Atasi – Alasi – Flaxseed – Linum usitatissimum Linn.

Benefits of Atasi – Alasi – Flax seed

• It is aperient (in piles), aphrodisiac (seeds), astringent (roasted seeds), cardiac (flowers), demulcent, diuretic, emollient, expectorant, and nerine tonic.
• It is useful in burns and scalds (carrion oil-lime water and Alasi oil), colic, eye trouble, gouty and rheumatic trouble (poultice), hemorrhoids, hemorrhages, irritation of the intestine and Genito-urinary passages spasmodic affection of the bowels.
• The fixed oil extracted from the seeds is given orally as a laxative in one- or two-ounce doses twice a day. The oil is used in gravel, stone, pleurisy, and spasmodic affections of the bowels and piles. Carrion oil is well-known which is for medicinal uses also.
• This oil is a mixture of equal parts of the oil and lime water, it is a household remedy for burns, scalds, and skin diseases like eczema, herpes, etc. 
• Linseed oil is used for removing spots from the face. 
• The oil is administered as an enema in impacted conditions of the rectum and the lower colon.
• The bark and leaves are useful in gonorrhea and the ash of the bark is useful as styptic and vulnerable. The fibers are obtained from the plant, the fibers are recommended to employ as stitching thread (Sivana- Sutra), besides other utility of fine fibers (for textiles), etc. The seeds are mainly medicinally useful and used in various diseases and their oil is administered internally and externally for different ailments. 
• The seeds are used in gonorrhea, inflammatory gastrointestinal disorders, irritation of the urinary tract, nephritis, cystitis, colds, cough, sore throat, and pulmonary complaints. 
• The linseed tea or infusion of seeds is given orally repeatedly in a small glassful dose as demulcent and emollient for cough and colds. The tea or infusion prepared with linseeds is also mixed with honey or suitable adjuvants.
• As a laxative, the seeds in doses of one to two teaspoonfuls of the seeds are given with water. An infusion made by steeping overnight and an ounce of the powdered seeds in a tumblerful of water is given with lime juice to consumptives. 
• The seeds oil is also given in constipation which is prescribed in flatulence, constipation, anal obstruction, and similar intestinal troubles, also in cases of piles for regular and constipation-free motion. The oil is employed as an enema in intestinal and anal obstruction.
• The flowers are useful in heart diseases as they are cardiac tonic. They are also useful as a brain tonic. The poultice of seeds is frequently applied as a household remedy for abscesses, boils, and inflammatory conditions.
• The same application is also made for gouty, rheumatic swellings, and skin diseases. A poultice is commonly applied to carbuncles. In the ailments of deep-seated inflammations such as pneumonia, bronchitis, bronchopneumonia, pleurisy, angina, and other similar chest troubles, the external application of seeds is made and seeds oil is topically applied in nervine, neuralgia, rheumatic pains, skin affections and also debility as the oil is also used as a massage oil.
• Seeds are internally used as an aphrodisiac for exciting sexual desire, but they are considered disavowable to semen. The seeds of Atasi are useful as a galactagogue (StanyaJanana) and emmenagogue.
• The seeds were duly roasted and given in diarrhea and dysentery. The seeds are rubefacient and employed in poultice in various ailments and for reducing the counter-irritant effect of the linseeds poultice the dusting of mustard powder is also sometimes suggested.
• Inhalation of the smoke from burning seeds is useful in cold, head affection, and hysteria. The burnt seeds are useful as styptic and healer, and they are applied externally to wounds and ulcers.
• The seeds meal is used as cataplasms. The oil from seeds is useful in biliousness and backache and it purifies blood, but it may cause loss of appetite. The fumigation of smoke is also considered useful in hysteria and other ailments of cold. 
• The mucilage of seeds is good for eye troubles. The seeds are useful in disorders caused by Vata, pitta, and Kapha. The leaves are allaying Vata and used in their ailments.
• The seeds are burnt and their fumigation a smoke (in Dhupana Vidhi) application which is recommended in certain recipes for natal care and infantile care (Prasutika Graha and Bala Raksoghna).
• The seeds and seeds-oil are also used in other ailing conditions and for different purposes (such as paint, dye, varnishes as drying oil, etc. including birds- lime by close cooking).
• The seeds yield oil, the linseed oil which is of non-human use but adulterated and also employed to prepare artificial ghee) is used in veterinary medicine, especially horse care e.g., for constipation in horses; the seeds (cake left after extracting the oil from linseed) is a nutritive cattle feeds (as it is full of protein and also rich in calcium and phosphorus contents).