Zanthoxylum armatum DC.

Family : Rutaceae

Synonym(s) : Zanthoxylum alatum Roxb.

English Name : Bamboo-leaved prickly ash, Nepal pepper, Prickly ash, Toothache tree, Winged prickly ash, Wingleaf prickly ash

Description

This is a sub-deciduous and aromatic shrub or small tree, armed with prickles, upto 1 to 5 m high. Bark is pale-brown, rough and corky and branches prickly. Leaves are 10.0 to 15.0 cm long and imparipinnate; leaflets 3 to 13, and toothed. Flowers are small, pale yellow and 1 to 2 sexual or polygamous, in 3.0 to 8.5 cm long lax and pubescent panicles. Calyx is with 6 to 8 acute lobes; petals 0. Stamens are 6 to 8. The fruits are of 1 to 3 carpels and are small, pale-red, globose or reniform, about 0.3 to 0.5 cm across, aromatic and tubercled.

Habitat
Forest undergrowth and hot valleys to 1800 metres in the Himalayas.

Parts Used : Fruits, seeds, stems and bark

Herb Effects

Appetizer, anthelmintic, bitter, digestible and tasty (fruit); anthelmintic, tonic (seeds); hypoglycaemic (stems with thorns).

Medicinal Use

In eye and ear diseases, headache, leucoderma and in spleen - enlargement; in dental problems, scabies, dyspepsia and fevers (fruits); in fever and dyspepsia (seeds); in toothache (stems with thorns); in cholera (bark infusion).

Reference