KANSI
English : Wild endive or chicory/Endive or Garden endive
Urdu : Kansi/Tukhm-e-Kasni/Barg-e-Kansi/Beikh-e-Kasni
Telugu : Kasni vittulu
Description :
This is an annual shrub,having two varieties–(i) Cultivated (ii) Wild. The root which is used in treatement is obtained from chicorium intybus by a special method.The plant is not usually allowed to seed. The roots are either sun-dried.Althogh sun-dried roots have a better appearance, klin dried is more efficient and preffered in use.The root is supplied in the form of broken pieces.They show a light brown or white outer surface and white interior.They are odourless and tasteless.The fracture of the pieces is fibrous.
Cichorium endiva grows well on enriched garden soil.Its root , and seeds are used in treatement.Seeds are yellowish -brown in colour with faint odour and slight taste.They measure 2 mm in length and 0.5-1 mm in width.They are oblong in shape and their testa is hard in texture and has a rough surface.
Action and Uses:
Leaves juice is resolvent, deobstruent, cholagogue and febrifuge.It is used in inflammatory diseases of internal organs. It is also used as vaginal drug. For this purpose, cotton(ball) is soaked in juice and put inside vaginal canal in fornices for the treatement of metritis , salpingitis, cervicitis and vaginitis. Etc.
Seeds are deobstruent,diuretic, and carminative.They are used in liver,gall-bladder and kidney diseases e.g obstructive jaundice,hepatitis and chronic fevers,renal stones etc.
Root is bitter, deobstruent,diruretic, emmenagogue and resovent.It is also febrifuge, cholagogue and lithontriptic.In large doses it is aperient.It is used as hepatitis,gastritis, choleycystitis, colitis, dropsy,compound fevers, renal calculi and gall-stones.
Ibn sina’s view:
It is deobstruent for visceral and vascular obstruction.It is also anti-nauseating,anti-billious and stomachic.Suitable for liver and useful for chronic fevers.