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The hairy glands on the fruit are anthelmintic, antibacterial, antioxidant, antiseptic, aperient, aphrodisiac, blood purifier, carminative, cathartic, purgative and lithotriptic. Taken internally, it reportedly removes leprous eruptions and freckles and pustules. Its greatest use, however, is in the use of tapeworm, being safer and more certain than other cures; the worm is passed whole and generally dead. Also useful in scabies and in herpetic ringworm. In a clinical study, the powder was administered to 52 school children infested with hook worm (H. nana) in a single dose for two days. There was satisfactory conversion of stools from positive to negative in 96% of the cases. The drug perhaps acted not only on the worms in intestinal lumen, but also on cysticeroid stage lodging in the intestinal villi.