The New Nation - Internet Edition

Jamayet Ali

Durba is a perennial creeping grass and flowering all the year round; grows everywhere throughout Bangladesh. It is particularly abundant on road-sides and paths, and readily takes possession of any uncultivated area. It grows on all kinds of soil, even on alkali soil, but prefers heavier types. It flowers nearly throughout the year. The grass is one of the best for lawns and turfs. It is considered to be a good soil binder and is one of the plants recommended for checking soil erosion. Once established the grass is difficult to eradicate. It is a serious pest of cultivable lands, and its thick net-work of runners practically starves out crops, and vast areas of good fertile land are rendered unfit for cultivation. Deep ploughing and hand digging during hot weather and exposure to sun, have been found useful in checking its spread. In winter it appears scanty, at which time it may be said to be at rest.

Botanical name of Durba is Cynodon dactylon Pers. It is a valuable pasture grass, almost the only one that keeps green during hot weather, and provides more and better grazing for cattle and horses than any other grass. It can be cut and fed green, or made into hay. It is the most common and useful grass in India also.

A cooling drink is said to be made from the roots. Its stems as well as its roots form a large proportion of the food of our horses and cows. Even this grass is very eagerly eaten to the cows for having large quantity of milk.

It is considered to be a first class fodder grass in Australia, where it is widely distributed though in all probability introduced with cultivation. This grass is highly valued in the United States, where it is generally known under the name of Bermuda grass. Medicinal Properties: The plant is acrid, sweet, cooling; useful in biliousness, thirst, vomiting, burning sensation, bad taste in the mouth, hallucinations, epileptic fits fatigue, leprosy, scabies, skin diseases, dysentery, fever, erysipelas, epistaxis (Ayurveda). The plant is bitterish; vulnerary, expectorant; useful in vomiting, diarrhoea, cobra-bite, burning sensation, diseases of the blood, stomatitis, epistaxis, bruises, biliousness, hiccough (Yunani).

The express 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 diarhhoea 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 decoctions with more active drugs for the cure of dysentery, menorrhagia.

A white variety, which appears to be only a diseased state of the plant, is used to check vomiting in bilious complaints. A preparation of the plant is applied by the Santals in parasitic disease, which attacks the spaces between the toes. The roots crushed and mixed with curds are used in cases of chronic gleet.

A cold infusion often stops bleeding from piles. The decoction of the roots is used in Mysore for secondary syphilis. The Mundas use it as a diuretic, especially in dropsy. In Madagascar, the whole plant, or the rhizome alone, is applied topically in gout and rheumatic affections. Europeans in the Transvaal use the plant for hurtburn. It is taken bruised and mixed with sodium bicarbonate and other substances. The bruised plant alone is applied as a styptic to wounds. The xosas use the decoction as a lotion for sores and swellings. The plant is not an antidote to either snake-venom or scorpion venom. (Indian Medicinal Plants, K.R. Kirtikar & B.D. Basu, Vol. N, 2690) Properties and Uses: The grass is used to treat inflamed tumours, piles, Twhitlows, toothache, echzema, excessive menstrual discharges and leucorrhoea, and to stop bleeding from cuts and wounds. Fresh juice is demulcent and astringent, stops nosebleeding and cures skin diseases and is used in cases of dropsy, anasarca, hysteria, epilepsy, insanity, chronic diarrhoea and dysentery.

It also acts as a diuretic and is used to stop vomiting and to treat catarrhal ophthalmia. Decoction of the roots is valuable in cases of vesical calculas, secondary syphilis, dysuria and irritation of the urinary organs. Extract of the plant possesses antiviral, antifungal, hypoglycemic, diuretic and antilithic properties. (Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh, Abdul Ghani, Second Edition ).

Medicine: In the Athawana Veda it is said: "May Durba, which rose from the water of life, which has a hundred roots and a hundred stems, efface a hundred of my sins, and prolong my existence on earth for a hundred years." U.C. Dutt says: "This elegant and most useful vegetable has a niche in the temple of the Hindu religion. medicinally, the fresh juice of the leaves is considered astringent, and is used as a snuff in epistaxis. The bruised grass is a popular application to bleeding wounds."

It seems probable that both for sacred as well as medicinal purposes this grass is often confused with Eragrostis cynosuroides. The latter is the Kash, Darbh or Dab (the Gramina of the Portuguese and the Gramen of the Romans but not the Triticum repens of the Greeks); it is used extensively at funeral ceremonies of the Hindus, the chief mourner wearing a ring of the grass. The latter is sacred to Ganesh. Both grasses are indiscriminately used in compound prescriptions with more powerful drugs in the cure of dysentery, menorrhoegia. Sakharam Arjun says: "A white variety, which appears to be only a diseased state of the plant, is used medicinally by the native practitioners. It is acidulous and is used to check vomiting in bilious complaints." Rev.

A. Campbell says of the Santals: A preparation of the plant is applied in a parasitic disease, which attacks the spaces between the toes. This disease may be the same as that which is common in the West Indies, caused by Pulex penetrans."

Special Opinions: "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" (Civil Surgeon J.H. Thornton, B.A. M.B., Monghyr) "The juice of the green grass is used in catarrhal ophthalmia, is astringent, used also with much benefit in hoematuresis" (Surgeon-Major J.M. Houston, Durbar Physn., Travancore, and John Gomes, Medical Store-keeper, Trevandrum). "I have found the fresh juice to be a very valuable styptic in epitaxis" (Doyal Chunder Shome). "Antiperiodic, used as an application in scabies" (Civil Surgeon Jhon McConaghey, M.D. Shajahanpore). "The decoction of the roots is used in Mysore for secondary syphilis" (Surgeon-Major John North, I.M.S., Bangalore) "The decoction of the root chiefly used as diuretic" (Y. Ummegudien, Madras) , A cold infusion of durba grass often stops bleeding from piles. I generally give it with milk" (Civil-Surgeon R. L. Dutt. M.D. Pubna).

"Used in irritation of the urinary organs" (Assistant Surgeon T. Ruthnam Moodelliar, Chingleput, Madras Presidency) "Expressed juice is used by the Hakims as an injection in the nostrils for epitaxis. The bruised grass has been used by the Hindus from very ancient times as a dressing for fresh wounds, probably on account of its styptic properties" (Assistant Surgeon Nobin Chunder Dutt. Durbhanga). "The roots crushed and mixed with curds are used in cases of chronic gleet, dose 3ii" (Surgeon James McCloghay, Offg. Staff Surgeon, Poona) (Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Watt, Vol. II, 679, 680)