Abutilon indicum (Linn.) Sweet

Family: Malvaceae

Synonym(s): Sida indica L.

English name: Indian Mallow

Description

A herbaceous or shrubby, softly tomentose plant. Stem is round, often tinged with purple color. The leaves are petiolate, ovate to orbicular-cordate, acuminate and toothed. Flowers are borne solitary in long, jointed and axillary pedicels. Calyx lobes divided in the middle, ovate and apiculate. Corolla is yellow or orange-yellow and opens in the evening. Carpels are 15-20 in number. Fruits are hispid, scarcely longer than the calyx and the awns are erect. Seeds are three to five, kidney-shaped, dark brown or black, tubercled or with minutely stellate hairs.   

Habitat

Found abundantly in wastelands from the seashore to 1,200 meters high in India and in the sub-Himalayan tracts.

Parts Used: Whole plant

Herb Effects

Aphrodesiac,anti-inflammatory,anthelmintic, analgesic, expectorant,laxative, diuretic, demulcent 

Active Ingredients

Alantolactone, isoalantolactone2 and gallic acid, Helenin (a mixture of alantolactone and isoalantolactone, q.v.)

Medicinal Uses

To treat ulcers, headaches, gonorrhea & bladder infection,for pile complaints,to increase semen in men, deafness, ringing in the ears, eye problems, colds, high fever, mumps, hives, pulmonary tuberculosis, cough, bronchitis (decocted), difficult/painful urination, painful menses.

Reference

WHO Monograhs of Selected medicinal Plants- Volume 1

During the fourth International Conference of Drug Regulatory Authorities (ICDRA) held in Tokyo in 1986, WHO was requested to compile a list of medicinal plants and to establish international specifications for the most widely used medicinal plants and simple preparations. Guidelines for the assessment of herbal medicines were subsequently prepared by WHO and adopted by the sixth ICDRA in Ottawa, Canada, in 1991.1 As a result of ICDRA’s recommendations and in response to requests from WHO’s Member States for assistance in providing safe and effective herbal medicines for use in national health-care systems, WHO is now publishing this first volume of 28 monographs on selected medicinal plants; a second volume is in preparation.

Monograph

WHO Monographs on Selected Plants- Volume 3

WHO published Volume 1 of the WHO monographs on selected medicinal plants, containing 28 monographs, in 1999, and Volume  including 30 monographs in 2002. This third volume contains an additional collection of 32 monographs describing the quality control and use of selected medicinal plants.

Monograhs

Abrus precatorius Linn.

Family: Fabaceae

Synonym(s) : Rhynchosia precatoria

English name: Jequirity bean, rosary pea, prayer bean, precatory bean, Indian liquorice

Description

A perennial, twinning shrub. Leaves 9-12 cm long, leaves have rachis bristle-tipped ; leaflet 10-20 pairs, 1-2 x 0.5-0.8 cm, oblong. Flowers pink, born in fascicles on swollen nodes of axillary racemes. Calyx campanulate, corolla 8-9 mm long, stamens 9, pods oblong, beaked, pubescent and turgid. Seeds ovate, elliptic, shinning smooth, scarlet red colour with black hilum and 3-8 mm long.

Herb Effects

Anti-spasmodic,anthelmintic, anti-diarrhoeal,  anti-convulsant,anti-bacterial,alexiteric,astringent,abortifacient,  anti-septic, diuretic, emetic, diuretic, febrifuge,insecticide,inhibits intestinal motility,purgative, toxic, trichogenous.

Active Ingredients: Abrin

Medicinal Uses:

A tea is made from the leaves and used to treat fevers, coughs and colds. In Ceylon it is taken for sore throat and rheumatism. It is used as a remedy for pain in the chest. Roots are applied to the snake-bitten part. A cold infusion of the root is used in leucorrhoea and for gonorrhoea. Seeds are useful in affection of nervous system and externally in skin diseases, ulcers, affections of the hairs. Seeds reduced to paste are applied locally in sciatica stiffness of shoulder joints, paralysis and of nervous disease. In white leprosy seed paste and plumbago root is applied as a stimulant dressing.

Reference

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