Scientific Name Cyanodon dactylon (Linn.) Pers. Family Poaceae Used Part Whole grass. Distribution Area The grass grows throughout India ascending up to 8,000 ft. Common Uses The plant is astringent, sweet, cooling,haemostatic, depurative, vulnerary, constipating, diuretic and tonic, and is useful in vitiated conditions of pitta and kapha, hyperdispsia, burning sensation, haemoptysis, haematuria, erysipelas, leprosy, skin diseases, vomiting, diarrhoea, dysentery, strangury, colporrhagia, abortion and general debility. The plant is acrid,sweet cooling, useful in biliousness, thirst, vomitting, burning sensation, bad taste in the mouth, hallucinations, epileptic fits, fatigue, leprosy, scabies, skin diseases, dysentery, fever, erysipelas, epistaxis. In Yunani system the plant is bitterish, vulnerary, expectorant, useful in vomiting, diarrhoea, cobrabite, burning sensation, diseases of the blood, stomatitis, epistaxis, bruises, biliousness, hiccough. The expressed juice is astringent and is used as an application to fresh cuts and wounds. It is also diuretic and is used in cases of dropsy and anasarca, also as an astringent in cases of chronic diarrhoea and dysentery. It is also useful in catarrhal ophthalmia. The expressed juice is used in hysteria, epilepsy, insanity. In the Konkan the grass is prescribed in compound decodtions with more active drugs for the cure of dysentery, menorrhagia, etc. The preparation of the plant is applied by the Santals in parasitic diseases which attacks the spaces between the toes. The roots crushed and mixed with curds are use in cases of chronic gleet. A cold infusion often stops bleeding piles. The decoction of the roots is used in Mysore for secondary syphilis. A decoction of the plant is diuretic, and considered useful in dropsy and anasarca. The expressed juice is astringent, and is applied to bleeding cuts and wounds (Kirt. & Basu, IV, 2689). The rhizomes and roots are used as adulterants and substitutes for couch grass (Agropyron repensBeauv.) rhizomes used in genito-urinary disorders.