A handsome herb. Rhizome thick, fleshy, creeping ; stipes up to 1 ft. long ; frond divided into two portions : barren segment leafy, palmately divided, often in 3 principal divisions which are stalked and agian forked or pinnate, the ultimate division being linear-oblong, acuminate, entire or slightly toothed : fertile spike, 3-4 in. long and 1/2 in. broad, borne on a firm peduncle arising from the base of the barren segment.

Antiviral (leaf); intoxicating and anodyne (plant); expectorant, good antidote for snakebites, antiasthmatic.

Philiphine Medicinal Plants

Flavonoids (ugonins A-D) (rhizome); carotene, riboflavin, niacin and ascorbic acid.

Impotence (rhizome decoction) and mouth blisters (leaf juice); in sciatica (plant); for whooping cough (rhizome); for dysentery, catarrh, asthma and early stages of phthisis.

Chandel et al., Biodiversity in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in India.