It is used mainly in worm infections of the gut, and in chronic dermatoses. It is also given, boiled in milk, to infants as a digestive and against recurrent upper respiratory infections.

Used as a decoction, powder, paste, confection, smoke

Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'Anthelmintic, specially used to expel tapeworm, which are passed dead. In India and the Eastern Colonies the drug is given in the early morning, fasting, mixed with milk, and followed by a purgative. The dose is 1 to 4 drachms. The seeds are also made into an infusion, or ground to powder and taken in water or syrup, and being almost tasteless are not an unpleasant remedy.'

This herb is, in effect, an oral contraceptive – it will decrease the sex drive and radically lower the chance for conception. The powdered fruit administered orally to female rats in different doses prolonged the oestrus phase of the oestrous cycle and inhibited the fertility in 60% animals. Petroleum and methanol extracts prevented pregnancy by influencing the oestrous cycle in 75% of the test females. Benzene extract had a 51% antifertility efficacy and chloroform extract 37%. Purified embelin, isolated from the plant showed no anti-fertility effect.

Anti-implantation effect was seen 100% in albino rats given 10 mg/kg embelin, and also in rabbits. Its anti-fertility effect has been postulated due to different physiological mechanisms, some terming it a promising oral contraceptive too. Its antioestrogenic effect has been suggested experimentally.