Lavandula stoechas L.

Family : Lamiaceae

Synonym(s) : Stoechas officinarum Mill.

English Name : French lavender

Description

A perennial shrub, it usually grows to 30-100 cm tall and wide. The leaves are 1-4 cm long, greyish tomentose. The flowers are pinkish-purple (lavender-coloured), produced on spikes 2-3 cm long at the top of slender leafless stems 10-30 cm long; each flower is subtended by a bract 4-8 mm long. At the top of the spike are a number of much larger, sterile bracts (no flowers between them), 10-50 mm long and bright lavender purple (rarely white).

Habitat
Dry hills, garigue and open woods on limestone and granite soils.

Parts Used : Flowers

Herb Effects
Antiasthmatic, antiseptic, antispasmodic, digestive and expectorant (flowers, and the essential oil)

Active Ingredients
d-Camphor

Medicinal Use

For wounds, ulcers, sores etc and as a relaxing oil for massage (essential oil); used in teas to soothe headaches and relax the nerves.

Reference

Jasminum sambac (L.) AIT.

Family : Oleaceae

English Name : Arabian jasmine, Mohle flowers, Zambac

Origin : India, Bengal to Ceylon and Burma

Description

It is a scandent shrub with pubescent young shoots. Leaves are opposite, ovate or elliptic, obtuse or acute and glabrous or pubescent. Flowers are 3 to many flowered and are borne in terminal cymes or solitary. The berries are globose and blue-black.

Habitat
0-600 m in its native habitat; widely cultivated

Parts Used : Fruit, leaves and flowers

Herb Effects
Galactagogue (fruit, leaves and flowers)

Active Ingredients
Betulinic acid (leaf)

Medicinal Use

A poultice of the bruised root or leaves or flowers unmoistened applied to the breasts to arrest the secretion of milk in the puerperal state in cases of threatened abscess.

Contraindication
Avoid during pregnancy

Reference

Indigofera tinctoria L.

Family : Fabaceae

Synonym(s) : Indigofera leptostachys DC., Indigofera pulchella sensu Baker

English Name : True or Indian Indigo, black henna

Origin : Probably tropical west Africa (including Senegal)

Description

A small shrub, 4 to 6 feet high, with slender, spreading, rather angular branches, rough with short adpressed white hairs. Leaves alternate, 3 or 4 inches long, shortly stalked, unequally pinnate, with small, setaceous stipules, rachis stiff, tapering, hairy; leaflets in 4 to 6 opposite pairs and an odd one, very shortly stalked, each with a minute stipella at the base, oval-or obovate-oblong, entire, ½ to ¾ inch long, glabrous and bluish green above, silky with white adpressed hairs and paler beneath.

Habitat
Forests, rocky areas and along roads in India; also in Great Britain and the tropics of America and Africa.

Parts Used : Leaf, plant and its aerial part.

Herb Effects
Depresses the central nervous system and hypoglycemic (aerial part); irritates the mucosa of the alimentary canal.

Active Ingredients
Indigotin, indican, phosphoric acid (leaf); from an alcohol extract of plant.

Medicinal Use

Epilepsy, lumbago, asthma, leucoderma, hemorrhoids and enlargement of the liver and spleen (plant); in damage to the liver (alcohol extract from plant); convulsions in infants, hysteria, chorea and amenorrhea.

Dosage
1 to 20 grains.

Reference

Helianthus annuus L.

Family : Asteraceae

English Name : Sunflower. Green Rabbitbrush

Origin : North America

Description

It is an annual herb, with a rough, hairy stem, 3 to 12 feet high, broad, coarselytoothed, rough leaves, 3 to 12 inches long, and circular heads of flowers, 3 to 6 inches. The flower-heads are composed of many small tubular flowers arranged compactly on a flattish disk: those in the outer row have long strap-shaped corollas, forming the rays of the composite flower.

Habitat
It grows in prairies and dry, open areas, and is sometimes a weed in cultivated fields and pastures.

Parts Used : Seeds

Herb Effects
Diuretic, expectorant; febrifuge, stomachic and nutitive (flower heads and seeds)

Active Ingredients

1,8-Cineole, alpha-amyrin, alpha-pinene, alpha-terpinene, alpha-terpineol, beta-carotene, beta-pinene, borneol, caffeic acid, camphene, camphor, chlorogenic acid, choline, cinnamic acid, citral, citric acid, eugenol, ferulic acid, gossypol, hispidulin, isoliquiritigenin, limonene, lupeol, lutein, menthol, oleanolic acid, quercetin, scopoletin, tocopherol and vanillin.

Medicinal Use

Employed in the treatment of bronchial, laryngeal and pulmonary affections, coughs and colds, also in whooping cough. The crushed leaves are used as a poultice on sores, swellings, snakebites and spider bites. A tea made from the flowers is used in the treatment of malaria and lung ailments. A decoction of the roots has been used as a warm wash on rheumatic aches and pains.

Dosage
Seed oil: 10 to 15 drops, 2 or 3 times a day.
Take one to two tablespoons of sunflower seeds or seed meal per day or as needed based on nutrient requirements.

Contraindication

Sunflower seeds, meal and oil, taken as a part of a well balanced diet, does not cause any side effects.

Reference

Gentiana kurroo Royle.

Family : Gentianaceae

Description

A small perennial herb with a stout rhizome bearing decumbent flowering stems, each with 1-4 blue flowers. Leaves radical and cauline, the former oblong-lanceolate and tufted, and the tatter linear and in pairs united at the base into a tube.

Habitat
Swamps and rocky areas of the northwestern Himalayas.

Parts Used : Plant and root

Herb Effects

Stimulates the liver and increases the secretion of gastric juices (plant); purifies blood, anthelmintic, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, bitter tonic, cholagogue, emmenagogue, febrifuge, refrigerant, stomachic (root).

Active Ingredients
Gentiopicroside and 6.7-di-meocoumarin (plant).

Medicinal Use

Increasing the secretion of gastric juices, urinary troubles and as a tonic (plant); fevers, abdominal pain and for purifying blood (root). Best strengtheners of the human system, stimulating the liver, gall bladder and digestive system; taken internally in the treatment of liver complaints, indigestion, gastric infections, anorexia, gout, torpid liver, spleen enlargement, anaemia and worms. It should not be prescribed for patients with gastric or duodenal ulcers.

Reference

Garuga pinnata ROXB.

Family : Burseraceae

English Name : Grey Downy Balsam

Description

A medium-sized deciduous tree; bark thick, soft, grey or brown outside and red within, peeling off in irregular flakes. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate, 15 to 45 cm long, clustered at the ends of branches; leaflets 5 to 10 pairs plus a terminal one, opposite, 5 to 15 cm long and 2 to 5 cm wide, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, apex usually acuminate, base oblique, margins crenate to serrate, pubescent when young. Flowers small, yellow, bell-shaped, borne in much-branched terminal clusters, several together at the ends of branches; bracts deciduous; calyx 6 mm long, campunulate, downy tomentose outside, lobes ovate-oblong, subobtuse; petals 5 mm long, linear-oblong, tomentose outside, attached to the tube of the calyx beneath the margin of the disc. The fruit is a fleshy, smooth globose, edible, black drupe, approximately 1.8 cm long; seed with a membranous wing.


Parts Used : Leaf, bark and fruit


Herb Effects
The fruit is stomachic, astringent and expectorant; antiasthmatic (leaf).


Active Ingredients
Garuganin I and III (macrocyclic biphenylethers) (stem bark and leaf); amentoflavone (leaf).


Medicinal Use

In asthma (leaf) and increasing the secretion of gastric juices (fruit); as an eye-drop to cure opacities of the eye (stem juice); to treat dislocated bones and to heal wounds (bark juice); for curing skin diseases (root bark).

Reference

Ficus benghalensis L.

Family : Moraceae

Synonym(s) : Ficus banyana Oken, Urostigma bengalensis (L.) Gasp., Ficus cotonaefolia Vahl., Ficus indica L.

English Name : Banyan Tree

Origin : India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Description

It is a large evergreen tree upto 30m in height and extending laterally by sending down aerial roots. Aerial roots are many and sometimes develop into accessory trunks and assist the lateral spread of the tree indefinitely. The bark is light grey-white, smooth and about 1.25 cm in thickness. Leaves are coriaceous, ovate-elliptic with subcordate or rounded base. Male flowers are many near the mouth of the receptacel: sepals 4; gall flowers: perianth as in male and fertile flowers: perianth shorter than in male, style elongate; male and female flowers are in same receptacle. Fruits are sessile in pairs, puberulous, sub-globose, 1.3 to 2.0 cm across and red when ripe.

Habitat

India where it is very common.

Parts Used : Bark, latex, bud, fruit, seed, root and leaf

Herb Effects

The seeds are used as cooling and tonic, antidiarrheal, astringent and hypoglycemic (bark); reduces fever (seed); stops bodily secretions and hemostatic (bark and leaf buds); emollient, demulcent and alleviates pain (fruit).

Active Ingredients

Leucoanthocyanin and leucoanthocyanidin (bark); friedelin, rutin, ficusin and bergaptene (leaf); beta-sitosterol (leaf and stem bark).

Medicinal Use

For lumbago, rheumatism, external pains, sores and ulcers, soles of the feet when cracked or inflamed and toothache (latex); in diarrhea and dysentery (bark and young bud infusion); as a poultice in abscesses (heated leaves); in diabetes (bark); as a tonic (bark and seed); in vomiting, to scalp to grow hair long (paste) and for menorrhagia (root); in gonorrhoea (root-fibres); is good tonic, effective in diabetes, dysentery, gonorrhoea and in seminal weakness (infusion of bark).

Reference

Elettaria cardamomum MATON

Family : Zingiberaceae

Synonym(s) : Elettaria repens, Amomum cardamomum, Cardamum officinale Salisb.; Alpinia cardamum Roxb.

English Name : Cardamom

Origin : Southern India

Description

It is a tall, herbaceous perennial herb with branching subterranean rootstock, from which arise a number of upright leafy shoots, bearing alternate, elliptical or lanceolate sheathing leaves. The flowers are borne in panicles, arising from the base of vegetative shoots. The flowers are bisexual but self-sterile, and open in succession from the base towards the tip. Fruits are trilocular capsules, fusifrom to oviod, pale green to yellow in colour, containing 15 to 20 hard, brownish black, angled and rugose seeds, covered by a thin mucilaginous membrane.

Habitat
Forests of southern India; also in Ceylon and Guatemala.

Parts Used : Ripe seeds and its volatile Oil

Herb Effects

Carminative, stimulant (aromatic); stimulates the apetite, antimicrobial, antiaflatoxic, invigorates the heart, analgesic, antiinflammatory, refreshes the breath and aphrodisiac.

Active Ingredients

1,8-cineole, alpha-phellandrene, alpha-pinene, alpha-terpinene, alpha-terpineol, beta-pinene, borneol, camphene, camphor, citronellol, gamma-terpinene, limonene, myrcene, nerol, nerolidol, p-cymene, terpinen-4-ol (fruit); alpha-tocopherol, beta-sitosterol, eugenyl-acetate, linoleic acid, niacin, oleic acid, palmitic acid, riboflavin, stearic acid, stigmasterol, thiamin (seed); terpinyl acetate (volatile seed oil); citronellal, geraniol, linalyl-acetate (plant).

Medicinal Use

As an adjuvant for drugs with a carminative or laxative effect, in flatulence, colic and indigestion. It is used as an aromatic stimulant, carminative and flavouring agent. Powdered cardamom mixed with ginger, cloves and caraway is a good stomachic useful in atonic dyspepsia. In herbal medicine, cardamoms are chewed slowly to sweeten the breath, as aphrodisiac, to sooth digestion, stimulate appetite, used against flatulance, colics and disorders of body, often combined with purgatives to offset griping.

Dosage

Powdered seeds: 15 to 30 grains.
Tincture: 1/2 to 1 fluid drachm.
Fluid extract: 5 to 30 drops.

Reference

Datura stramonium L.

Family : Solanaceae

Synonym(s) : Datura stramonium var. tatula (Linn.)

English Name : Jimsonweed, Thornapple, Devil's Apple, Jamestown-weed, Stramonium, Stinkweed, Devil's Trumpet and Apple of Peru

Origin : North America

Description

It is an erect, coarse and glabrous or farinose-puberulous annual herb about 60 to 120 cm high. Leaves are stalked, 15.0 to 17.0 cm long, ovate, deeply toothed or sinuate and pale-green. Flowers are large and purplish or violet coloured. Calyx is long, tubular and herbaceous. Corolla is long and funnel-shaped with wide mouth. The stamens are attached near the base of tube. Ovary is two-or spuriously four-celled. The capsules are ellipsoid, 4.0 to 7.0 cm long and spinous. Seeds are numerous, compressed and rugose.

Habitat

Throughout the world (including India and the Himalayas) except the colder and Arctic regions preferring soils that are rich in nitrogen.

Parts Used : Leaf, seed, flower, fruit and plant

Herb Effects

The leaves, flowering tops and seeds are anodyne, antiasthmatic, antispasmodic, hallucinogenic, hypnotic, mydriatic and narcotic; kills insects (plant extract); antidandruff (fruit); narcotic (seed); intoxicating (which can be fatal) and sedative (young fruit); anticholinergic, cyanogenetic, expectorant, reduces fever, fumitory, fungicidal, hypnotic, poisonous.

Active Ingredients

Scopolamine, daturine, hyoscine, hyoscyamine, atropine, mescaline, apophyoscine, skimmianine, tropine, apoatropine, alpha and beta-belladonine and 2.6-dihydroxytropane.

Medicinal Use

For boils and testicle enlargement (leaf); relieving pain and headaches (roasted leaves); earache (flower); asthma (inhalation of burning leaves) and other pulmonary and respiratory ailments (such as pneumonia, cough and severe chest colds); used internally in the treatment of asthma and Parkinson's disease, excess causes giddiness, dry mouth, hallucinations and coma (plant); externally, as a poultice or wash in the treatment of fistulas, abscesses wounds and severe neuralgia (plant).

Dosage
Powdered leaves: 1/10 to 5 grains.
Fluid extract of leaves: 1 to 3 drops.
Fluid extract of seeds: 1 to 2 drops.
Tincture of leaves: B.P. and U.S.P.. 5 to 15 drops.
Powdered extract: U.S.P.. 1/5 grain.
Solid extract: B.P.. 1/4 to 1 grain.

Contraindication
Since this plant has toxic properties, high dosages can lead to cerebral depression, followed by a coma; it should not be used when pregnant, with prostate problems tachycardia, glaucoma and with depressant medications.

Reference

Calophyllum inophyllum L.

Family : Clusiaceae

English Name : Dilo Oil Tree

Origin : Paleotropics

Description

A small tree 20 m tall. Leaves 10-18 cm long, broadly elliptic-oblong or obovate, apex rounded and base acute, petioles 0.9 to 1.5 cm long. Flowers 1.9 to 2.5 cm in diameter, marble white, fragrant, borne in lax axillary racemes 10 to 15 cm long; sepals 4, ovate-orbicular; petals 4, oblong, obtuse. Fruit globose 2.5 to 3.8 cm in diameter, light yellow to pale red when ripe, pericarp thick, pulp scanty. Seed globose.

Habitat
Throughout India

Parts Used : Leaf, wood, seed, flower and aerial part

Herb Effects

Astringent, anti-inflammatory, purgative, antihaemorrhagic, hypothermic, alleviates spasms and stimulates the central nervous and cardiovascular systems (aerial part).

Active Ingredients

Canophyllal, canophyllol, friedelin and canophyllic acid (leaf); jacareubin and trihydroxyxanthone (wood); myricetin (flower).

Medicinal Use

Leprosy and rheumatism (seed oil); in scabies (seed kernel); to treat eye disease, scabies, cutaneous diseases, gonorrhoea and gleet, rheumatism and gout. Used as an inhalation in migraine and vertigo.

Reference