Monday, March 2, 2009

Sesbania sesban Merrill


English Name : Common Sesban

Family : Fabaceae

Description
A soft-wooded, quick-growing short-lived shrub, 1.8-6 m high. Leaves 7.5-15 cm long, paripinnate, leaflets 8.20 pairs, linear-oblong, glabrous, entire, mucronate to acuminate, 6.0-25.0 mm.x25.0 mm; flowers yellow or yellow spotted red to purple or with standard petals coloured purple or brown from outside, in 8-10-flowered, lax, axillary racemes, 2.5-14.0 cm. long; pods 12.5-22.5 cm. x O.25-0.37 cm; pendulous, weak, distinctly torulose, twisted, sharply beaked, 20-30-seeded and septate.

Parts Used : Seed, pod, pollen, leaf, flower and aerial part

Herb Effects
Anthelmintic (leaf juice); contraceptive (flower); antiseptic, antiinflammatory, hypoglycemic, depresses heart activity and antibacterial (seed); stimulates the cardiovascular system and antiviral (aerial part); anthelmintic (leaves).

Active Ingredients
Cyanidin and delphinidin (flower); pyruvic, oxaloacetic and alpha-ketoglutaric acids (pollen); campesterol, cholesterol and beta-sitosterol (leaf and pod).

Medicinal Use
For menorrhagia, useful in checking diarrhoea and reducing enlargement of the spleen (seed); anthelmintic (leaves).

Reference

No comments: