The Treatment of Intestinal Worms with the Indigenous Drugs Butea, Embelia and Kamala *The work reported in this paper was undertaken under the Endowment Fund of the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, aided by a grant from the Indian Research Fund Association.

The indigenous drugs Butea, Embelia and Kamala have been used in India as anthelmintics from ancient times and they were even included in the British Pharmacopoeia for some time. Although the authors of books dealing with the indigenous drugs speak highly in general terms of these three anthelmintics, in only one instance do we find that any facts and figures have been given. Caius and Mhaskar (1921, 1923) treated 32 cases of hookworm infestation with a single dose of 10 to 40 grs. of powdered Butea seeds; only a small number of hookworms were passed, and no case was cured microscopically. With the same dosage only 2 out of 26 cases of ascariasis were cured. Embelia given in 2 to 4 dr. doses in a single administration was ineffective in 24 cases of hookworm, and in 4 dr. doses in 8 cases of ascariasis. Kamala was similarly ineffective in 1 to 1^ dr." doses in 7 cases of hook-