, and externally as a stimulant. The entire plant is used by vaidyans in derangements of the three humours. The leaves are used as diuretic and are said to be beneficial in skin diseases, specially in leprosy. For leprosy it is given in the form of powder, decoction or syrup. A syrup of the leaves was administered in two cases of chronic psoriasis. (Indian Medicinal Plants).

Medicine: The parts of the plant generally employed are the leaves, deprived of their petioles, dried by exposure to the air in the shade, and ground to a powder. It appears that if dried in the sun, or any method of artificial heat, the leaves lose a great part of their medicinal properties owing to the volatilization of the oil which is their active principle. The powder thus carefully prepared ought to be kept in well stoppered bottles to prevent the access of moisture. When fresh the leaves have scarcely any smell, but emit a peculiar faint, aromatic odour when crushed between the fingers. They have a harsh, bitter and disagreeable taste, which, however, becomes scarcely perceptible after the leaves have been well dried. The powder 3 to 4 lb of which may be obtained from 30 lb of the fresh leaves, is of a pale green colour, and exhales a slight characteristics aroma. .

Applications in medicine : The principle value of the drug appears from its physiological action to be as a stimulant to the cutaneous circulation in skin diseases, and for this purpose it will be found to have been chiefly employed. Dr. Short speaks of the drug in high terms and considers it to have a powerful action in all leprous affections. But later writers agree that its effects are most marked in the preliminary anaesthetic stages of the disease. Drs. Lolliot, Cazenove, and Bertin find it of little value in advanced cases of tubercular leprosy, but extol its virtues in the treatment of chronic and obstinate eczema, the letter remarking ;p "The eczemas treated by me with the preparations of Hydrocotyle were of the most rebellious type, viz., localized eczemas; nevertheless cures were effected in every case and that within a very brief space of time." It has also been prescribed with excellent result in cases of secondary and tertiary syphilis accompanied gummatous infiltration and ulceration; in chronic callous ulcers; as a stimulant to healthy mucous secration in fantile diarrhea and ozoena; in cases of scrofulous ulceration, enlargement of glands and abscess; and in chronic rheumatism. It has also been employed with success as a diuretic in several diseases, and as an emenagogue in cases of amenorrhoea. In all cases in which a constitutuional or general diseases id accompanied by a local lesion, the drug ought to be not only administered internally, but also applied locally as powder, poultice or ointment. Numerous description of cases so treated by practitioners in many parts of the world have appeared of last years, with the result that the use of the plant is becoming daily more wide-spread and the belief in its therapeutic value more universal. Under these circumstances it would certainly seem advisable to give the whole plant a careful trial, as recommended by Boileau and more recently again strongly advised by Daruty, as it is quite possible that much of the disrepute into which it has fallen in India may be the result of the Pharmacopoea recognizing only the least active part, viz. the leaves.