Abelmoschus manihot (L.) Medik.

English Name : Sweet hibiscus, Sunset-hibiscus

Family : Malvaceae

Description

A perennial herb growing to 2m. It has a single central stem to 2m and short sparse branches. Leaves dark palmate on erect stalks which bears large creamy yellow hibiscus flowers all season long. The large tear-shaped pods develop at the base of the flower, they are velvety in texture.

Habitat
Wasteland and humid rocky hillsides. In Nepal it grows at elevations of 700 - 1700 metres in rocky places with shrubs. Grasslands, near streams and margins of farm land.

Parts Used : Bark, root and leaves

Origin : East Asia

Herb Effects
Emmenagogue (bark)

Medicinal Use
The bark and leaves are used to treat menorrhagia. A paste of the bark is used to treat wounds and cuts. The root juice is warmed and applied to sprains. The juice of the flowers is used to treat chronic bronchitis and toothache.

Reference

Ammi majus Linn.

English Name : Greater Ammi

Family : Apiaceae

Origin : Northeastern Africa, Eurasia

Description

An erect, branching annual herb, up to 1.5 m in height, sometimes grown as a winter ornamental. Leaves oblong, 6-20 cm long (excluding petiole), broad ternate or pinnate: leaflets lanceolate, obtuse to acute; flowers white in loose compound umbels; fruits oblong, 1.5-2.0 mm long and 1 mm or less broad.

Habitat
Almost any soil, heavy or light, is ok. Minimal water requirements once established.

Parts Used : Fruit, essential seed oil and plant

Herb Effects
Induces photosensitization (fruit); Contraceptive, diuretic and tonic (Seed)

Active Ingredients
Ammoidin, ammedin and majudin (fruit); quercetin (leaves); 5-methoxy-psoralen, 8-methoxy-psoralen, angelicin, furocoumarin, isorhamnetin, khellin, luteolin, luteolin-7-glucoside, oleic acid, palmitic acid, pimpinellin, umbelliferone, xanthotoxol (plant); bergapten, heraclenin, imperatorin, isoimperatorin, isopimpinellin, isoquercetin, oxupeucedanin, tannin, xanthotoxin (seed).

Medicinal Use
In leukoderma and psoriasis (plant decoction); in asthma and angina (Seed infusion); in toothache (Seed decoction)

Dosage
50 mg three times daily or applied externally as one per cent liniment followed by exposure of affected areas to sunlight or ultravoilet light for 2-4 hours.

Reference

Pueraria tuberosa (ROXB. EX. WILLD.) DC.

English Name : Indian Kudze

Family :Fabaceae

Origin : Southern and Eastern India

Description

A large perennial climber with a woody, tubercled stem up to 12 cm in diameter and very large tuberous roots. Leaves trifoliate; rachis 10 to 15 cm long; stipules 4 mm long, ovate-oblong, cordate; leaflets subcoriaceous, ovate, 13 to 20 cm long and nearly as wide, apex acuminate, base cuneate or truncate, glabrescent above, pubescent beneath, lateral leaflets unequal-sided; petiolules 4.5 to 6 mm long. Flowers bluish-white to purplish blue, borne in lax, leafless racemes 15 to 30 cm long; pedicels 2 to 3 mm long, silky-pubescent, fascicled along the rachis. Fruits (pods) membranous, flat, linear, 5 to 7.5 cm long, constricted between seeds, densely covered with long, silky, bristly brown hairs; seeds 3 to 6.

Habitat
Forests and fields of India (except for dry and extremely humid areas)

Parts Used : Root and tuber

Herb Effects
Emetic, demulcent, antirheumatic, stimulates the secretion and/or flow of milk (root); lowers blood sugar and antiimplantation (tuber).

Active Ingredients
Puerarin, tuberosin, stigmasterol, beta-sitosterol and daidzin (root and tuber).

Medicinal Use
The root is used as a demulcent and in the treatment of fevers. It is peeled and bruised into a cataplasm for swelling of joints. It is crushed and rubbed externally in the treatment of fevers, headaches and rheumatism.

Reference

Pterocarpus santalinusLinn.f.

English Name : Red Sandal, Red Sanders, Ruby Wood

Family : Fabaceae

Origin : India and East Indies

Description

Tree standing as high as 25 ft (it is different from Pterocarpus marsupium because it has wider leaflets. which are always trifoliate). Bark is blackish-brown, deeply cleft into rectangular plates, and exudes a deep red juice when cut; leaves are usually imparipinnate; leaflets are 3 but rarely 5; flowers are yellow and are arranged in simple or sparingly branched racemes; pods are 5 cm in diameter including the wing, the central hard and long portion containing the seed; seeds are reddish brown, smooth and leathery.


Habitat
Grows typically on dry, hilly, often rocky ground and is occasionally found growing on precipitous hillsides.


Parts Used : Heartwood, wood, bark and fruit

Herb Effects
Coagulates semen (stem bark); alleviates spasms (stem); astringent, tonic, diuretic and diaphoretic

Active Ingredients
Beta-amyrin, beta-sitosterol, liquiritigenin, stigmasterol (plant); pterocarpolone, cryptomeridiol, pterocarpol and eudesmol (heartwood); betulin, lupenone, lupeol, epilupeol (bark); beta-eusdesmol, gallic acid, pterostilbene (wood).

Medicinal Use
For skin diseases, boils and scorpion stings (heartwood); dysentery (fruit); as an astringent, for bleeding piles and to eyes in ophthalmia and to sour eyes (powder), used in cephalalgia, odontalgia, hemicrania, vomiting, diarrhea and dysentery.

Dosage
Oil: 1–1.5 grams daily in enteric-coated form for supportive treatment of urinary tract infections.
For external use in skin conditions, a few drops of the oil are added to a cup of water.

Reference

Pterocarpus marsupium ROXB.

English Name : Indian Kino Tree

Family : Fabaceae

Description

A moderate-sized to large deciduous tree. The bark is grey, rough, longitudinally fissured and scaly. The older trees exude a blood red gum-resin. The leaves are imparipinnate: the leaflets are oblong; the flowers occur in large panicles, they are yellowish and fragrant; the pods are orbicular, flat, winged.

Habitat
Forests of arid parts of central and southern India; also in Orissa. Bihar and Ceylon.


Parts Used : Wood, bark and plant juice

Herb Effects
On the nictating membrane and stimulates the cardiovascular system (stem bark); hypoglycemic (bark and heartwood); antidiarrheal and astringent (bark); lowers blood cholesterol; regenerates beta cells and increases insulin and proinsulin levels.

Active Ingredients
Beta-eudesmol, p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, pterostilbene (root); catechol, gallic acid, isoliquiritigenin, liquiritigenin, marsupinol, protocatechuic acid (wood)

Medicinal Use
In diabetes (wood infusion); diarrhea, leucorrhea, heartburn and indolent ulcers (plant juice). The heartwood is useful in skin diseases, diabetes, anaemia, and obesity. It is an astringent. It is administered for diarrhoea, dysentery, pyrosis and as an injection for leucorrhoea. An aqueous infusion of the wood is used in diabetes.

Dosage
Powder: from five to fifteen or more grains, every six, four, or three hours.

Reference

Psoralea corylifolia L.

English Name : Bawchan seed, Babachi

Family : Fabaceae

Description

An erect annual 30 to 180 cm high. Leaves broadly-elliptic, incisodentate; flowers yellow or bluish purple, in dense axillary, long-peduncled heads; fruits in the form of pods small, 3.5-4.5 mm. x 2.0-3.0 mm., ovoid-oblong; seed one, smooth, adhering to the pericarp.

Habitat
It is found throughout India in waste places as a weed.


Parts Used : Seeds, root and leaves.

Herb Effects
Anthelmintic, antibacterial, aphrodisiac, astringent, cardiac, cytotoxic, deobstruent, diaphoretic, diuretic, infertility, kidney, odontalgic, skin, stimulant, stomachic, tonic.

Active Ingredients
(+)-Bakuchiol (seed), Psoralen, Bavachinin-A, a flavanone (fruits), triterpene, psoracinol and two phenolic cinnamates, plicatin A and plicatin B and angaelicin.

Medicinal Use
Skin diseases, vitiligo, poisoning, for conception, caries, deafness, filaria, wound, as rejuvinative, febrile diseases, premature ejaculation, impotence, lower back pains, frequent urination, incontinence, bed wetting etc. It is also used externally to treat various skin ailments including leprosy, leucoderma and hair loss.

Dosage
Seed powder: orally with warm water in a dose of 5g/day in cases of eczema.
Five grams powder twice daily before meals with some coriander and honey (to taste).

Contraindication
May increase Pitta when taken alone; do not take with low body fluids; do not use with licorice root.

Reference

Psidium guajava L.

English Name : Common guava, Guava, Round guava, Apple guava

Family : Myrtaceae

Origin : Tropical America

Description

A shrub or small tree to 10 m high, occasionally to as much as 20m, roots are shallow. Bark smooth, light reddish-brown, with pubescent 4-angled young branches, bark peels off in large flakes, exposing greenish layer beneath; trunk normally attains a diameter of about 25cm, but can reach 60cm, has a 'bony' appearance. Leaves opposite, ovate-elliptic or oblong-elliptic, acute-acuminate, pubescent beneath, often rather brittle, prominently nerved, lateral nerves 10-20 pairs; blades mostly 7-15 cm long and 3-5 cm wide, rounded at base, dull green, downy on the underside, aromatic when crushed. Flowers hermaphroditic, solitary or 2-4 together in leaf axils, rather large (2.5 cm wide); peduncle about 1-2 cm long, pubescent; calyx 4-5-lobed (anthesis, not before) about 6-8 mm long, petals white, 10-15 mm long, fugacious, usually 4 or 5, obovate, slightly concave, stamens numerous (c. 200-250), white, about as long as petals; style 10-12 mm long, stigma peltate. Fruits globose, ovoid, or pyriform, whitish-yellow or faintly pink, sweet-sour pulpy, many-seeded (100-500/fruit), 2.5-10 cm long; pulp granular-juicy. Seeds yellowish, reniform.


Parts Used : Plant, leaf, root, shoot, bark and fruit

Herb Effects
Astringent (roots, bark, leaves and immature fruits); taken as an emmenagogue and vermifuge (leaf decoction); febrifuge (decoction of the new shoots)

Active Ingredients
Methionine (plant); alanine, alpha-humulene, alpha-linolenic acid, alpha-selinene, arginine, ascorbic-acid, aspartic acid, benzaldehyde, beta-bisabolene, beta-carotene, beta-ionone, beta-pinene, beta-selinene, cinnamyl acetate, citral, citric acid, delta-cadinene, fructose, gallic acid, glutamic acid, glycine, histidine, isoleucine, lactic acid, limonene, linoleic acid, lysine, myristic acid, niacin, oleic acid, oxalic acid, palmitic acid, palmitoleic acid, pantothenic acid, pectin, phenylalanine, riboflavin, stearic acid, thiamin, threonine, tryptophan, tyrosine, valine, xylose (fruit); arjunolic acid (root); aromadendrene, avicularin, beta sitosterol, calcium oxalate, caryophyllene oxide, oleanolic acid, quercetin, ursolic acid, xanthophyll (leaf); ellagic acid, leucoanthocyanin, myricetin, tannin (bark).

Medicinal Use
Commonly employed to halt gastroenteritis, diarrhea and dysentery (roots, bark, leaves and immature fruits); applied on wounds, ulcers and rheumatic places and chewed to relieve toothache (crushed leaves); taken as a remedy for coughs, throat and chest ailments, and leucorrhea, applied on skin diseases, gargled to relieve oral ulcers and inflamed gums, and for halting vomiting and diarrhea in cholera patients (leaf decoction); in cerebral ailments, nephritis and cachexia (leaf infusion); in epilepsy and chorea (leaf extract); given to expel the placenta after childbirth (decoction of bark and leaves).

Reference

Prunus persica BATSCH.

English Name : Peach

Family : Rosaceae

Origin : China

Description

When growing naturally, it is a medium-sized tree, with spreading branches of quick growth and not long-lived. The leaves are lance-shaped, about 4 inches long and 1 1/2 inch broad, tapering to a sharp point, borne on long, slender, relatively unbranched shoots, and with the flowers arranged singly, or in groups of two or more at intervals along the shoots of the previous year's growth. The blossoms come out before the leaves are fully expanded, and are of a delicate, pink colour. They have a hollow tube at the base, bearing at its free edge five sepals, and an equal number of petals, usually concave, and a great number of stamens. They have very little odour. The fruit is a drupe, like the plum, having a delicate, thin outer downy skin enclosing the flesh of the Peach, the inner layers becoming woody to form the large, furrowed, rugged stone, while the ovule ripens into the kernel or seed.

Parts Used : Fruit, leaf and flower

Herb Effects
Demulcent, sedative, diuretic and expectorant action (leaves, bark, flowers and kernels); vermicidal and insecticidal (leaf); diuretic, sedative and vermifuge (flowers); alterative, astringent, demulcent and sedative (gum from the stems); antiasthmatic, antitussive, emollient, haemolytic, laxative and sedative (seeds); demulcent, diuretic, expectorant and sedative (bark).

Active Ingredients
Kaempferol-3-rhamnoside, multiflorins A and B, quercitrin and chlorogenic acid (flower); caffeic acid, kaempferol, hentriacontanol, hentriacontane, ursolic acid and beta-sitosterol (leaf); ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, (fruit); ferulic acid, naringenin, quercetin, (plant)

Medicinal Use
On cattle sores (for killing maggots) (fresh leaf paste); used in whooping cough, ordinary coughs and chronic bronchitis and irritation and congestion of gastritis (plant); possess the power of expelling worms, if applied outwardly to the body as a poultice, to relieve vomiting and morning sickness during pregnancy, in the treatment of constipation and oedema (fresh leaves); used in the treatment of dropsy and jaundice (root bark).

Dosage
Infusion: 1 fluid drachm to 1 fluid ounce.
Specific amygdalus: 1 to 10 drops.

Reference

Prosopis cineraria (L.) DRUCE

Family : Fabaceae

Origin : Iran to India

Description

It is a small or moderate sized evergreen tree with light foliage and slender branches having conical spines. The bark is rough, exfoliating in thin flakes. Leaves are bipinnate, generally with 2 pairs of pinnae; pinnules 7 to 12 pairs. Flowers are small, yellowish and are borne in slender spikes. The pods are cylindric, torulose or flattish with coriaceous exocarp. Seeds are 10 to 15, compressed, oblong with moderately hard brown testa.

Habitat
Occurs in the dry and arid regions of India.

Parts Used : Pod, bark and flowers

Herb Effects
The pods are considered to possess astringent, demulcent and pectoral properties.

Active Ingredients
Sugars, five flavonones, fatty acids, and tannins

Medicinal Use
In rheumatism and scorpion sting (bark); by women during pregnancy to prevent miscarriage (flowers mixed with sugar); for the treatment of snakebite (plant).

Reference

Premna tomentosa Willd.

English Name : Bastard teak

Family : Lamiaceae

Origin : Tropical Asia

Description

A shrub or small to medium-sized tree up to 20 m tall, with bole up to 30(-50) cm in diameter, often crooked and fluted at base, bark fissured or striate and shaggy, grey or yellowish to pale brown or pale rusty; indumentum consisting of branched or stellate hairs. Leaves ovate or ovate-orbicular to ovate-oblong, (3-)10-35 cm x (2.5-)6-22 cm, entire, densely tomentose beneath, petiolate. Flowers with pedicel 0.5-1 mm long, corolla white, greenish-white or yellowish. Fruit obovoid-globose, 3-6 mm long, green turning black.

Habitat
Occurs frequently in open forest and deciduous forest, in Java up to 800 m altitude.


Parts Used : Whole plant, leaf, bark and root

Herb Effects
Used as a diuretic (leaves)

Medicinal Use
A decoction of the roots and leaves is used as a tonic in mixtures after childbirth. The bark is used to treat diarrhoea. The leaves are crushed and applied to sores, and used externally to treat dropsy. The dried entire plant is used to soothe skin irritation caused by caterpillars.

Reference