Scientific Name Carthamus tinctorius Linn.
Family Asteraceae.
Used Part Flowers.
Distribution Area Cultivated throughout India. As an oilseed crop, safflower is cultivated in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Common Uses . The flowers are laxative, cure "vata""tridosaha""kapha", strangury, leprosy,cause biliousness. The flowers have a bitter bad taste and bad odor, tonic to the liver, hypotonic, diuretic, expectorant, cure inflammations, boils, ringworm, scabies, leucoderma, piles, bronchitis, improve the complexion. Although chiefly used as a pigment the flowers have stimulant, sedative and emmenagouge properties and are supposed to affect the heart and the liver and prevent the formation of white corpuscles in the blood. In large doses Carthamus is said to be laxative, and administered in warm infusion, diaphoretic. It is used as substitutue for saffron in measles, scarlatina and other exanthematous diseases to promote the eruptions.
In Phillipines the flowers are given as a cure for jaundice.

The powdered seeds made into a poultice are used to allay inflammations of the womb after childbirth. The oil is used as a liniment in rheumatism.

The oil is used as a dressing for bad ulcers. It is considered a mild purgative in Sind. In the Punjab, the seeds are considered to be diuretic and tonic. In Sind , they are employed as a cooling medicine, they are sometimes boiled and made into a gruel.

The seed are sweet, acrid, oleagenous, cooling, aphrodiasiac, cure "kapha", "vata" leprosy, The oil from seeds is indigetible, heating, causes burning sensation, increases, "tridosha", depilatory.

The leaves are bitter sweet, laxative, appetizer and diuretic and are useful in leucorrorrhea and ophathalmopathy. The flowers are bitter, liver tonic, diuretic, laxative, expectorant, sedative and emmenagogue. They are useful in strangury, leprosy, inflammations, boils, ring worm, scabies, leucoderma, haemorrhoids and bronchitis. Seeds are bitter, purgarive, carminative, aphrodisiac, diuretic and tonic. They are useful in leucoderma, scabies, catarrh, pectoralgia, pharyngodynia, arthritis and constipation. The seed oil is used in liniment in arthritis and as a dressing for foul ulcers. The oil is reported to cause pruritus and eye diseases and increase tridosa.

Charred safflower oil is used for healing sores and in rheumatism. . Because its high contents of linolenic acid it is, considered to be a very good cooking medium for patients having hypertension and heart ailments. The oil finds application as a component of a hair growth stimulant and prevents hair loss. The oil has been used as a constituent of a cosmetic preparation for protecting the skin from sun tan and shaving etc.
The flowers are stimulant, sedative and emmenagogue and when given in large doses they are laxative. Dried flower petals are used in China and Japan as crude drug "kouka" for diseases in women. The plant contains a propanetriol derivative which can be used for the treatment of circulatory disorders.