Download A glossary of botanical, medical, Hindi and Sanskrit terms used in

A glossary of botanical, medical, Hindi and Sanskrit terms used in the text
ABORTIFACIENT - A drug or agent inducing the expulsion of the foetus.
ACHENE - A small, bard, dry, indehiscent fruit, strictly of one free carpel.
ACTINOMORPHIC - Flowers of a regular star pattern, capable of bisection in two or more planes into similar
halves.
ACUMINATE - Narrowing gradually to a point.
ACUTE - Having a sharp and rather abrupt point.
ADNAIE - Attached the whole length.
ADVENTITIOUS - Of organs and tissues developing from an abnormal position.
AESTIVATION - The manner in which the parts of a flower are folded up in a bud.
AGGREGATE FRUIT - A collection of small simple fruits derived from a flower with several free carpels, e.g.
strawberry
AGUE - A kind of malarial fever accompanied with shivering.
ALTERNATE LEAVES - Placed on the opposite side of the stem on a different line.
ANAEMIA - Bloodlessness; diminution of the amount of haemoglobin in the blood, from the lowering of the
quality and quantity of the red blood cells.
ANDROECIUM - A collective term for the stamens of a flower.
ANNUAL - A plant completing its life cycle from seed germination to fruiting, seed formation and death within
one season.
ANODYNE - A drug that allays pain.
ANTHELMINATE - A medicine used to remove worms from the intenstine.
ANTHESIS - The opening of a flowerbud.
ANTIDOTE - A drug to counteract the effect of a poison.
ANTIPYRETIC - An agent reducing fever.
ANTIRABIC - Used against rabies (madness in animals, especially dogs, wolves, etc)
ANTISCORBUTIC - Acting against scurvies.
APOCARPOUS - When the carpels of an ovary are separate.
AREOLE - The area occupied by a group of spines or hairs on a cactus.
Ayurvedic - Relating to the school of ancient Indian medicine.
BACILLARY - Pertaining to bacillus (a rod-shaped member of the bacteria)
BASIFIXED - Attached by the base.
BERRY - A pulpy fruit with immersed seed, e.g. grape, tomato.
BILIOUS - Affected with excess of bile.
BIPAROUS CYME - A normal dichotomous inflorescence.
BIPINNATELY COMPOUND - When both primary and secondary divisions of a leaf are pinnate.
BISEXUAL - Bearing both male and female organs.
BITHECUS - Having two pollen sacs.
BRACTEATE - Having bracts.
BRONCHITIS - Inflammation of the bronchi (one of the two branches into which the windpipe divides).
BUSH - A low woody plant, with a number of branches at or near the ground level.
CADUCOUS - Tending to fall; deciduous.
CALYPTRA - Any cup-like covering of a flower or fruit as the extinguisher-shaped calyx of Eschscholizia
CALYX - The outermost part of a flower, consisting usually of green, leaf like members, known as sepals.
CAMPANULATE - Bell-shaped, as a corolla.
CANE - The mature shoot of grapevine, etc. at the time of leaf-fall.
CAPITATE - Pin-headed, as the stigma of a primrose; having a head.
CAPSULE - A dry dehiscent fruit developed from a compound ovary.
CARDIAC - Pertaining to the heart.
CARMINATIVE - Having the power to relieve flatulence and colic.
CARPEL - The female reproductive organ of the flowering plants.
CATARRH - Old term once widely used for the inflammation of mucous membranes, particularly those of the
air-passages of the nose and throat, with an exudation containing much and epithelial cells.
Chat - An assortment of fresh dessert fruits cut into pieces and sprinkled with salt and spices.
CHRONIC - Long-continued, of long duration; opposed to acute.
Chutney - A type of sauce, sour and spicy.
CLAWED - The narrowed base of petals in such plants as dianthus.
COLIC - Characteristic pain felt in the abdomen as a result of complete or partial blockage of one of the hollow
tubes intestines, ureter and bill-duct.
COMPLETE FLOWER - A flower having all the floral parts.
COMPOUND INFLORESCENCE - Where the main axis is branched and the branches bear the flowers.
COMPRESSED - Laterally flattened.
CONSTIPATION - Infrequent or absent motions of the bowels.
CONVERGENT VENATION - Applied to veins which run from the base to the apex of the leaf in a curved
manner.
CORDATE - Heart-shaped.
CORDIAL - Invigorating the heart, stimulating.
COROLLA - Usually conspicuous, often coloured part of a flower, within the calyx, consisting of a group of
petals.
CORYMB - An inflorescence with lower flower-stalks longer than those above, so that all the flowers are at the
same level.
CRENATE - Edged with rounded teeth that point forwards.
CRUMPLED - Wrinkled.
CUTICLE - A non-cellular waxy layer secreted by the epidermis. It protects the surface and reduces, the water
loss.
CYCLIC - Having floral parts in whorls.
CYME - An inflorescence in which the terminal bud is a flower-bud, i.e. it is a sympodium and any subsequent
flowers are formed in a similar way at the ends of lateral branches.
Datun - A brush made to clean teeth by chewing a small piece of a branch of a tree.
DECIDUOUS - Falling in a season, as petals fall after flowering or the leaves fall in autumn.
DECOCTION - An extract of anything got by boiling.
DEMULCENT - A medicine that allays irritation of surfaces, especially mucous membranes.
DEHISCE - To open spontaneously, when ripe.
DENTATE - Having a toothed margin.
DEPRESSED - Sunk down, as if flattened from above.
DESSERT - A final course of fruits, pudding or other sweet at the end of meals.
DIARRHOEA - A persistent purging or looseness of the bowels.
DIAPHORETIC - A drug inducing perspiration.
DIGITATE - Fingered; a compound leaf in which all the leaflets are borne on the apex of the petiole.
DILATION - Expansion into a blade, as though flattened.
DIOECIOUS - Unisexual, the male and female sexual reproductive organs on separate individuals.
DIPHTHERIA - An acute communicable disease affecting the upper respiratory passages.
DIURETIC - An agent that increases the output of urine.
DORSAL - Relating to the back or attached thereto; the surface turned away from the axis, which in the case of
allay is the lower surface.
DORSIFIXED - Fixed on the back or by the back.
DOWNY - Pubescent, with fine soft hairs.
DRUPACEOUS - Like a drupe.
DRUPE - A fleshy fruit, with a thin epicarp, a fleshy mesocarp and a hard endocarp, containing a single seed.
The seed and endocarp form the stone, e.g. a plum
DYSENTERY - A condition in which there is diarrhoea with passage of mucus and blood, and pain or
discomfort in the abdomen.
DYSPESIA - Disturbed digestion.
DYSPEPTIC - Agents causing dyspepsia.
DYSPHORIA - Impatience and restlessness; mental anxiety; fidgets.
EBRACTEATE - Without bracts.
EMETIC - Having power to induce vomiting.
EMOLLIENT - Soothing, especially to the skin or mucous membrane.
ENDIOCARP - The inner layer of a fruit wall (pericarp).
ENTIRE MARGIN - Without teething or division, even.
EPICARP - The outer layer of a fruit wall (pericarp).
EPIGYNOUS - Said of a flower, when the receptacle encloses the carpel (s), so that the other flower parts arise
above the carpel (s).
EPIPETALOUS - Borne upon the petals; placed before the petals.
EPISEPALOUS - On the sepals; standing before the sepals.
ERECT - Upright, perpendicular to the ground or its attachment.
ETAERIO - A type of compound fruit.
EXPECTORANT - Agent that promotes the ejection of material from mouth or semi-fluid matter from the
lungs and air-passages, expelled by coughing and spitting.
EXSTIPULATE - Lacking stipules.
FEBRIFUGE - A substance which mitigates or reduces fevers.
FEATHERY - Covered with long branched hairs.
FILAMENT - The stalk of an another, the thread-like stem.
FLATULANCE - The presence of gas in the stomach and intestinal tract.
FLESHY - Thick and soft, but not necessarily juicy; succulent.
FORKED – Divided into two or more distinct branches which diverge as they elongate.
GAMOPETALOUS - Said of a flower with fused, or partially fused petals.
GAMOSEPALOUS - Said of a flower with fused, or partially fused sepals.
GARGLE - To rinse the back of the throat without swallowing.
GLABROUS - Smooth, without pubescence.
GLOBOSE - Nearly spherical.
GLOBULAR - Spheroidal
GONORRHOEA - A venereal disease, usually spread by sexual intercourse with an infected person.
GREGARIOUS - Growing in company, associated but not matted.
GYNOECIUM - The female portion as a whole (of flower).
Halwa - A kind or sweet dish like porridge.
HERB - A plant with no persistent stem above ground.
HERBACEOUS - With a texture, colour and properties of a herb.
HERMAPHRODITE - The stamens and pistils in the same flower.
HYPANTHODIUM - The deeply hollowed receptacle of the fig.
HYPOGYNOUS - Said of a flower in which the other parts arise below the gynoecium.
IMBRICATE - Overlapping as the tiles on a roof.
INFLAMMATION - The reaction of tissues to injury characterized by local heat, swelling, redness and pain.
INFERIOR - Below some other organ;. said of an ovary where the receptacle encloses it, so that the other floral
parts arise above the ovary.
INFLORESCENCE - A flowering shoot, bearing more than one flower.
INTERNODE - The space or portion of stem between two successive nodes; adjective 'internodal'.
JAUNDICE - A disease characterized by the yellow discoloration of the skin, mucous membrane and secretions
as a result of the deposition in them of the pigment bilirubin.
Kapha - Phlegm, rheum.
KERNEL - The seed inside the stony endocarp of a drupe.
Kheer - A dish made of rice, milk and sugar boiled together.
LANCEOLATE - Flattened, two or three times as long as broad, widest in the middle and tapering towards a
pointed apex.
LAXATIVE - An agent that relieves constipation; a mild purgative.
LEAFLET - The blade or separate, division of a com pound leaf.
LEATHERY - Tough, coriaceous.
LEUCODERMA - A condition of the defective pigmentation of the skin, especially a congenital absence of
pigment in patches or bands.
LINEAR - Narrow, several times longer than wide.
LOBED - Divided in rounded divisions.
LONGITUDINAL - In the direction of length.
MESOCARP - The middle layer of the pericarp.
MILDEW - A general term for a superficial growth of a fungus. A plant disease caused by a powdery or a
downy mildew.
MONOCARPELLARY - Composed of one carpel only.
MUCILAGINOUS - Slimy; sticky, when wet; composed of mucilage (a vegetable gelatin belonging to the amyl
group of carbohydrates).
MUCUS - The viscous liquid secreted by mucous glands.
NAUSEA - A sensation of discomfort in the region of stomach, usually associated with an urge to vomit.
OBLONG - Much longer than broad, with nearly parallel sides.
OBOVATE - Having the general shape of the longitudinal section of an egg; not exceeding twice as long as
broad, and with the greatest width slightly above the middle, hence attached at the narrow end.
OBTUSE - Blunt or rounded at the end.
OLEAGINOUS - Oily.
OPHTHALMIA - Inflammation of the eye, especially one in which the conjunctiva is involved.
OPPOSITE - (1) Said of leaves inserted in pairs at each node, with one on each side of the stem; (2) said of
stamens which lie next to the middle of a petal.
ORBICULAR - Flat, with a circular or almost circular outline.
OVARY - The hollow basal region of a carpel, containing one or more ovules.
OVATE - Shaped like a longitudinal section of a hen's egg, the broader end basal.
OVOID - Solid, like an egg in form, and attached by the broader end.
OVULES - The organ in the ovary, which after fertilization and subsequent development, becomes a seed.
PALLIATIVE - A drug relieving or soothing the symptoms of a disease without curing it.
PALMATE - Having several (5-7) lobes, segments, etc, spreading from the same point, like the fingers of the
hand.
PANICLE - A loose flower cluster, as a branched raceme or corymb.
PECTORAL - Useful in treating the diseases of the respiratory tract.
PEDICELLATE - Having a stalk.
PENTAMEROUS - With parts in fives, as a corolla of five petals.
PERENNIAL - A plant which lasts several years, not perishing after once flowering and fruiting.
PERIANTH - The floral envelope; it includes the calyx and corolla or any of them.
PERICARP - The body of a fruit developed from the ovary wall, and enclosing the seeds.
PERIGYNOUS - Said of a flower in which the receptacle is developed into a flange or concave structure,
on which the sepals, petals, and stamens are borne. The receptacle remains distinct from the carpels.
PERSISTENT - Remaining attached till the part which bears it becomes fully mature, as the leaves of
evergreens.
PETALS - One of the parts forming the corolla of a flower, usually brightly coloured and conspicuous.
PETIOLE - The stalk of a leaf.
Phalahar - A diet which consists of fruit only.
PHYLLOCLADE - A flattened branch assuming the form and function of a leaf.
PHYLLOTAXY - The mode in which the leaves are arranged with regard to the axis.
PILES - An enlarged and varicose condition of the veins of the lower portion of the rectum and the tissues about
the anus.
PINNATE - A compound leaf, having leaflets arranged in two ranks on opposite sides of the rachis.
PISTILLATE - Said of a flower having pistils only; a female flower.
Pitta - Pertaining to the bilious humour.
PLACENTATION - The arrangement of the placentas in a syncarpous ovary.
POLYANDROUS - Having a large and indefinite number of stamens.
POLYPETALOUS - With many distinct sepals.
POME - A false fruit, the greater part of which is developed from receptacle of the flower and not from the
ovary e.g. the apple.
POULTICE - A soft, moist preparation which retains heat and is applied to a part of the body in order to warm it
up and to keep it from drying up.
PROSTRATE - Said of a stein which lies on the ground for all or most of its length.
PUBESCENT - Covered with fine soft hair.
PURGATIVE - An agent inducing free evacuation of the bowels.
PYRIFORM - Pear-shaped.
RACEME - A definite inflorescence, with the main axis bearing stalked flowers, which are borne in acropetal
succession.
RACHIS - The main axis of an inflorescence or a compound leaf.
RECEPTACLE - The more or less enlarged end of the flower stalk bearing the flower parts
REFRIGERANT - A medicine or agent with cooling properties or for lowering the body temperature.
REGULAR - Uniform or symmetrical in shape or structure.
REMITTANT - An agent causing temporary abatement or cessation of symptoms.
RETICULATE - Having a surface marked by a network of fine upstanding ridges.
RIND - The outer layers of the bark of a tree.
ROSACEOUS - (1) Arranged like the five petals of a normal rose; (2) belonging to the order of which Rosa is a
genus.
RUNNER - A prostrate shoot which roots at the end and from there gives rise to a new plant.
SCABIES - An itch or mange, caused by mites, especially when marked by the formation of exudative crusts.
SCALE - Any thin scarious body usually a degenerate leaf, sometimes of epidermal origin.
SCALDING - Burning pain in urination.
SCORBUTIC - Causing scurvy.
SCURVY - A nutritional disorder caused by the deficiency of vitamin C, characterized by extreme weakness,
spongy gums, a tendency to develop hemorrhages under the skin.
SEGMENT - One of the divisions into which a plant organ, e.g. a leaf, may be cleft.
SEPAL - One of the parts (lobes), forming the calyx of a flower, usually green.
SEPALOID - Resembling a sepal.
SEPTUM - Any kind of partition, whether a true dissepiment or not.
SERRATED - Said of a toothed margin, when the teeth are pointed and project forwards.
Sharbat - Syrup, beverage, soft drink.
SHRUB - A woody plant, in which the side shoots are well developed, so that there is no trunk. They are less
than thirty feet high.
SLENDER - Long and thin.
SOLITARY - Single, only one from the same place.
SORE - Painful, tender.
SPADIX - A spike of flowers with a fleshy axis, enclosed in a spathe.
SPATHE - A large bract, often coloured. or membranous, enclosing a spadix.
SPIKE - An indeterminate inflorescence with sessile flowers on a common elongated axis.
SPINOUS - Having spines.
SPLEEN - One of the abdominal viscera, located immediately below the diaphragm on the left side.
SPUR - A short branch on which flowers and fruits are borne.
SPUTUM - Material discharged from the surfaces of air passages, throat or mouth and removed chiefly by
spitting.
STAMINATE - Having stamens only.
STOLON - A horizontally growing stem that bears adventitious roots at the nodes, and scale leaves.
STOMACHIC - One of a class of substances which may stimulate the secretory activity of the stomach.
STIGMA - That part of the pistil or style which receives the pollen.
STYLE - The usually attenuated part of a pistil or carpel between the ovary and the stigma.
SUCCULENT - Juicy, soft and thick.
SUCKER - (1) A shoot arising below ground; (2) a new shoot on an old stem.
SUPERIOR - Growing or placed above.
SYCONUS - A multiple hollow fruit, consisting mainly of the much enlarged receptacle of the inflorescence,
e.g. fig.
SYNCARPOUS - Composed of two or more united carpels.
SYPHILIS - A venereal disease contracted through sexual intercourse.
TENDRILS - A stem, leaf or part of a leaf modified as a branched or unbranched filamentous structure, used by
many climbers for attachment to a support by twining or by adhesive terminal discs.
THALAMUS - The receptacle of the flower.
TOMENTOSE - Covered with a felt or cottony hairs; downy.
TOPWORKING - Changing the top of a grown-up tree by grafting.
TRAGACANTH - A gummy exudation from a tree; almost white ribbons or powder; swells with 50 parts of
water to make a stiff opalescent mucilage.
Tridosha - The three humours of the body, viz. phlegm, bile and wind.
TRIFOLIATE - Said of a compound leaf with three leaflets.
Triphala - The dried fruits of Emblica officinalis Gaertn., Terminalia bellirca Roxb. and Terminalia ehebula
Retz. in equal parts.
TRUNK - The upright massive main stem of a tree.
TUBER - A swollen underground stem or root, containing stored food.
TUBEROUS ROOT - A root producing tubers.
TUFTED - Having many short crowded branches, all arising at about the same level.
TUMOUR - Any swelling; it may be benign, malignant or inflammatory.
TWIG - A small shoot or branch of a tree.
ULCER - A chronic defect in an epithelical surface, exposing the tissues below the skin or the mucous
membrane.
UMBEL - An inflorescence, properly indeterminate, in which a cluster of pedicels springs from the same point,
like the ribs of an umbrella.
UNDULATE – Wavy.
UNILOCULAR - Consisting of one compartment.
UNISEXUAL - Of one sex; stamens or pistils only, or their representatives.
VALVATE - When the part of a flower-bud meet exactly without overlapping.
Vata - One of the humours of the body (in the form of wind).
VENATION - The arrangement of the veins in a leaf.
VENTRAL - (1) Anterior or in front; (2) uppermost: (3) nearest to the axis.
VERMICIDE - An agent that destroys worms.
VERSATILE - Turning freely on its support, as many anthers on their filaments.
VERIICILLATE - Arranged in whorls.
VETERINARY - Pertaining to the practice of medicine with animals, especially domesticated animals.
WHOOPING COUGH - A type of cough mostly afflicting children, with peculiar paroxysms of coughing,
ending in a loud whooping inspiration.
XEROPHNTEA - plant which can live where the water-supply is scanty or there is a physiological drought
XEROPHYTIC - Adjective of xerophyte.
ZYGOMORHIC - Used of flowers which are divisible into equal halves in one plane only.