Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Cardiospermum halicacabum L.

English Name : Baloon Vine and Love-in-a-Puff

Family : Sapindaceae


Origin : Tropical America to southern U.S.

Description
An annual or perennial climber up to 3.5 m tall. Leaves alternate, deltoid, biterate, 3 to 8 cm long, petioles 2 to 3.8 cm long, leaflets rhomboid-lanceolate. Flowers white, 3 to 4 mm long, in few flowered umbellate cymes, with a pair of peduncles modified into tendrils. Fruit capsules, depressed pyriform, 3 valved, covered with bladder like calyx, winged at the angles. Seeds globose, black, smooth, 4 to 6 mm, heart-shaped aril.


Habitat
On bushes in forests and on hedgerows on the Indian plains and in Garhwal (Himalayas) (up to 1300 m).

Parts Used : Seed, leaf, root and plant

Herb Effects
Diaphoretic, diuretic, emetic, emmenagogue, laxative, refrigerant, rubefacient, stomachic, antiinflammatory, antibacterial and inhibits heart activity in dogs subjected to anesthesia (seed); laxative and emetic (root).

Active Ingredients
Fatty acids and esters (seed oil), alkaloids (seed), a saponin (plant).

Medicinal Use
Pain and rheumatism (plant paste); earache, rheumatism, as a poultice on swellings (leaf), lowers blood pressure, to treat stomach diseases, rat-poisoning, snake-poisoning, cough with fever, scrotal enlargement, alopecia, anaemia and jaundice.

Reference

No comments: