Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Phyllanthus fraternus WEBSTER


English Name : Bhumiamala

Family : Euphorbiaceae

Origin : Indian sub-continent

Description
A herb that grows up to 60 cm. The plant is bitter in taste, the leaves are small, green, and short-petioled with a thin and glaucous under surface. The flowers are unisexual, monoecious, minute, greenish, and inconspicuous, short-stalked and borne in pairs in the axils of the leaves. The fruit is a capsule, globose, slightly depressed at the top with six enervations. In the roots, the secondary growth starts very early and is well pronounced. There is a distinct cambium. No starch grains, mineral crystals or latex vessels are seen both in root and stem.

Parts Used : Plant, fresh leaves and root.

Herb Effects
Bitter in taste, astringent, stomachic, diuretic, febrifuge and antiseptic (plant).

Medicinal Use
Used in gastric complaints including dyspepsia, colic, diarrhoea and dysentery; also employed in dropsy and diseases of urino-genital system, in diabetes (plant); in dysentery (young shoots); for jaundice (fresh roots); as a refrigerant for scalp (leaves decoction); for application on oedematous swellings and ulcers (leaves, roots); to offensive sores and ulcers (latex).

Reference

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