Download “A survey and documentation of common available Medicinal plants

U.G.C. SPONSORED MINOR RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT
ON
“A survey and documentation of common available
Medicinal plants in and around Davangere”
Department of Botany
D.R.M. SCIENCE COLLEGE, DAVANGERE -4
Bapuji Educational Association ®
Golden jubilee year: 1958-2008
D.R.M. SCIENCE COLLEGE, DAVANGERE -4
ACCREDITED AT B+
DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY
U. G. C. Sponsored Minor research project report on
“A survey and documentation of
available
Medicinal plants in and around Davangere”
Submitted by:
Prof. B. B. NANDYAL
Dr. VANAJA. R
Co- investigator
Principal investigator
Retd. H. O. D. of Botany& Biotechnology
Associate Professor
S. J. V. P. College, Harihar
H. O. D. of Botany
D. R. M. Science College, Davangere
Contents
Title
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Introduction
Methodology
List of common medicinal plants in alphabetic order
Results and discussion
Conclusion
References
Page no.
1
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150
Introduction
India is blessed with a lot of medicinal plants and scientific knowledge about them can
help us to lead a healthy life. The trained knowledge based Indian ethnic medicine system can
help in improving general wellness. Among ancient civilizations India has been known to be rich
repository of medicinal plants. The use of medicinal plants in India dates back to Vedic period
and still prevails on the diversity in plant wealth and traditional knowledge, of late, a new trend
has been set to lay more emphasis on “Swadeshi” medicine system like “Ayurveda” and
“siddha”. Traditional medicine is the sum total of the knowledge, skills and practices based on
theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, where explicable or not, used
in the maintenance to health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of
physical and mental illness.
People use medicinal plant species for sustenance of their traditional healthcare system
both longitudinally as well as economically. The range of species used and their scope of healing
are vast. Cures as yet undiscovered may exist in plant as yet undescribed. Medicinal plants find
application in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, agricultural and food industries. The use of medicinal
plants for curing diseases has been documented in the history of all civilizations. Man in the prehistoric era was probably not aware of the health hazards associated with irrational therapy. With
the onset of research in medicine, it was concluded that plants contain active ingredients, which
are responsible for the curative action of the plants. Before the onset of the synthetic era, man
was completely dependent on medicinal plants for the prevention and treatment of diseases, as
they have curative properties due to the presence of various complex chemical substances of
different composition, which are found as secondary plant metabolites in one or more parts of
these plants. These plant metabolites, according to their composition, are grouped as alkaloids,
essential oils, glycosides, corticosteroids etc…
Conservation of medicinal plant is challenging, since the taxa occur in a wide range of
habitats and geographic regions. Their conservation threats and ultimate use are diverse and
users are not only local rural communities but also far away urban citizens. However it is widely
agreed that conservation of medicinal plants can be achieved through an integrated approach
balancing in situ and ex situ conservation strategies. In Karnataka according to a study of the
botanical survey of India there are 1493 plant species are of medicinal value. They occur in
different vegetation types across the state.
Any amount of research work in this field is regarded inadequate and more demanding.
Therefore, minor/ major research works are still necessitated to find out the locally available
medicinal plants in and around Davangere. If the result of the research is recorded and made
available for the general public, student‟s researchers, pharmaceuticals, neutraceuticals,
cosmaceuticals, phytochemists, pharmacists, physicians etc, it will be a boon to them.
Objectives:
The basic purpose of the study is to find out the available common medicinal plants in
Davangere (surveying). Updating and upgradation of knowledge in the field, keeping in view the
above considerations, it is imperative to undertake a study on medicinal plants available in and
around Davangere. Hence the following mentioned objectives are identified for the research
work.
1. To survey, identify and to collect the available common medicinal plants in and around
Davangere.
2. Document and revive the traditional knowledge.
3. To cultivate and preserve the medicinal plants in the form of herbarium.
4. To understand the role of medicinal plants in pharmacy and ethnomedicine.
5. To acquire and sharpen the skills associated with surveying and preservation.
6. To take the knowledge thus acquired to the common people.
7. To establish the interdisciplinary significance of the project with the fields like,
ethnomedicine, pharmacology, cosmoceuticals, phytochemists etc.
Methodology:
In order to document the medicinal plants field surveys were carried out in different
seasons, several times, so as to get maximum information and also to cross check the
information. Information on use of medicinal plants was collected from local people and elder
person of the family. The vernacular name given by the informers were confirmed with local
floras and also their Botanical name, family and vernacular names were recorded. The plants so
collected were identified with the help of available literature. Thus plants collected for
identification are preserved in the form of herbaria in the Botany department and herbarium
preparations were done following standard methods. The voucher specimens of some species
are housed in the herbarium of the Botany department. The selected common medicinal plants
are indexed in an alphabetic order with plant name, (botanical name) family, English name,
Kannada name, habit, parts used and uses. These will provide scientific explanation to the
experience generated knowledge. Maximum numbers of plants were used for curing fever,
cough, asthma, dysentery, diarrhoea and ulcers. It was also found that a single plant may be used
for curing many ailments.
Abrus precatorius Linn.
Family: Fabaceae
Common name: Indian liquorice, wild liquorice
Kannada name: Gurugunji, gulaganji
Habit: A deciduous, wiry climber with tough branches, leaves abruptly pinnate with many pairs
of leaf lets, the rachis ending in a spine, the leaflets oblong, rounded at both the ends, thinly
membranous, flowers pink, clustered on tubercles arranged along the rachis of one sided
pedunculate raceme, fruits pods, turgid with a sharp deflexed beak, seeds scarlet with a black
spot or pure white.
Parts used: roots, leaves, Seeds
Uses: The roots and leaves are useful in cough, inflammation and in vitiated conditions like pitta
and vata. The seeds are useful in leucoderma, skin diseases, wounds, asthama, tubercular glands
and fever.
The plant usually grows on hedges and bushes in exposed areas
Acacia leucophloea
Family: Mimosaceae
English name: White babul
Kannada name: Bilijali
Habit: A moderate sized tree upto 30m in height with spreading branches, crooked and gnarled
stems, white spines aand pale yellowish grey to nearly white bark with pale red inside, leaves
bipinnate, 2.5-5cm long, main rachis pubescent with a cup shaped gland between each pair of
pinnae 5-15 pairs of pinnae of 12-30 pairs linear –oblong , obtuse, flowers in large terminal
tomentose panicles, heads numerous, globose, fruits sessile, thin, flat, slightly curved pods
covered with pale brown tomentum, seeds 10-20perpod.
Parts used: barks
Uses: The bark is useful in vitiated conditions of kapha, bronchitis, cough, inflammation skin
diseases, leucoderma leprosy vomiting, wounds, ulcers, diarrhoea, dysentery, dental caries, oral
ulcers and intermittent fevers.
This tree grows in dry places.
Acacia nilotica
Family: Mimosaceae
English name:Babul, black babool, Indian gum Arabic tree
Kannada name: Karijali
Habit: A moderate sized tree upto 10m in height with dark brown or black longitudinally
fissured rough bark and reddish brown heart wood, branchlets slender, pubescent when young
leaves bipinnately compound , main rachis downy, often with glands, stipular spines highly
variable , often whitish, straight and sharp, pinnae 4-9 pairs, leaflets sub sessile , 10-15 pairs,
nearly glabrous, flowers golden yellow in globose heads, peduncles axillary in fascicles of 2-6
fruits stalked, compressed, moniliform pods with constriction between the seeds . Seeds 8-12 per
pod. The „gum‟ (gum Arabic) exudes from cut in the bark in the form of rounderd or ovoid tears
each drop about 1.25cm in size. Its colour varies from pale yellow to black.
Parts used: bark, gum
Uses: The bark is useful in vitiated conditions of kapha and pitta, bronchitis, cough,
inflammation skin diseases, leucoderma, leprosy, vomiting, wounds, ulcers, diarrhoea, dysentery,
dental caries, oral ulcers. The gum it is useful in asthma and cough.
Acacia sinuata
Family: Mimosaceae
English name: Soapnut
Kannada name: Sege
Habit: A stout sticky climbing shrub with brown branches dotted with white, leaves
bipinnate, main rachis bearing sharp hooked prickles and a large gland on the petiole , pinnae
8 pairs or more, leaflets subsessile, sensitive, unequal side, glabrous, flowers small in globose
head, polygamous fruits short stalked thin pods, flat coriaceous the sutures straight, seeds 6-10
per pod.
Parts used: pods
Uses: The pods are useful in constipation renal and vesical calculi, leucoderma, and leprosy.
The powdered pods (known as shikakai powder) are the best alternatives to soaps in all cases of
skin diseases
This tree grows in village side
Acalypha indica
Family: Euphorbiaceae
English name: Indian Acalypha
Kannada name: Kuppigida
Habit: An erect annual herb with numerous ascending branches, leaves long petiolated, ovate or
rhombic- ovate, acute, cuneate, at the base, axillary spikes, male flowers minute, followed by a
tuft of sterile flowers, the females scattered , 3-5 surrounded by a many nerved bract fruits
capsules, small, concealed by the bract seeds ovoid, smooth, pale brown.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is bitter, acrid, expectorant, purgative, emetic, gastrointestinal irritant and
diuretic. The roots and leaves are used to treat toothache, earache skin diseases, constipation,
ulcers, and bronchitis.
Grows as a weed in wild places
Achyranthes aspera
Family: Amaranthaceae
English name: Prickly chaff- flower plant
Kannada name: Uttarani
Habit: An erect much branched suffruticose or diffuse shrub up to one metre in height with
quadrangular striate pubescent branches, thickened just above the nodes: leaves simple, opposite,
exstipulate, velvety tomentose, orbicular, obovate or elliptic, 10 cm long and 7.5 cm broad:
flowers bracteates and bracteolate, greenish, deflexed, in slender spikes often 45 cm long: fruits
easily disarticulating oblong urticle: seeds single, inverse.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant it is useful in cough, asthama, bronchitis, colic, painful inflammations,
vomiting, leprosy, skin diseases, helminthiasis, renal and vesical calculi, cadiac disorders and
anaemia.
The plant grows along roadsides and waste places
Aegle marmelos
Family: Rutaceae
English name: Bael tree, holy fruit tree
Kannada name: Bilvapatre
Habit: A medium sized armed deciduous tree upto 8m high with straight, sharp, axillary, thorns
and yellowish brown shallowly furrowed corky bark, leaves trifoliate, leaflets ovate, or ovate
lanceolate, crenate, pellucid, punctuate, the laterals subsessile and the terminal long petiolated,
flowers greenish white, sweet scented, in axillary panicles, fruits globose, woody berry with
yellowish rind, seeds numerous oblong, compressed, embedded in orange brown sweet gummy
pulp.
Parts used: roots, leaves, fruits
Uses: The roots are useful in diarrhoea, digestive problems piles, dysentery, dyspepsia, seminal
weakness, vomiting, swellings, and gastric irritability in infants. The leaves are useful in
deafness, asthama, astringent, laxative and expectorant. The fruits are dysentery, diarrhoea, good
for heart and brain.
Aerva lanata
Family: Amranthaceae
Kannada name: Bilihindisoppu
Habit: An erect or prostrate , many branched undershrub, 30-60cm in height, woolly,
tomentose, throughout, leaves simple, alternate, short petiolated, densly tomentose, usually
smaller in the flowering branches, flowers very small, sessile, bisexual, greenish or hoary white,
often clustered in spikes, perianth, calycine membranous, five free, filamentous of the five
stamens connate at the base with alternating linear staminodes, fruits greenish roundish,
compressed utricle, seeds kidney shaped with shinning black, coriaceous testa.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is useful to treat boils, cough. Sore throat and wounds.
Albizia lebbeck
Family: Mimosaceae
English name: Siris tree
Kannada name: Begemara
Habit: A medium to large sized unarmed deciduous tree about 20 m in height with an umbrellashaped crown and grey to dark brown rough irregularly cracked bark leaves abruptly bipinnate,
main rachis with a large gland above the base and one below the upper most pair of pinnaae,
pinnae 2-4 pairs, leaflets 5-9 pairs with glands between their bases, the lateral ones ellipticoblong, the two terminal ovate-oblong, all unequal sided flowers white, fragrant, in globose
umbellate heads: fruits long, characteristic pods, bluntly pointed, thin, pale yellow smooth, shiny,
reticulately veined above the seed: seeds 4-12 brown, ellipsoid, oblong, compressed.
Parts used: bark, flowers, seeds
Uses: The bark is useful in boils, strengthening gums, sikn eruptions, leprosy, wounds ulcers,
The flowers are antidote for snake bite useful in all types of poisoning and dental disorders
The seeds are useful in wouinds caused by insects and spider.
Albizia odoratissima
Family: Mimosaceae
English name: black siris, kala siris
Kannada name: Bilvara
Habit : A medium sized unarmed tree about 20 m in height with dark coloured young shoots and
grey, rough, irregularly cracked bark with dark patches: leaves abruptly pinnate, alternate, main
rachis with a gland on the upper side near its basal part and often with similar glands at the bases
of the first two pairs of pinnae, leaflets unequal sided, rounded, or semicordate at base, obtuse or
rounded at the apex, dark green slightly pubescent above: flowers white, fragrant, sessile,
numerous, in small globose 5-20 or more flowered heads, in corymbiform spreading panicles:
fruits shortly stalked pods, brown, slightly reticulately veined: seeds flat, yellow.
Parts used: bark
Uses: The bark is useful in ulcers, leprosy, skin diseases, cough, bronchitis, diabetes and
burning sensation.
Aloe barbadensis
(Aloe vera)
Family: Liliaceae
English name: Indian aloe, Barbados aloe
Kannada name: Lolesara
Habit: A coarse perennial with short stem and shallow root system: leaves fleshy in rosettes,
sessile, often crowded with horny prickles on the margins, convex below, 45-60 cm long,
tapering to a blunt point , surface pale green with irregular white blotches: flowers yellow or
orange in racemes: fruits loculicidal capsule.
Parts used: leaf-juice,
Uses: The juice is used in dyspepsia, burns, colic, skin diseases, constipation,
tumours, vomiting, piles and blood disorders.
abdominal
Alstonia scholaris
Family: Apocynaceae
English name: Devil tree
Kannada name: Hale, maddale
Habit: A large evergreen tree up to 3.0 m in height with a straight often fluted and buttressed
bole, about 110 cm in diameter, bark greyish brown, rough, lenticellate abounding in bitter,
milky latex leaves 4-7 in a whorl, coriaceous, elliptic- oblong, pale beneath: flowers small,
greenish white, numerous in umbellate panicles, corolla tube short, very strongly scented: fruits
follicles, 30-60 long: seeds papillose with brownish hair at each end.
Parts used: Bark, leaves, milky exudates
Uses: The bark is useful in fevers, malarial fevers, abdominal disorders, diarrhoea, dysentery
and Skin diseases. The tender leaves are good for ulcers with foul discharges. And also in
beriberi. The milky excudate is bitter and is good for ulcers.
Alternanthera sessilis
Family: Amaranthaceae
Kannada name: Hongone
Habit: A much branched prostrate herb, branches often purplish, frequently rooting at the lower
nodes: leaves simple, opposite, somewhat fleshy, lancolate, oblanceolate or linear-oblong, obtuse
or subacute, sometimes obscurely denticulate, glabrous, shortly petiolate: flowers small, white, in
axillary clusters: fruits compressed obcordate utricles, seeds suborbicular.
Parts Used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is useful in night blindness and in intellectual promoting, burning sensation,
diarrhoea and fever.
Amaranthus spinosus
Family: Amaranthaceae
English name: Prickly amaranth
Kannada name: Mulluharivesoppu
Habit: An erect, glabrous, spinous herb, varying in colour from green to red or purple, 30-60 cm
in height with grooved branches and sharp divaricate spines in the leaf axils: leaves simple,
alternate, ovate, lanceolate or oblong, entire, glabrous above, main nerves numerous,
conspicuous below: flowers small, sessile, yellowish white or pale green, numerous, in dense
axillary clusters and in terminal or interrupted spikes: fruits ovoid capsules, membranous,
circumsessile about the middle.
Parts used: whole plant.
Uses: The plant is useful in burning sensation, intermittent fevers, agalactia, anaemia and
general debility. The roots are thermogenic and haemostatic. They are useful in menorrhagia,
haemoptysis and leucorrhoea.
Andrographis paniculata
Family: Acanthaceae
English name: Kalmegh
Kannada name: Nelabevu
Habit: An erect, branched annual herb, 0.3 to 0.9 m in height with quadrangular branches: leaves
simple, lanceolate, acute at both ends, glabrous, main nerves 4-6 pairs: flowers small, pale but
blotched and spotted with brown and purple distant in lax spreading axillary and terminal
racemes or panicles, calyx-lobes glandular pubescent, anthers bearded at the base: fruits linear
capsules, acute at both ends: seeds numerous, yellowish brown, subquadrate.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is useful in burning sensation, woods, ulcers, chronic fever, malarial and
intermittent fevers, cough, bronchitis, skin diseases, leprosy, intestinal worms, cholera itches and
piles.
Anisomeles malabarika
Family: Lamiaceae
English name: Malabar catmint
Kannada name: Karitumbi
Habit: An erect shrub about 1.8 m in height with obtusely tetragonous and softly white
tomentose stems and branches leaves simple, opposite, very thick, aromatic, obling- lonceolate,
acute, pale above, white below, crenate-serrate, softly woolly: flowers purple, in dense whorls of
more or less interrupted spikes: fruits nutlets, ellipsoid, compressed, the inner face slightly
angular, the dorsal rounded, smooth, brown.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is useful in colic, intestinal worms fever arising from teething in children,
intermittent fevers.
Argimone mexicana
Family: Papaveraceae
English name: Mexican poppy, prickly poppy,
Kannada name: Datturigida
Habit: A strong, branched, prickly annual, 60-90 cm in height with yellow latex leaves simple,
sessile, spiny, semi-amplexicaul, sinuate pinnatifid, variegated with white, spinous, veins white:
flowers large, bright yellow terminal on short leafy branches: fruits prickly capsules, oblongovoid, opening by 4-6 valves: seeds numerous.
Parts Used: whole plant
Uses: .The roots are useful in skin diseases, all types of poisoning, constipation, flatulence, colic
and malarial fever. The leaves are useful in cough, wounds, ulcers and Skin diseases. The seeds
are useful skin diseases, ulcers, wounds, dental caries, constipation, colic and the latex is useful
in jaundice, skin diseases, leprosy, blisters, conjunctivitis, burning sensation and malarial fever.
The oil is useful in indolent ulcers, wounds, leprosy, skin diseases, and constipation.
Aristolochia indica
Family: Aristolochiaceae
English name: Indian birthwort
Kannada name: Isvaberusa
Habit: A perennial shrubby glabrous twiner with a long woody root stock: leaves simple,
alternate, short- petioled, entire with somewhat undulate margins: flowers greenish white or light
purplish in axillary cymes or fascicles with swollen or inflated basal part, contracted middle part
and narrowly funnel-shaped distal part: fruits rounded or oblong or hexagonal, septicidal 6
valved capsules opening from below upwards: seeds flat, winged.
Parts used: Roots, leaves, fruits
Uses: The roots are useful in ulcers, skin diseases, instestinal worms, fever, abdominal disorders
in children and all types of poisonous bites and stings. Leaves are used to treat cholera, bowel
complaints and intermittent fevers in children. A paste made out of the leaves is good for
inflammations. The seeds are good for inflammation and dry cough.
Asparagus racemosus
Family: Liliaceae
English name: Wild asparagus
Kannada name: Shatavari
Habit: An armed, climbing undershrub with woody terete stems and recurved or rarely straight
spines, young stems very delicate, brittle and smooth: leaves reduced to minute chaffy scales and
spines: cladodes tiquetrous, curved in tufts or 2-6: flowers white, fragrant in simple or branched
racemes on the naked nodes of the main shoots or in the axils of the thorns: fruits globular or
obscurely 3 – lobed, pulpy berries, purplish black when ripe, seeds with hard and brittle testa,
The tuberous succulent roots are 30 cm to a meter or more in length. Fascicled at the stem base,
smooth, tapering at both ends.
Parts used: tuberous roots
Uses: The roots are useful in nervous disorders, defects in vision, epilepsy, urinary diseases
hyper acidity, diarrhoea, dysentery, tumours, throat infections, tuberculosis and in abortion.
Azadirachta indica
Melia azadirachta
Family: Meliaceae
English name: Neem tree.
Kannada name: Bevina mara
Habit: A medium to large sized tree, 15-20 m in height with a clear bole of 7.0 m having
grayish to dark grey tubercled bark, leaves comound, imparipinnate, leaflets, subopposite,
serrate, very oblique at base: flowers cream or yellowish white in axillary panicles, staminal
tubes conspicuous, cylindrical, widening above, 9-10 lobed at the apex: fruits one-seeded drupes
with woody endocarp greenish yellow when ripe, seeds ellipsoid, cotyledons thick, fleshy and
oily.
Parts Used: Bark, leaves, flowers, seeds, oil.
Uses: The bark is useful in skin diseases, intermittent and malarial fever, wood ulcers, burning
sensation, intestinal worms, cough, toothache, piles, wounds, eye diseases, diabetes, and fatigue.
The leaves are useful in burning sensation, antiseptic skin diseases. Flowers are useful in
intestinal worms. Seeds are useful in skin diseases wounds, ulcers, constipation and diabetes. Oil
is used in chronic skin diseases, syphilitic sores, scabies, ringworm, intestinal worms, malarial
fever and leprosy
It grows as avenue tree.
Bacopa monnieri
Family: Scrophulariaceae
English name: Thyme leaved gratiola
Kannada name: Neerubrahmi
Habit: A prostrate or creeping, juicy, succulent, glabrous annual herb rooting at the nodes with
numerous ascending branches: leaves simple, opposite, decussate, sessile, obovate-oblong or
spatulate, entire, fleshy, obscurely veined, punctuate: flowers pale blue or whitish, axillary,
solitary, on long slender pedicles: fruits ovoid, acute, 2 celled, 2- valved capsules, tipped with
style base: seeds minute, numerous.
Parts used: Whole plant
Uses: The Plant is useful in insanity, epilepsy, ulcers, constipation, asthma, bronchitis, skin
diseases, leprosy, elephantiasis, fever and improves intelligence.
Basella alba var. rubra
Family: Basellaceae
English name: Indian spinach
Kannada name: Basale
Habit: A perennial succulent glabrous twining herb with white or red ,branches: leaves simple,
alternate, broadly ovate, acute or acuminate, cordate at base, thick lamina narrowed into petiole:
flowers white or red in spikes, bracteoles longer than perianth: fruits red, white or black, globose,
utricle enclosed in the perianth.
Parts used: stems, leaves
Uses: The stems and leaves are useful in burning sensation, constipation, sleeplessness, ulcers,
dysentery, and general debility. They are especially useful as a laxative in children and pregnant
women.
Bauhinia variegata
Family: Caesalpiniaceae
Kannada name: Kempumandara
Habit: A moderate sized deciduous tree with vertically cracked grey bark, wood moderately
hard, grayish brown with irregular darker patches: leaves of 2 leaflets, connate for about twothirds up, leaflets ovate, rounded at apex, 10-15 cm long, pubescent beneath when young.
Coriaceous: flowers white or pink, the uppermost petal darker and variegated, usually appear
before the leaves in short axillary or terminal racemes, stamens 5, staminodes absent, fruits flat
dehiscent pods. Seeds 10-15
Parts used: Roots, bark
Uses: The roots and bark are useful in diarrhoea, dysentery, skin diseases, obesity goiter,
leprosy, intestinal worms, tumours, wounds, ulcers and inflammations.
Boerhaavia diffusa
Family: Nyctaginaceae
English name: Hogweed, pigweed
Kannada name: Sanadika
Habit: A perennial diffuse herb with stout root stock and many procumbent branches: leaves
simple, opposite, short-petioled in unequal pairs, ovate-oblong, acute or obtuse, rounded or
subcordate at base, glabrous above, and whitish beneath: flowers pale rose coloured, small,
short-stalked, in irregular clusters of terminal panicles at the ends of branches: fruits highly
viscid, easily detachable, one- seeded, indehiscent with a thin pericarp.
Parts used: Whole Plant
Uses: The plant is useful in all types of inflammations, jaundice, anaemia, constipation, cough,
bronchitis and general debility.
It grows as weed in waste land and roadsides.
Calotropis gigantea
Family: Asclepiadaceae
English name: Gigantic swallow wort, Mudar
Kannada name: Ekkegida
Habit: A large hard much-branched milky shrub, very pale in colour, the branches, leaves and
inflorescence covered with loose soft white wool: leaves opposite, subsessile, ovate, cordate at
base: flowers beautiful lilac, rosy or purple tinted in umbellate lateral cymes: fruits fleshy
follicles, green seeds with abundant white coma.
Parts used: whole Plant
Uses: The dried whole plant is a good tonic, expectorant, depurative and anthelmintic. The root
bark is febrifuge, depurative expectorant and laxative, and is useful in cutaneous diseases,
intestinal worms, and cough. The powdered root promotes gastric secretions and is useful in
asthma, bronchitis and dyspepsia. The leaves are useful in the treatment of paralysis, swellings
and intermittent fevers. The flowers are bitter digestive, astringent, stomachic, and tonic. They
are useful in asthma, inflammations and tumours. In large doses it is purgative and emetic.
Canthium parviflorum
Family: Rubiaceae
English name: Carray cheddle
Kannada name: Kakegida
Habit: A thorny subscandent shrub with spreading branches: leaves simple, small opposite with
interpetiolar stipules and axillary spines: flowers yellowish white, 4 merous, small, in axillary
cymes, corolla tube short: fruits oblong-ellipsoid or compressed drupes, yellow when ripe
Parts Used: roots, leaves
Uses: The roots and leaves are useful in fever, intestinal worms and general debility.
Cardiospermum halicacabum
Family: Sapindaceae
English name: Ballon vine, heart‟s pea
Habit: A pubescent or nearly glabrous annual or perennial with slender branches climbing by
means of tendrillar hoods: leaves terminately bicompound, leaflets acuminate at the apex:
flowers white, small: fruits membranous, depressed, pyriform capsule winged at the angles:
seeds black with a large white heart- shaped aril.
Parts used: Roots, leaves, seeds
Uses: The roots are useful in fever, arthritis, amenorrhoea, lumbago and neuropathy. The leaves
are good for arthritis. The seeds are tonic and diaphoretic, and are good for arthritis and fever.
The plant has sedative action on the central nervous system.
Caryota urens
Family: Palmae
English name: Fish tail palm, elephant‟s palm
Kannada name: Kondapana
Habit: A lofty handsome palm with a smooth, cylindrical, shiny annulate trunk, bearing a crown
of large leaves: leaves 5-6 m long, drooping, bipinnate with leaflets shaped like the tail of a fish,
monoecious: flowers on pendulous spadix, inflorescence 3-4 m long resembling a huge docked
horse tail, flowers in groups of thre, female in the centre and males on sides, fruits globose,
reddish when ripe
Parts used: tender bud leaves and nuts.
Uses: The tender leaves are useful in vitiated conditions of pitta. The pulp of the fruit is good
for fatigue. A paste made from the nut is good for hemicrania
Cassia auriculata
Family: Caesalpiniaceae
English name: Tanner‟s cassia, avaram
Kannada name: Tangate.
Habit: A much branched shrub with reddish brown branches: leaves with subulate glands
between all the 8-12 pairs of leaflets and a pair of large obliquely cordate stipules at their bases:
flowers bright yellow in sub terminal axillary corymbs: fruits pods, flat, thin, papery, pale brown
deeply depressed between the seeds, transversely veined: seeds 10-20 per pod, obovate, dark
brown with hard shiny seed coat.
Parts used: Roots, bark, leaves, flowers, seeds.
Uses: The roots are useful in the skin diseases, tumours and asthma. The decoction of bark is
used as enemas and gargles, and leaves are recommended for leprosy, skin diseases and ulcers.
The flowers are used in diabetes, nocturnal emissions. The seeds are used in swellings,
abdominal disorders, skin diseases, worm infestations and chronic conjunctivitis.
Cassia fistula
Family: Caesalpiniaceae
Kannada name: Kakke mara
Habit: A moderate sized handsome deciduous tree, 8-15 m in height with greenish grey smooth
bark when young , and rough when old, exfoliating in hard scales: leaves pinnately compound,
leaflets 4-8 pairs, ovate, acute, bright green, glabrous above, paler and silvery pubescent beneath
when young, main nerves numerous: flowers bright yellow in lax pendulous racemes: fruits
cylindric pods, 30-60 cm long, shortly stipitate, nearly straight, smooth shiny, brownish black:
seeds broadly ovate horizontally immersed in dark coloured sweetish pulp
Parts used: Whole plant
Uses: The roots are useful in skin diseases, tuberculous glands, and burning sensation. The
bark is useful in boils pustules, leprosy, ringworm colic constipation and fever. The leaves in
skin diseases, ulcers and intermittent fevers. The flowers in skin diseases, burning sensation, dry
cough and bronchitis. The fruits are used skin diseases, burning sensation, leprosy, skin diseases,
and jaundice and cardiac disorders.
Cassia occidentalis
Family: Caesalpiniaceae
English name: Negro coffee, stinking weed
Kannada name: Doddatogachi
Habit: A diffuse of offensively odorous undershrub with furrowed subglabrous branches,
leaflets (3-5 pairs: flowers yellow, in short peduncled few flowered racemes fruits cylindrical or
compressed, transversely septate glabrous pods containing 20-30 seeds, seeds ovoid, compressed
hard, smooth and shiny dark olive green or pale brown
Parts used: Whole plant
Uses: The plant is useful in cough, bronchitis, constipation fever, and convulsions. The roots
are bitter diuretic, anti inflammatory, digestive, and tonic. Ring worm, colic, convulsions and
scorpion sting. The leaves in asthma.The seeds in constipation and fever.
Cassia angustifolia
Family: Caesalpiniaceae
English name: Indian senna,
Kannada name: Nelavarike, Sonamukhi
Habit: Shrub or undeshrub, 60-75 cm in height with pale subterete or obtusely angled erect or
spreading banches: leaves paripinnate, leaflets 5-8, ovate-lanceolate, glabrous: flowers yellow,
many in axillary racemes: fruits flat legumes, greenish brown to dark brown 3.6-7 cm long:
Seeds 5-7 per pod, obovate, dark brown, nearly smooth
Parts used: leaves
Uses:
The leaves are useful in constipation abdominal disorders, skin diseases, cough,
bronchitis, typhoid fever, and anaemia.
Cassia tora
Family: Caesalpiniaceae
English name: Foetid cassia
Kannada name: Gandu Togache
Habit: A herbaceous foetid annual weed, almost an undeshrub, upto 90 cm in height: leaves
pinnately compound, rachis grooved with a conical gland between each ofk the two lowest pairs
of leaflets , leaflets three pairs, obovate-oblong, membranous, base somewhat oblique, main
nerves 8-10 pairs: flowers yellow, in subsessile pairs, in the axils of the leaves, the upper ones
crowded, stamens serven, perfect and three staminodes: fruits subtetragonous obliquely septate
pods, 15-23 cm long, the sutures very broad, rhombohedral, 25-30 per pod
Parts used: Leaves, seeds
Uses: The leaves and seeds are useful in ringworm, skin diseases,intermittent fevers, and
cardiac disorders.
It grows on waste places
Catharanthus roseus
(Vinca rosea)
Family: Apocynaceae
English name: Periwinkle
Kannada name: Nitya mallige, sadapushpa
Habit: An erect handsome, herbaceous, annual: leaves deep green oval, obliong or obovate,
glossy, flowers in cymose axiliry clusters, white or deep rose- coloured: fruits pairs of follicles.
Parts Used: Whole plant
Uses: The whole plant particularly the root bark is used as a folk remedy for diabetes. The root
is toxic, bitter. The juice of the leaves is good for wasp-stings. The vincristine alkaloid,
obtained from this plant is useful in some kinds of leukaemia.
Centella asiatica
Hydrocotyle asiatica
Family: Apiaceae
English name: Indian pennywort
Kannada name: Vandelaga
Habit: A slender herbaceous creeping perennial with rooted nodes and long internodes, leaves
simple with elongated petioles and sheathing leaf bases, broadly cordate, reniform, cenate or
sinuate, toothed: flowers pink, almost sessile, 3-4 in fascicled umbels: fruits laterally
compressed with two mericaps having 7-9 subsimilar ridges.
Parts Used: Whole plant:
Uses: The plant is useful in asthma, bronchitis, abdominal disorders, fever nervine tonic and
mental disorder. The leaves are useful in abdominal disorders due to dysentery specially in
children.
Citrullus colocynthis
Family: Cucurbitaceae
English name: Bitter apple
Kannada name: Mekkikayi
Habit: An extensively trailing annual herb with bifid tendrils, angular branching stems and
woolly tender shoots: leaves deeply divided, lobes narrow, thick, glabrous or somewhat hairy:
flowers monoecious yellow, both males and females solitary, corolla pale-yellow: fruit a globose
or oblong fleshy indehiscent berry, 5-7 cm in diameter and variegated with green and white:
seeds pale brown.
Parts used: Roots, fruits
Uses: The roots are purgative. The fruits are useful in leucoderma, ulcers, asthma, bronchitis,
jaundice, constipation, elephantiasis and tubercular glands of the neck.
Cissus quadrangularis
Family: Vitaceae
English name: Adamant creeper, bone setter
Kannada name: Mangana balli
Habit: A tendril climber with stout fleshy jointed quadrangular stems.Tendrils simple, long,
slender and leaf-opposed, in addition to the normal roots, some aerial roots arising from the
jointed nodes grow downwards and strike the soil leaves simple, broadly reniform, entire or
toothed, rounded, truncate or cuneate at the base: flowers small greenish in shortly peduncled
cymes petals 4 hooded at the apex fruits ovoid or globes. Red berries seeds ellipsoid.
Parts used: whole plant:
Uses: The plant is bitter, the shoots are useful in scurvy, infertility, asthma, burns and wounds,
powdered roots as well as the stem paste are very specific for bone fracturers.
Cleome viscosa
Family: Capparaceae
English name: Wild mustard, dog mustard
Kannada name: Kadusasive,
Habit: An annual, sticky berb with a strong penetrating odour and clothes and glandular and
simple hairs: leaves 3-5 foliate, gradually becoming shorter upwards: flowers yellow in lax
raceme: fruits capsules, compressed, hairy throughout: seeds brownish black when ripe
Parts used: Whole plant:
Uses: The plant is acrid, thermogenic, anthelmintic and the roots are stimulant, and vermifuge,
The leaf juice is digestive . The seeds are anthelmintic, carminative, constipating, febrifuge and
cardiac stimulant and are useful in fever, diarrhoea, worm infestations.
Clerodendrum inerme
Family: Verbenaceae
Kannada name: Kadusasive,
Habit: A large gregarious twiny-villous shrub up to 9.0 m in height with blunty quadrangular
branchlets: the leaves large, 10-25 cn 9.20 cm ovate, acuminate, entire or denticulate, base
cordate, hairy on both sides: flowers white, tinged with pink in terminal panicles: fruits somethat
globose drupes, seated on the enlarged pink calyx containing 1-4 pyrenes.
Parts used: leaves
Uses: The leaves are bitter, and are useful in cough, bronchitis and malarial fever.
Clitoria ternatea
Family: Fabaceae
English name: Clitoria
Kannada name: Shanku puspa
Habit: A good-looking perennial twining herb with terete stems and branches, leaves compound,
imparipinnate, leaflets 5-7, sub-coriaceous, elliptic-oblong, obtuse, flowers blue or white,
solitary, axillary or in fascicles, corolla papilionaceous: fruits nearly straight, flattened pods,
sharply beaked: seeds 6-10, smooth, yellowish brown.
Parts Used: Whole plant
Uses: The plant is used in mental disorders, goiter, snake poison, toothache and eye disease
Coccinia indica
Family: Cucurbitaceae
English name: Ivy gourd, tondli
Kannada name: Tonde kayi
Habit: A perennial, much branched handsome tendril climber, roots sometimes tuberous, laves
deltoid or sub rotund, angled or lobed, bright green above and pale beneath, palmately 5 nerved
from a cordate base with circular glands between the nerves flowers white large, unisexual fruits
ovoid or oblong or ellipsoid berries with white streaks, bright scarlet red when ripe seeds ovoid,
compressed yellowish grey.
Parts used: roots, leaves and fruits
Uses: The roots are useful in vomiting, burning sensation and uterine discharges. The leaves are
bitter, sweet, astringent and cooling. The fruits are cooling, sweet, antipyretic, expectorant, and
are useful in burning sensation, skin diseases, and intermittent fever. Agalactia, asthma, cough,
bronchitis, and Jaundice. The fruits and leaves of the bitter variety are bitter, acrid, themogenic,
purgative antinflammatory, anthelmintic, digestive liver and expectorant,wounds ulcers
inflammation,, hepatopathy, jaundice, leprosy, fever, asthma , cough, diabeties, and anaemia.
Colocasia esculenta
Family: Araceae
English name: taro, cocoyam
Kannada name: Kesuvu
Habit: A tuberous perennial with a group o underground farinaceous corms consisting of a
central large one and surrounding ones of varying sizes: leaves with sheathing leaf base and erect
petiole upto 1.2 m long beaint a thinly coriaceous peltate-ovate, cordate lamina spadix shorter
than the petiole and much shorter than the spathe appendix much shorter than the inflorescence.
Parts used: leaves, corms.
Uses: The leaf juice is stimulant and is useful in internal haemorrhages. The juice of the corm
is laxative.
Crotolaria retusa
Family: Fabaceae
Kannada name: Senabu
Habit: An erect, robust undershrub, 60-120 cm high, with glabrous striate branches: leaves
oblanceolate – oblong, obtuse or retuse, usually glabrous above and silky pubescent beneath:
flowers yellow, numerous, large and showy in erect terminal racemes: fruits stalked pods,
slightly broader upwards with 15-20 seeds per pod.
Parts used: Whole plant
Uses: The leaves are used for curing diarrhoea, scabies. The seeds powdered and boiled with
milk are said to be very useful for increasing body strength and life span. The seeds are
digestive and are useful in skin diseases and fever.
Cycas circinalis
Family: Cycadaceae
Habit: A handsome palm upto 7 m height with stout annulated stem: leaves pinnate, leaflets
numerous, linear, single-nerved.Tender leaves circinate male plant has brownish cones,
consisting of several spirally and compactly arranged microsporophylls on a fleshy central axis.
Amidst a crown of leaves. Female plant bears megasporophylls surrounded by a grown of leave.
On the megasporophylls ovules are h borne marginally, Ovules when mature become seeds, ripe
seeds are orange in colour with white starchy endosperm inside.
Parts used: Bark, tender leaves microporophylls, seeds
Uses: A paste pepared out of the bark and the seeds with coconut oil is good for sores and
swellings. The juice obtained from the tender leaves is useful in flatulence and vomiting. The
powdered endosperm is sweet, sour, cooling, tonic and starchy, and is good for burning sensation
and general debility.
Cynodon dactylon
Family: Poaceae
English name: Dhub grass, Barmuda grass
Kannada name: Garike hullu, kudigarike
Habit: A prostrate extensively creeping glabrous, highly branched perennial grass, rooting at
every node, forming matted tufts: leaves narrow linear, soft, smooth, distichous at the base,
ligule a very fine ciliate rim: inflorescence terminal spikes, green or purplish, rachis slender,
involucral glumes acute to subulate – mucronulate, floral glume obliquely oblong to semi-ovate:
fuits grains oblong, laterally compressed about 1 mm long.
Parts used: Whole plant:
Uses: The plant is astringent, sweet cooling, haemostatic, depurative, vulnerary, constipating,
diuretic and tonic, and used in burning sensation, wounds, conjunctivitis, skin diseases, vomiting
diarrhoea, dysentery and debility.
Cyperus rotundus
Family: Cyperaceae
English name: nut grass
Kannada name: Tungegadde
Habit: A perennial glabrous herb with elongate slender stolons bearing hard black fragrant
tubers and tiquetrous aerial stems: leaves numerous, narrowly linear, finely acuminate, flat, one
nerved spikelets in compounds expanded umbels, spikelets linear to lanceolate, glumes
imbricate: nut trigonus bordly obovoid, greyish black
Parts used: tubers
Uses: Diaphoretic, vulnerary, febrifuge, antiperiodic and tonic, used in, hyperdipsia,
inflammations, leprosy, skin diseases, scabies epilepsy, anorexia colic, verminosis, diarrhoea,
dysentery renal and vesical calculi, cough, bronchitis, wounds, ulcers, fever, intermittent and
malarial fevers , vomiting.
Datura metel
Family: Solanaceae
English name: Thorn apple
Kannada name:Datturi
Habit: An erect, succulent, spreading annual herb or shrub, a metre or more in hight with
dirvaricate, oftr purplish branches: leaves triangular ovate in outline unequal at the base: flowers
large, solitary, short pedicelled, purplish outside and white inside, fruits subglobose, capsules
covered all over with numerous, fleshy prickles, irregularly breaking when mature: seeds
numerous smooth yellowish brown.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is acid, narcotic, antispasmodic intoxicant and is useful in asthma cough fever
ulcers and skin diseases. The roots are used to treat bites from rabid dogs and are also used to
cure insanity. The leaves are narcotic, anodyne and antispasmodic. A poultice made out of the
leaves is used for ophthalmodynia mumps and painfull swellings,. The juice of the leaves is
used for epilepsy, cephalalgia and dandruff.
The seeds are aphrodisiac, narcotic and
antispasmodic, and are useful in gastropathy and skin diseases, and are good to treat dandruff
and lice.
Dioscorea alata
Family: Solanaceae
English name: Greater yam, Asiatic yam
Kannada name: Tengugenasu, heggenasu
Habit: A climber with 4 winged stems twining to the right having scattered broad based prickles
and underground tubers without long stalks and of varying shapes: leaves opposite or rarely
alternate, broadly ovate or rounded, cordate, with a broad sinus having five nerves: flowers
unisexual, rachis of male spike winged: fruits capsules boadly obcordate. 2.5-4.5 cm wide
Parts used: tubers
Uses: The tubers are sweet, cooling, aphrodisiac, tonic diuretic and anthelmintic and are useful
in haemorrhoids, diabetes, leprosy, gonorrhoea, strangury and helminthiasis.
Eclipta alba
Family: Asteraceae
English name: Trailing eclipta
Kannada name: Garagadasoppu
Habit: An erect or prostrate much branched annual herb with rooted nodes: leaves opposite,
strigose with appressed hairs on both sides flowers white in heads ray compressed.
Parts used: Whole plant
Uses: The plant is bitter, acrid, and is useful in elephantiasis, inflammation, gastropathy,
anorexia, skin diseases, wounds ulcers, hypertension, leprosy fever and jaundice. It is good for
blackening and strengthening of the hair for stopping haemorrhages and fluxes and for
strengthening a the gums. The seeds are good for increasing sexual vigour.
Eucalyptus globulus
Family: Myrtaceae
English name: Eucalypt
Kannada name: Neelgiri
Habit: A lofty tree about 90m in height with a clean straight bole and smooth bark, peeling
off in long strips, leaves opposite on juvenile shoots, alternate in adult shoots , lanceolate, 2025cm long, broad, rather thick and warty, fruit aa hardened capsule dehiscing longitudinally at
the mouth, seeds very small.
Parts used: oil.
Uses: The oil is acrid , bitter, astringent, thermogenic, antiseptic, deodorant, stimulant,
carminative, digestive, cardiotonic, expectorant, insect repellent, antipyretic, threadworm
infection, skin diseases, burns, diarrhoea and vomiting.
Eupatorium triplinerve
Family: Asteraceae
Habit: A profusely branching prostrate undershrub upto 90-120cm in height with a few
ascending branches leaves simple, opposite, , subsessile, , lanceolate, 3-nerved, acuminate,
subentire, glabrous, flowers stay blue, all tubular in few headed ccoryms, fruits, achenes,
truncate, 5-angled with uniseriate pappus hairs.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is bitter, astringent, acrid, thermogenic, stimulant, digestive, carminative,
antipyretic, detergent, skin eruptions, scabies, poison bites, yellow fever, and asthama.
Euphorbia antiquorum
Family: Euphorbiaceae
English name: Triangular spruge
Kannada name: Katakalli
Habit: A small armed tree with whorled , and broad, branches, branchelets thick and broad, 3-5
winged, having sharp stipular spines, leaves small, sub sessile, soon deciduous, involucers3-nate,
the central flower sessile, female, the two laterals on long stout pedicels, glands5,styles bifid,
fruits capsules.
Parts used: roots, juice
Uses: The roots are bitter, acrid, thermogenic, purgative, digestive, constipation, wounds and
ulcers. The juice is acrid, anti-inflammatory and purgative.
Evolvulusa alsinoies
Family: Convolvulaceae
Kannada name: Vishnukranti
Habit: A small, hairy, procumbent, diffuse perennial herb with a small woody root stock:
leaves simple, alternate, elliptic- clothed with appressed silky hairs: flowers light blue, solitary
or sometimes in pairs axillary, jointed near the middle of the peduncle where two small opposite
lanceolate bracteoles are present. Styles two, distinct from the base, each divides again once
thus producing 4 branches: fruits globose 4- valed dtrooping capsules
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is bitter, acrid, febrifuge, aphrodisiac, intellect promoting, anthelmintic,
trichogenous, expectorant, alexipharmic and tonic . It is useful in bronchitis, asthma, vitiated
conditions of pitta, epilepsy. Amentia, forgetfulness. Internal haemorrhages, dysentery.
Diarrhoea, helminthiasis, falling and graying of hair, intermittent fevers and general debility.
It grows in village side
Ficus benghalensis
Family: Moraceae
English name: Banyan
Kannada name: Alada mara
Habit: A very large tree upto 30m in height with widely spreading branches bearing many
aerial roots functioning as prop roots, bark greenish white, leaves simple, alternate, often in
clusters at ends of branches, stipulate, 10-20cm long and 5-12.5cm broad, broadly elliptic to
ovate, entire, coriaceous, stronglyn3-7 ribbed from the base, the fruit receptacles are axillary,
sessile, in pairs, globose, brick red when ripe, enclosing male, female and gall flowers, fruits
small, crustaceous achenes, enclosed in the common fleshy receptacles.
The young bark has longitudinal and trasverse rows of lenticels. In older barks the
lenticels are numerous and closely spaced, outer bark easily flakes off. The fresh cut- surface is
pink or flesh coloured an exudes plenty of latex, the innermost part of the bark adjoining the
wood is nearly white and fibrous.
Parts used: aerial root, bark, leaves, buds, fruits, latex
Uses: All parts of the plants are astringent, acrid, sweet, and refrigerant. The aerial roots are
useful in obstinate vomiting and are to be used in osteomalacia of the limbs. The bark is useful in
burning sensation, dysentery, diabetes, ulcers, and skin diseases. The leaves are good for ulcers,
leprosy, allergic conditions of the skin; the buds are useful in diarrhoea and dysentery.
Ficus religiosa
Family: Moraceae
English name: Peepal tree, sacred fig
Kannada name: Arali mara
Habit: A very large deciduos tree upto with few or no aerial roots, often epiphytic, the
drooping branchlets bear long petiolated ovate, cordate shiny leaves which produce a
characteristic rustling sound when the wind blows, leaves bright green, the apex produced into a
linear lanceolate tail about half as long as the main portion of the blade, the receptacles occurring
in pairs, axillary, depressed globose, smooth, puplish when ripe.
The bark is grey or ash coloured with thin or membranous flakes and often covered with
crutose lichen patches, the outer bark is not of uniform thickness, the middle bark in sections
appears as brownish or light reddish brown, the inner part consists of layers of light yellowish or
orange brown granular tissue.
Parts used: bark, leaves, tender shoots, fruits, seeds, latex
Uses: The bark is astringent,sweet, cooling and aphrodisiac, and an aqueous extract of it has an
anti bacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherischia coli. It is used in the
treatment of diarrhea and dysentery. A paste of the powdered bark is a good absorbent for
inflammatory swellings and good burns. Leaves and tender shoots have purgative properties and
recommended for wounds and skin diseases. Fruits are laxative and digestive, the dried fruit
pulverized and taken in water cures asthama. Seeds are refrigerant and laxative. The latex is is
good for neuralgia inflammations.
Gloriosa superba
Family: Liliaceae
English name: Malabar glory lily
Kannada name: Kolikuttuma
Habit: A handsome herbaceous tendril climber with underground cylindrical white
tuberous rhizome, leaves sessile , alternate ovate, lanceolate with acuminate tips prolonged into
spiral tendrils, flowers showy, solitary or subcorymbose, at first greenish later becoming yellow
and finally scarlet or crimson, fruits linear, oblong capsules, seeds many rounded .
Parts used: rhizomes
Uses: The rhizomes are acrid, bitter, thermogenic, intensely poisonous, abortifacient,
anthelmintic, digestive stomatichic, purgative, gastrointestinal irritant, antipyretic, expectorant,
rejuvenating and tonic , inflammations , ulcers, parasitic skin diseases, leprosy, helminthiasis
intermittent fevers, and debility. It is useful in promoting labor pain and expulsion of the
placenta. In large doses it is highly poisonous and will cause vomiting, purging and burning
sensation.
It grows in jungles and on the outskirts of the city.
Gymnema sylvestre
Family: Asclepiadaceae
English name: Periploca of the wounds
Kannada name: Madhunasini
Habit: A large woody, much branched climber with pubescent young parts, leaves simple,
opposite elliptical, or ovate , more or less pubescent on both sides, base rounded or cordate,
flowers small, yellow, in umbellalte cymes, fruits slender, follicles upto 7.5cm long.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is acrid, bitter, thermogenic, anti-inflammatory, liver tonic, emetic, diuretic,
stimulant, laxative, anthelmintic, digestive stomatichic, cardiotonic and uterine tonic , rrenal and
vesical calculi, dyspepsia, constipation, cough, asthama, bronchitis, purgative, antipyretic,
expectorant, helminthiasis, intermittent fevers. The fresh leaves when chewed have the
remarkable property of paralyzing the sense of taste for sweet and bitter substances.
It grows in jungles and on the outskirts of the city.
Heliotropium indicum
Family: Boraginaceae
English name: Indian turnsole
Kannada name: Chelubaladagida
Habit: A coarse, succulent foetid herbaceous annual, 15-60cm in height with densely
hirsute ascending branches, leaves simple, alternate or subopposite, ovate , obtuse, narrowed,
or cordate at the base, often unequal upto 10cm long and 7.5-10cm broad, hispid- pubescent,
veins, and veinlets conspicuous on the lower side flowers pale , violet , many, 2-ranked in extra
axillary , bristly scorpid cymes, fruits nutlets combined in pairs, separating later, beaked, each
lobe 4-ribbed.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is astringent, bitter, thermogenic, diuretic, ulcers, sores, and wounds, skin
affections stings of insects, ultis and rheumatism. The roots are bitter, astringent, aphrodisiac,
expectorant, febrifuge, and ophthalmic and are useful in cough, bronchitis, and fever ring
worm. The leaves are useful in fever, ulcers, wounds, localized inflammation, ring worm and
rheumatism.
It grows on roadsides and waste places.
Hemidesmus indicus
Family: Asclepiadaceae
English name: Indian sarasaparilla
Kannada name: Namadaballi
Habit: A perennial, slender, laticiferous , twining or prostrate, wiry shrub with woody rootstock and numerous slender, terete stems having elliptic-oblong to linear lanceolate variegated
with white above, silvery white and pubescent beneath, flowers greenish purple crowded in
subsessile cymes in the opposite leaf axils fruits slender follicles, cylindrical, 10cm long,
tapering to a point at the apex, seeds flattened, black ovate oblong, coma, silvery white.The
tuberous root is dark brown, coma silvery white, tortuous with transversly cracked and
longitudinally fissured bark. It has a strong central vasculature and a pleasant smell and taste.
Parts used: roots, leaves, stem
Uses: The roots are astringent, bitter,sweet, aromatic, carminative, appetizer, skin diseases
leucoderma, leprosy, asthama, bronchitis diahorrea, dysentery, fever and general debility.The
leaves are useful in vomiting, wounds and leucoderma. The stems are bitter, laxative,
inflammations. Latex is good for conjunctivitis.
It grows in wild places.
Holostemma annulare
Family: Asclepiadaceae
Habit: A handsome, laticiferous , twining shrub with large conspicuous flowers, leaves
simple, opposite, cordate, flowers purple in axillary umbellate cymes, fruits thick follicles, 9 cm
long, cylindrical, blunty pointed.
The roots are pretty long upto a metre or more, irregularly twisted, thick and cylindrical.
When dry it is yellowish brown to brownish black in colour with nearly smooth surface bearing
white scars and small depressions. A mature root is about 1-2cm thick when extracted for use.
The cross section of a dried root is white in colour with few grey streaks radially arranged and a
discontinuous ring of brown dots as seen under hand lens.
Parts used: roots
Uses: The roots are sweet, refrigerant, ophthalmic, tonic, expectorant cough, burning sensation.
The leaves, flowers and fruits are eaten as vegetable.
It grows in wild places and on hedges
Indigofera tinctoria
Family: Fabaceae
English name: Indian indigo
Kannada name: Neeli
Habit: A branching shrub upto 2m high, leaves with 7-13 leaflets, green when fresh and
grayish black on drying, tender branches, bluish red in colour , flowers many sessile lax
spicate racemes which are much shorter than the leaves, red or pink, fruits cylindrical pods, pale
greenish grey when young and dark brown on ripening with 10-12 seeds.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The roots, stems,and leaves are bitter, thermogenic, laxative , diuretic, anthelmintic
tonic, expectorant, are useful for promoting the growth of hair, chronic bronchitis, asthama
ulcers, and skin diseases. The juice extracted from the leaves is useful in the treatment of
hydrophobia. An extract of the plant is good for epilepsy and neuropathy. The plant p possess
anti – toxic property.
It grows on waste land, mainly as an escape from cultivation.
Ipomoea maxima
Family: Convolvulaceae
Kannada name: Lakshmana
Habit: A slender twining perennial with usually villous stems and slightly tuberous roots,
leaves simple, alternate petiole, ovate, cordate, with a wide sinus and rounded basal lobes,
blonched with brownish or purplish patches towards the centre, flowers pale purple or pale
pink, large, funnel shaped in umbellate or subumbellate axillary cymes, fruits ovoid capsules,
8mm long, 4 or 2 seeded , seeds grey covered over with silky pubescence.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is sweet, cooling, rejuvenating, diuretic, aphrodisiac, laxative, burning sensation
and general debility.
It grows on hedges near streams and tanks.
Jatropa curcas
Family: Euphorbiaceae
English name: Purging nut, physic nut
Kannada name: Belioudalu
Habit: A large deciduous soft wooded shrub, 3-4m in height with sticky juice , leaves
alternate, broadly ovate, cordate, 3-5 lobed, glabrous, base seven nerved, stipules zero, flowers
yellowish green in loose panicles, of cymes, fruits ovoid, black, splitting into three, 2- valved
cocci, seeds dull brownish black.
Parts used: leaves, seeds, oil
Uses: The leaves have insecticidal properties, foul ulcers, tumours, and scabies. The latex is
purgative and is good for wounds and ulcers. The seeds are powerful purgative, acrid, sweet,
digestive, tonic. The oil from the seeds is used externally in rheumatism and paralytic affections.
It grows in fields and in hedges.
Justicia beddomei
(Adathoda vasica)
Family: Acanthaceae
Kannada name:Adusoge
Habit: A large glabrous shrub, leaves opposite, short-petioled up to 15 cm long, 3.75cm
broad, main nerves about 8 pairs: flower heads short, dense or condensed spikes: fruits capsules
with a long solid base.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is bitter, astringent, refrigerant, expectorant, and diuretic, antispasmodic. Leaves
are good for irritable cough and for bleeding in diarrhoea and especially in haemoptysis.
Flowers are used in ophthalmia. The roots along with the leaf- juice are used in phthisis, cough,
haemoptysis and asthma.
It grows in wild places
Justicia gendarussa
Family: Acanthaceae
Kannada name: Karinekki
Habit: An erect undershrub, 0.6 to 1.2 m in height with profuse subterete branches, stems and
branches dark violet, leaves simple, opposite, lanceolate, or linear lanceolate, 7.5 to 12.5 cm long, short
petioled, glabrous, dark violet green above and pale green beneath, main nerves about 8 pairs, ;mid rib
and main nerves prominent. On the under surface flowers white, spotted purple within, clustered in the
interrupted spikes: fruits glabrous capsules.
Parts used: roots,leaves
Uses: The roots and leaves are acrid, bitter, thermogenic, anodyne, and emetic. Expectorant.
Anti-inflammatory, diaphoretic. Emmenagogue,antiperiodic and insecticidal. They are useful
in chronic rheumatism, cephalalgia, hemiplegia, facial paralysis, otalgia, hemicranias, cough,
bronchitis, dysmenorrhoea. Amenorrhoea, internal haemorrhages. Intermittent fevers. ascities
and debility.
It grows as a hedge plant
Lantana camara
Family: Verbenaceae
Eng: Wild sage, Lantana weed
Kannada name: Kadugulabi,
Habit: A large scrambling evergreen, strong smelling shrub with stout recurved prickles: leaves
opposite, Often rugose. Scabrid on both sides: flowers small, normally orange but often white to dark
red, in heads which are prominently capitates: bracts conspicuous, persistent: fruits fleshy drupes,5 mm in
diameter, endocarp hard, green when young and blue or black on ripening.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is vulenarary, carminative, antispasmodic and tonic, It is useful in tetanus,
malaria, epilepsy. A decoction of fresh roots is a good gargle for odontalgia and this is used by
hill tribes for all types of dysentery. Powdered leaves are used for cuts, wounds, ulcers and
swellings. An infusion of the leaves is good for bilious fever. The fruits are useful in fistula,
pustules, tumours and rheumasism.
It grows as a troublesome prickly weed.
Lawsonia inermis
Family: Lythraceae
English name: Henna
Kannada name: Madarangi, Mehendi
Habit: A glabrous much: branched deciduous shrub with 4 gonous lateral branches often
ending in spines: leaves simple, opposite, entire, lanceolate, petioles very short or absent: flowers
white, or rose-Coloured, fragrant, in large terminal pyramidal panicled cymes, stamens 8 , in 4
pairs inserted on the calyx tube: fruits globose capsules, tipped with the style and supported by
the persistent calyx, seeds numerous, smooth, pyramidal.
Parts used: roots, leaves, flowers, seeds
Uses: The roots are bitter, refrigerant, depurative, diuretic, and are useful in burning sensation,
skin diseases, and premature graying of hair. The leaves are bitter, astringent, acrid, refrigerant
vulnerary, diuretic,expectorant, constipating, liver tonic. They are useful in wounds, ulcers,
cough, bronchitis, inflammations, diarrhea, dysentery, leprosy, leucoderma, scabies, boils,
hepatopathy, splenopathy, anaemia, haemorrhages, fever, dysmenorrhoea ,falling of hair,
greyness of hair and jaundice. The flowers are intellect Promoting, cardiotonic, refrigerant,
candiopathy, amentia, insomnia and fever The seeds are antepyretic are useful in intermittent
fevers.
It grows as a hedge plant in villages.
Leucas aspera
Family: Lamiaceae
English name: Thumbe
Kannada name: Tumbe
Habit: An erect or diffuse much branched herbaceous annual, 15-60 cm in height with
hispid or scabrid quadrangular stems and branches: leaves sub- sessile, linear - or linearoblong or linear-lanceolate, obtuse,entire or crenate, pubescent up to 7.5 cm long and 1.25 mm
broad: flowers pure white, small, in dense termi;nal or axillary whorls: fruits nutlets,2.5 mm
long, oblong, brown, smooth, inner face angular and outer face rounded.
Parts used: leaves, flowers,
Uses: The leaves and flowers are acrid, thermogenic, carminative, digestive, anthelmintic,
antipyretic, and expectorant, antibacterial. They are useful in colic, chronic skin eruptions, cough
and catarrh in children,intermittent fevers and ulcers. The juice of the leaves is highly
recommendable as an eyedrop in encephalopathy due to worm infestation in children and is
useful as a nasa drop in catarrh and cephalalgia.
It grows as a weed on waste lands and road sides.
Limonia acidissima
( Feronia elephantum)
Family: Rutaceae
English name: Elephant apple, Wood apple, Curd fruit, Monkeyfruit
Kannada name: bela
Habit: A moderate sized to fairly large glabrous deciduous tree, armed with strong, straight, axillary
spines, having a much branched dense crown of dark foliage and dark grey longitudinally furrowed
rough wrinkled bark: leaves compound , imparipinnate, alternate, rachis narrowly winged, leaflets 3-7,
obovate, crenulate, tip often notched, gland dotted: flowers small, frangrant, dull red, polygamous in
lateral and terminal pubescent panicles: fruits globose, woody, rough, grey – coloured berries, seeds
oblong. Compressed, embedded in the pulp. A gum is obtained from the trunk and branches of the tree
after the rainy season. This is known as feronia gum which is of irregular semi transparent exudates and
is of reddish brown to pale yellow colour.
Parts used: leaves, bark, fruits, gum
Uses: The bark is aromatic and cooling, and is useful in vitiated conditions of pitta.
The leaves are
useful in diarrhoea, vomiting, cough, bronchitis.
The unripe fruits are sour, aromatic, astringent,
constipating and are useful in diarrhea, The ripe fruits are sweet sour, bitter, refrigerant, aromatic,
constipating, expectorant,. They are useful in diarrhea, dysentery, vomiting. Cough asthama. The gum
is useful in diarrhoea dysentrry and diabetes.
It grows in village side
Marsilea quqdrifolia
Family: Marsileaceae
Kannada name: Chitiginasoppu
Habit: A creeping herbaceous perennial with slender long dichotomously branching rhizome
rooting at the nodes: leaves quadrifoliolate, circinate when young, petioles long, slender,
flexible, lamina divided into four leaflets, sporocarps bean-like, borne on short or long stalks
inserted a short distance above the base of the petiole.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is sweet, astringent, refrigerant, acrid, emollient, diuretic, constipating, and
expectorant. It is useful in diarrhoea, cough, bronchitis, skin diseases and fever.
Melia azedarach
Family: Meliaceae
English name: Persian lilac, pride of china, pride of India
Kannada name: Bettadabevu, aribevu
Habit: A moderate sized deciduous tree 9-12 m in height with a cylindrical bole with dark grey
bark having shallow longitudinal furrows: leaves bi- or tripinnate, pinnae opposite or alternate,
ovate or lanceolate, serrate, acuminate, glabrous on both surfaces, slightly oblique at the base:
flowers lilac, fragrant, in long peduncled axillary panicles, staminal tube very conspicuous,
purple, slightly ribbed outside: fruits ellipsoid-globose 4 seeded drupes, yellow when ripe.
Parts used: Roots, leaves, seeds, flowers
Uses: The roots are acrid, bitter, astringent, mildly heating anodyne depurative vulenerary,
antiseptic, anthelmintic, constipating, expectorant, leprosy, leucoderma, skin diseases, and
tapeworm. The leaves are bitter, astringent expectorant, vermicidal, diuretic. The flowers are
stringent, refrigerant, anodyne, stomachic, and diuretic vermifuge . The seeds are
bitter,
expectorant typhoid fever and pain in the pelvic region. The ssed oil is laxative , anthelmintic
maturant and tonic
Michelia champaka
Family: Magnoliaceae
English name: Champak, Golden Champa
Kannada name: Sampige
Habit: A tall handsome evergreen tree, up to 30 m in height and 50-80 cm in diameter with
straight stem and smooth grey or brown bark: leaves simple, alternate, oblong – lanceolate or
lanceolate, subcoriaceous, entire, glabrous above, flowers yellowish to orange, very fragrant,
solitary and axillary: fruits 5-10 cm long, ovoid or ellipsoid capsules, dark brown opening on the
back by two valves, valves woody, covered with white varty excrescences, seeds 1-12 brown,
rounded on the back with pink fleshy aril.
Parts used: whole plant.
Uses:
The root and root bark are purgative and are useful in the treatment of abscesses,
inflammation, and constipation. The stem bark is useful in chronic gastritis, fever, cough,
bronchitis and cardiac debility. Flowers, flower buds and fruits are bitter, astringent, acrid,
useful in dyspepsia, nausea, and burning sensation.
Mimosa pudica
Family: Mimosaceae
English name: Sensitive plant, humble plant
Kannada name: Muttidare muni
Habit: A diffuse prickly undershrub, 45-90 cm in height: leaves bipinnately compound, pinnae
2-4 digitately arranged with 10-20 pairs of leaflets, rachis clothed with ascending bristles:
flowers pink, in globose heads, peduncles prickly, usually in axillary pairs all along the branches:
fruits bristly pods, flat, straw coloured, consisting of 3-5 one –seeded segments.
Parts used: roots, leaves
Uses:
The roots are useful in bruning sensation , Jaundice, asthma, smallpox, spasmodic
affections and fevers. The leaves are bitter and are useful in fistula, conjunctivitis, cuts
wounds and haemorrhages. The whole plant is used internally for vesical calculi and externally
for oedema, rheumatism, myalgia and tumour of the uterus.
Mimusops elengi
Family: Sapotaceae
English name: Bullet-wood tree
Kannada name: Pagade mara
Habit: A large evergreen tree with dark grey fissured bark and dense spreading crown: leaves
oblong, glabrous, leathery with wavy margins: flowers white, fragrant, axillary, solitary or
fascicled: fruits ovoid or ellipsoid berries, seeds 1-2 per fruit, ovoid, compressed grayish brown,
shiny.
Parts used: bark, flowers, fruits, seeds.
Uses: The bark is used as a gargle for odontopathy, Tender stems are used as tooth brushes.
It is also useful in diarrhoea and dysentery. Flowers are used for preparing a lotion for wounds
and ulcers: powder of dried flowers is a brain tonic, and is useful as a snuff to relieve
cephalalgia, Unripe fruit is used as a masticatory and will help to fix loose teeth. Seeds are used
for preparing suppositories in cases of constipation especially in children.
Momordika charantia
Family: Cucurbitaceae
English name: Bitter gourd,
Kannada name: Hagalakayi
Habit: A monoecious much branched climbing annual with angled and grooved stems and hairy
or villous young parts, tendrils simple, slender and elongate: leaves simple, orbicular, cordate
and deeply divided into 5-7 lobes: flowers unisexual, yellow on 5-10 cm long peduncles: fruits 515 cm long, 3 valved capsules, pendulous, fusiform, ribbed and beaked bearing numerous
triangular, tubercles, seeds many or few with shining sculptured surface.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is useful in pitta, skin diseases, impurity of breast milk, fever and also useful
in the treatment of liver spleen jaundice and diabetes.
Morinda pubescens
Family: Rubiaceae
English name: Morinda tree
Kannada name: Haladipavate
Habit: A moderate sized deciduous tree, upto 4.5 m in height with spongy deeply cracked
greyish yellow bark: leaves simple, opposite, elliptic-ovate or lanceolate: flowers white, scented,
in dense ovoid leaf opposed heads.
Parts used: Root leaves
Uses: The roots and leaves are useful in gastropathy dyspepsia, diarrhea, ulcerative stomatitis,
wounds, gout, inflammation, hernia and fever.
Moringa oleifera
Family: Moringaceae
English name: Drumstick
Kannada name: Nuggekayi
Habit: An unarmed middle sized greaceful tree with corky grey bark and easily breakable
branches: leaves usually tripinnate, rachis slender, thickened and articulated at the base, leaflets
elliptic or obovate, rounded at the apex, nerves obscure, flowers white in large puberulous
axillary panicles: fruits pods, upto 45 cm long, pendulous, greenish, triangular, 9 – ribbed, seeds
trigonous, the angles winged.
Parts used: roots bark leaves, seeds.
Uses: The roots are useful in giddiness stomach ache and fever. Leaf in eye diseases,rich in
vitamin A and C and worm infestation .Fruit in diseases of liver, spleen and for paralysis The
seeds in rheumatism. .
Morus alba
Family: Moraceae
English name: Mulberry
Kannada name: Hippanerale
Habit: A medium sized tree up to 3 m in height with dark grayish brown rough bark, having
vertical fissures: leaves very variable in size and shape, usually ovate or broadly ovate, serrate or
crenate-serrate, often densely lobed: flowers greenish, inconspicuous, male catkins broadly
cylindrical or ovoid, female catkins ovoid, pedunclulate: fruits ovoid or subglobose syncarp of
many drupes, white to pinkish white or dark purple.
Parts used: roots, leaves, fruits
Uses: The roots are astringent, anthelmintic and purgative. The leaves are diaphoretic,
emollient and antibacterial, and are good for pharyngodynia, scabies and hoarseness. The fruits
are sour, sweet, cooling, aphrodisiac, laxative, roborant, diuretic, anthelmintic and brain tonic.
They are useful in vitiated conditions of vata and pitta, burning sensation, smallpox,
pharyngopathy, lumbago, dyspepsia, diarrhea, ulcerated intestine, strangury, hepatopathy,
splenopathy and melancholia.
Mucuna pruriens
Family: Fabaceae
English name: Cowhage
Kannada name: Nasugunni
Habit: A slender climbing annual with hairy branches: leaves trifoliate, leaflets broadly ovate,
elliptic or rhomboid ovate, membranous, unequal at base, pubescent above and densely clothed
with silvery grey hairs beneath flowers purple, in axillary pendulous, 6-30 flowered racemes:
fruits turgid pods, longitudinally ribbed, curved, densely clothed with persistent pale brown or
grey irritant bristles, seeds black, 4-6 per pod, ovoid.
Parts used: roots, leaves, seeds, hairs.
Uses: The roots are bitter, sweet, thermogenic , stimulant, purgative, aphrodisiac, diuretic,
anthelmintic, febrifuge, diuretic and tonic. Constipation, elephantiasis, dropsy, neuropathy,
consumption, ulcers. Helminthiasis, fever and delirium. Aphrodisiac, alexipharmic and tonic.
Seeds are useful in gonorrhoea, consumption, sterility, and general debility. The hairs and
flowers are vermifuge.
Murraya koenigii
Family: Rutaceae
English name: Curry leaf tree
Kannada name: Karibevu
Habit: An unarmed small aromatic tree with dark grey bark and closely crowded spreading
dark green foliage, : leaves imparipinnate, alternate, leaflets alternate, obliquely ovate or
somewhat rhomboid, gland dotted and strongly aromatic: flowers white, in much branched
terminal corymobose cymes, fragrant: fruits subglobose or ellipsoid berries, purplish black when
ripe, 2 seeded.
Parts used: roots, bark, leaves
Uses:
The roots, bark leaves are bitter, acrid, burning sensation, leprosy, skin diseases,
leucoderma, anorexia, dyspepsia, colic, flatulence, dysentery, vomitting, inflammations and foul
ulcers.
Musa paradisica
Family: Rutaceae
English name: Kadali, plantain
Kannada name: Balehannu
Habit: A tall herb with aerial pseudo stem dying after flowering, leaves oblong, narrowed to
base: flowers unisexual in spikes, drooping, females at the bottom and males at the top, bracts
conspicuous, dull brown, falling off in succession: fruits berries in several clusters, golden
yellow colour on ripening.
Parts Used: roots, leaves, fruits, stem.
Uses: The roots are depurative and tonic, and are useful in venereal diseases, scabies and skin
diseases. The tender leaves are useful in scabies, blisters and burns. The fruits are sweet,
astringent, emollient, cooling, and aphrodisiac. Scabies, bronchitis and the ashes obtained by
burning the plant are antiscorbutic and stomachic, and are useful in hyperacidity, heartburn, colic
and verminosis,
The flowers are good for dysentery,diabetes, ascites and dropsy.The
inflorescence axis (stem) is very specific for renal and vesical calculi.
Mussaenda frondosa
Family: Rubiaceae
Kannada name: Bellutigida
Habit: A handsome erect or scandent shrub with grey bark: leaves simple opposite, ovate,
acuminate at apex, densely soft white tomentose beneath, transverse nervules obscure: flowers
yellowish green outside and orange green within, in terminal cymes, one of the calyx lobes
becomes enlarged into white foliaceous structure: fruits subglobose or ovoid green berries.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is astringent, sweet, expectorant, febrifuge, anti-inflammatory, vulnerary,
alterant, demulcent.It is useful in cough, bronchitis, fever, inflammation, wounds and ulcers,
leucoderma, and jaundice.
Naravelia zeylanica
Family: Ranunculaceae
Kannada name: Nindamalli
Habit: A scandent or climbing shrub with tuberous roots, wiry stem and strong tendrils: leaves
3 foliate, opposite, terminal leaflet modified into a 3 branched tendril, leaflets ovate – lanceolate,
serrate or crenate, prominently nerved: flowers yellow , fragrant, in axillary and terminal
panicles, sepals downy, petals linear-clavate, elongate: fruits aggregate of achenes, ending in
twisted feathery tails.
Parts used: Whole plant
Uses:
The plant is astringent, bitter, sweet, depurative, anodyne, anti-inflammatory and
vulnerary. It is useful in leprosy, colic, inflammations, wounds and ulcer. The roots and stems
have a strong penetrating smell and are used by tribes for cephalgia.
Nelumbo nucifera
Family: Nymphaeceae
English name: Sacred lotus, Indian lotus,
Kannada name: Kamala
Habit: A large handsome aquatic herb with slender, elongate, branched, creeping, rhizomes,
sending out roots at the nodes, leaves peltate, 60-90 cm or more in diameter, petioles very long,
smooth or with small prickles, much raised out of water, flowers solitary, large, fragrant, white
of rosy with a centrally located yellow obconical spongy torus in which carpels are sunken: fruits
ovoid, nut-like achenes.
Parts used: whole plant:
Uses: The plant is useful in cholera , vomiting, and burning sensation. Nervous exhaustions,
ringworm, dermatopaty and small pox.
Nerium oleander
Family: Apocynaceae
English name: Indian oleander, sweet scented oleander
Kannada name: Kanagile
Habit: A large glabrous evergreen shrub with milky latex: leaves three in a whorl, shortly
stalked, linear dark green and shine above, flowers red, rose-coloured or white, fragrant: fruits
follicles, at length separating.
Parts used: roots, leaves.
Uses: The roots are bitter, acrid, astringent, thermogenic, aphrodisiac, stomachic, febrifuge
and fiuretic. The are useful in cardiac asthma, renal and vesical calculi, chronic, ulcers. The
root bark is very specific for ringworm, The leaves are a powerful repellent and are used for
tender leaves is good for ophthalmia with The flowers are reported to have the property of
purifying the air.
Nymphaea nouchali
Family: Nymphaeaceae
English name: Indian water lily
Kannada name: Bilitavare
Habit: A large perennial aquatic herb with short, erect, roundish, tuberous rhizome, leaves
floating, peltate, sharply sinuate – toothes, flowers large, floating, solitary, variable in colour
from pure white to deep red: fruits spongy many seeded berries, seeds minute, grayish black
when dry with longitudinal striations.
Parts used: rhizomes, flowers, seeds
Uses: The rhizome is cooling, sweet, bitter and tonic, and is useful in diarrhoea, dysentery. The
flowers are astringent and cardiotonic. The seeds are sweet, cooling, and constipating. They are
useful in diarrhoea .
Ocimum americanum
Family: Lamiaceae
English name: Hoary basil
Kannada name: Nayitulasi
Habit: A pubescent erect much branched herb, 15-60 cm high with sub-quadrangular striate
branches: leaves elliptic-lanceolate, entire or faintly toothed,glabrous and gland dotted: flowers
white, pink or purplish in elongate racemes with more or less closely set whorls: fruits small,
nutlets pitted, mucilaginous when wetted.
Parts used: leaves, seeds
Uses: The leaves are aromatic, acrid, bitter, thermogenic, appetizing, digestive, carminative,
depurative, expectorant, anthelmintic, cardiotonic, febrifuge, alexeteric and tonic. Anorexia,
dyspepsia, flatulence, dysentery, leprosy, parasitic affections, vomiting, poisonous affections,
haemoptysis, migraine, malaria and fever. The seeds are useful in hyderdipsia, malaria and
migraine.
Ocimum basilicum
Family: Lamiaceae
English name: Sweet basil, common basil
Kannada name: Kamakasturi
Habit: An erect, aromatic, nearly glabrous branching herb, 60-90 cm in hight, branches green
or purplish, leaves simple, opposite, ovate, acute, entire or toothed, base cuneate, glabrous on
both surfaces. Flowers white or pale purple in simple or much branched racemes often thyrsoid:
fruits ellipsoid nutlets, black and pitted.
Parts Used: Whole plant.
Uses: The plant is acrid, bitter, aromatic, thermogennic, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic,
appetizing, carminative, digestive, anthelmintic, cardiotonic expectorant, diuretic, antidiarrhoeal,
insecticidal, antibacterial, stimulant and antipyre cephalalgia, arthritis, helminthiasis, cardicac
debility, leucoderma, ringworm , other skin diseases, cough, asthma, bronchitis , a vomiting
giddiness, intermittent and malarial fevers.
Ocimum tenuiflorum
Family: Lamiaceae
English name: Holy basil, sacred basil
Kannada name: Karitulasi, Krishna tulasi
Habit: An erect much branched softly pubescent undershrub, 30-60 cm high with red or purple
subquadrangular branches: leaves simple, opposite, elliptic, oblong, obtuse or acute, entire,
serrate or dentate, pubescent on both sides, minutely gland dotted, petioles slender, hairy:
flowers purplish in elongate racemes in close whorls, stamens exserted, upper pair with a small
bearded appendage at the base: fruits nutlets smooth, not mucilaginous when wetted.
Parts used: Whole plant.
Uses: The Plant is bitter, acrid, aromatic, digestive diuretic, expectorant, febrifuge, vermifuge
and alexeteric, It is useful in cardiopathy, haemopathy, leucoderma, asthma, bronchitis, fever,
vomiting, lumbago, hiccough, gastropathy in children, genito-urinary disorders, ringworm,
verminosis and skin diseases. Bark in cough.
Oxalis corniculata
Family: Oxalidaceae
English name: Indian sorrel
Kannada name: Hulihunse
Habit: A diffuse annual or perennial procumbent or more or less erect creeping acid herb, 6-25
cm in height: leaves palmately , 3-foliate, long stalked, leaflets obcordate, entire, cuneate at the
base: flowers yellow axillary or subumbellate: fruits loculicidal cylindrical capsules, seeds
numerous, dark brown, transversely striate.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is sour, astringent, thermogenic, cooling to touch, anti-inflammatory, digestive,
carminative, liver tonic, diuretic, constipating, antibactrerial, vermifuge, and antiseptic. It is
useful in anaemia, fever dysentery, diarrhoea, scurvy, corns, and warts. Excrescences of the skin,
inflamed ulcers, toxicity, cardiopathy, haemorrhages and burning sensation.
Pandanus odoratissimus
Family: Pandanaceae
English name: Screw pine, umbrella tree
Kannada name: Kedage
Habit: A tortuous small tree or shrub, rarely erect with many aerial stilt roots, leaves glaucousgreen, 90-150 cm long, coriaceous, mariginal spines pointing forward and those of the midrib
forward and backward: male flowers in numerous subsessile cylindric spikes with fragrant
caudate- acuminate spathes, female flowers in solitary spadix: fruits oblong or globose syncarps,
yellow or red when ripe.
Parts used: Roots, leaves, flowers.
Uses: The roots are useful in skin diseases wounds, ulcers, colic, fever, diabetes, sterility,
spontaneous abortion and general debility. The leaves are useful in tumours, leprosy, smallpox,
syphilis, and scabies. The flowers are useful in leucoderma and skin eruptions. The oil obtained
from the bracts is stimulant and antispasmodic, and is useful in rheumatoid arthritis.
Pergularia extensa
(Pergularia daemia)
Family: Asclepiadaceae
Kannada name: Talavaranaballi
Habit: A slender foul smelling perennial milky twining herb with hispid, stems: leaves simple,
opposite, suborbicular, cordate, acuminate, velvety pubescent beneath, margins ciliate, flowers
greenish yellow or dull white tinged with purple, in axillary long peduncled umbellate or
corymbose clusters: fruits reflexed follicles with long beak and soft spines, seeds many, ovate,
truncate and the apex, densely velvety-pubescent on both sides.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The plant is useful in cough, asthma, intermittent fevers, leucoderma, digestion and
dyspepsia. The plant extract is useful in uterine and menstrual disorders and in facilitating
parturition.
Phoenix pusilla
Family: Arecaceae
English name: Small wild date palm
Kannada name: Eechala
Habit: A shruby stoloniferous palm with a very short stem enveloped in the sheaths of the
leaves: leaves pinnate, rachis with one or more pairs of spines, leaflets subopposite, 4 –farious,
sword-shaped, rigid, pale grey with an orange-red pulvinus at the junction with the rachis:
flowers in much branched spadix enclosed in spathes, male flowers white, female flowers
greenish, not on the same plant: fruits berries, dull purple, black when ripe, seeds cartilaginous,
grooved longitudinally with a small elevation on the middle of the back.
Parts used: Fruits
Uses:
The fruits are sweet, sour, cooling, laxative, cardiotonic, aphrodisiac, carminative,
burning sensation fever, cardiac debility, and seminal weakness.
Phyla nodiflora
(Lippia nodiflora)
Family: Verbanaceae
English name: Purple lippia
Kannada name: Nelaheppali
Habit: A creeping much branched perennial herb rooting at the nodes and with subquadrangular
stems and branches: leaves simple, opposite, subsessile, cuneate-spathulate or obovate, sharply
serrate towards the apex: flowers white or pale pink, sessile, densely packed in axillary spikes,
globose at first, afterwards elongating, peduncles usually single: fruits globose, oblong, dry,
spilitting into one-seeded pyrenes.
Parts used: Whole plant.
Uses: The plant is useful burning sensation asthma, bronchittis, knee joint pain, gonorrhoea,
irritation of internal haemorrhoids, cardiopathy, and fever.
Phyllanthus amarus
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Kannada name: Nelanalli
Habit: A branching annual glabrous herb 30-60 cm high with slender, spreading leaf-bearing
branchlets: leaves numerous, distichous, subsessile, elliptic-oblong, obtuse, base rounded:
flowers yellowish, greenish or whitish, axillary, males in groups of 1-3 females solitary: fruits
depressed-globose smooth capsules underneath and branches, seeds trigonous, pale brown with
longitudinal parallel ribs on the back.
Parts used: Whole plant
Uses:
The plant is bitter, astringent, sweet, cooling, diuretic, stomachic, febrifuge and
antiseptic. It is useul in jaundice, diarrhea, dysentery, intermittend fevers, diseases of the urinogenital system, scabies, ulcers and wounds.
Phylanthus emblica
Family: Euphorbiaceae
English name: Indian gooseberry
Kannada name: Nellikayi
Habit: A small to medium sized deciduous tree, 8-18 m in height with thin light grey bark
exfoliating in small thin irregular flakes: leaves simple very many, subsessile, closely set along
the branchlets, districhous, light green having the appearance of pinnate leaves: flowers greenish
yellow in axillary fascicles, unisexual, males numerous on short slender pedicels, females few,
subsessile, ovary 3 – celled: fruits globose, fleshy, pale yellow with six obscure vertical furrows
enclosing 6 trigonous seeds in 2 seeded 3 crustaceous cocci.
Parts used: root bark, bark, leaves, fruits.
Uses: The root bark is astringent, and is useful in ulcerative. The bark is useful in jaundice,
diarrhoea. The leaves are useful in conjunctivitis, inflammation, dyspepsia, diarrhoea and
dysentery. The fruits are sour, astringent, bitter, acrid, sweet, cooling, ophthalmic, carminative,
digestive, stomachic, laxative, alexeteric, aphrodisiac, diuretic, antipyretic, tonic greyness of hair
and useful in diabetes, cough and asthama.
Phylanthus reticulata
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Kannada name: Kirunelli
Habit: A large glabrous or pubescent subscandent shrub, 1.5 – 4.5 m in height with smooth or
lenticellate branches: leaves elliptic to oblong or obovate, obtuse or acute, thin, main nerves
few: flowers unisexual, axillary, male in fascicles of 2-6 , female solitary: fruit a purplish black
berry, globose, smooth and shining, seeds irregularly 3 gonous, finely granulate.
Parts used: whole plant.
Uses: The plant is astringent, sweet, cooling, diuretic, alterant, stomachic constipating. It is
useful in pitta, burning sensation, strangury, gastropathy, ulemorrhagia, ophthalmodynia , sores,
burns, suppuration, diarrhea, skin eruptions and obesity.
Physalis minima
Family: Solanaceae
English name: Country gooseberry
Kannada name: Guddehannu
Habit: A herbaceous annual 15-30 cm in height: leaves simple, alternate, ovate, shallowly
toothed or lobed, more or less pubescent: flowers yellow solitary, nodding, fruits green, many
seeded round berry, enclosed in enlarged calyx which is 5-10 ribbed, seeds many, discoid,
orange yellow
Parts used: Whole plant
Uses: The plant is useful in burning sensation, colic, ulcers, cough and bronchitis.
Piper betle
Family: Piperaceae
English name: Betel leaf vine
Kannada name: Vileeydele
Habit: A perennial dioeciduos root climber, stems, semi-woody, much thickened at nodes:
leaves large, 15-20 cm long, broadly ovate, slightly cordate, shortly acuminate, acute, entire,
glabrous, yellowish or bright green, shining on both sides: male spikes dense, cylindrical,
female spikes pendulous, bracts triangular- rotundate, rachis pilose, fruits rarely produced,
immersed in the fleshy spikes forming nodule – like structures.
Parts used: Whole plant.
Uses: The plant is bitter, acrid, sweet, astringent, carminative, stomachic,
aromatic,
aphrodisiac, expectorant, laxative and tonic. It is useful in bronchitis, asthma, cough, leprosy,
alcoholism syncope, fever, impotency, dyspepsia, colic, diarrhoea pharyngopathy and laryngitis.
Piper nigrum
Family: piperaceae
English name: Black pepper
Kannada name: Karimenasu
Habit: A stout glabrous climbing perennial, rooting at the nodes: leaves simple, alternate,
cordate, very variable in breath, broadly ovate, 5-6 nerved: flowers minute in spikes, usually
dioecious, fruiting spikes very variable in length, fruits ovoid or globose, one – seeded berries,
bright red when ripe, seeds globose, testa thin, perisperm hard and white.
Parts Used: fruits.
Uses: The fruits are acrid, bitter, anthelmintic, carminative, aphrodisiac, alexeteric, antiperiodic,
diuretic, digestive, stimulant and stomachic. They are useful in arthritis, asthma, fever, cough,
dysentery, dyspepsia, hiccough, haemorrhiods, and dermatopathy.
Plectranthus amboinicus
(Coleus aromaticus)
Family: Lamiaceae
English name: Indian borage
Kannada name: Karpooraballi, Doddapatre
Habit: A large succulent aromatic perennial herb with hispidly villous or tomentose fleshy stem:
leaves simple, opposite, broadly ovate, crenate, fleshy, very aromatic, flowers pale purplish in
dense whorls at distant intervals in a long slender raceme: fruits orbicular or ovoid nutlets.
Parts used: leaves
Uses: The leaves are useful asanorexia, dyspepsia, colic, diarrhoea and cholera especially in
children epilepsy, cough, chornic asthma, hiccough, bronchitis, renal vesical calculi, hepatopathy
malarial fever and as liver tonic.
Plumbago indica
Family: Plumbaginaceae
English name: Fire plant,
Kannada name: Bilichitramoola
Habit: A pretty subscandent perennial shrub with semi-woody striate stems and flexible
branches: leaves simple, alternate, oblong, short-cuneate at the base passing into a very short
reddish petiole: flowers bright red, in long terminal spikes, the calyx ribs covered with stipitate,
bifarious and subsessile glands, corolla tube slender, 4 times as long as the calyx. The stout roots
are cylindrical, irregularly bent, light yellowish brown with smooth surface having short
transverse shallow fissures at the regions of the bents. A light yellowish juice exudes from the
fresh cut surface. A healthy plant may produce 18-20 stout roots.
Parts used: Roots.
Uses: The roots are acrid and useful in colic, inflammations, cough, bronchitis, elephantiasis,
chronic and intermittent fever, leucoderma, ringworm scabies, anaemia and obesity.
Plumeria rubra
Family: Apocynaceae
English name: Pogoda tree
Kannada name: Kadusampige, Devakanagile
Habit: A deciduous tree with thick and fleshy branches containing milky joice: leaves spirally
arranged with an intermaginal vein, borne at the ends of branches, flowers white with yellow or
cream- coloured centre, sometimes pink outside in terminal panicles, very frangrant: fruits
follicles brownish black, rearly produced.
Parts used: Root bark, leaves, latex.
Uses: Root bark is bitter, is useful in ulcers and leprosy.
Leaves are useful to treat
inflammations. The milky juice is employed as a good rubefacient in rheumatism.
Polyalthia longifolia
Family: Annonaceae
English name: Mast tree, Cementry tree
Kannada name: Ashoka
Habit: A tall handsome evergreen tree, bark smooth, grayish brown, thick: leaves simple, green,
shining with undulate margins: flowers yellowish green in fascicles: fruits a bunch of small
ovoid one – seeded berries.
Parts used: bark
Properties and uses: The bark is useful in fever, skin diseases, hypertension, helminthiasis.
Pongamia pinnata
Family: Fabaceae
English name: Karanj, Pongam oil tree
Kannada name: Hongemara
Habit: A medium- sized semi-evergreen glabrous tree with a short bole and spreading crown up
to 18 m or more in height, bark grayish green or brown, very often m;ottled with dark brown
dots, specks, lines or streaks: leaves compound, leaflets 5-7, ovate, acuminate or elliptic: flowers
lilac or pinkish white, fragrant, in axillary racemes: fruits thick, woody, smooth, compressed,
with a short curved beak, seeds 1 or 2 per pod, reniform to nearly round, smooth or wrinkled,
testa reddish brown leathery.
Parts used: root, bark, leaves, flowers, seeds, oil
Uses: The roots are good for cleaning foul ulcers, cleaning teeth, strengthening gums. A root
paste is used for local application in scrofulous enlargements. The fresh bark is sweet and
mucilaginous to taste, soon becoming bitter and acrid, it is and is useful in beriberi and ulcers.
Leaves are digestive, laxative and are good for diarrhoea, and cough. A hot infusion of the
leaves is god for rheumatalgia and for cleaning ulcers and wounds. Flowers are useful to quench
dipsia in diabetes and the seeds are , haematinic, bitter, acrid and carminative. They are useful
in inflammations, chronic fevers, and anaemia.
The oil is antihelmintic. Styptic and is
recommended for scabies, ulcers.
Portulaca oleracea
Family: Portulacaeae
English name: Common porslane
Kannada name: Gonisoppu
Habit: A succulent prostrate or erect herbaceous annual with green or purple stems, swollen at
the nodes, quite glabrous: leaves simple, fleshy variable, oblong-ovate, spathulate, linear with
cuneate sessile base 6-25 mm long: flowers bright yellow, in sessile, terminal or axillary dlusters:
fruits ovoid, circumscissile capsules, seeds numerous, black, concentrically striate and granulate.
Parts used: stem, leaves, seeds.
Uses: The stem and leaves are sour, bitter, salty, thermogenic stomachic, antibacterial, alterant,
diuretic, vulnerary and tonic. They are useful in tumours, inflammation jaundice, burns scurvy,
burning, sensation, dysentery, vomiting, skin diseases, cardiovascular diseases, dysuria,
haematuria, gonorrhoea and ulcerative stomatitis.
Psidium guajava
Family: Myrtaceae
English name: Guava tree
Kannada name: Seebehannu, perale
Habit: A small tree up to 8 m in height with smooth, pale pinkish brown bark, having grey
patches exfoliating in very thin woody flakes: leaves simple, opposite, light green oblong or
elliptic-oblong, glabrous above, pubescent beneath, pellucid-punctate, lateral nerves 10-20 pairs
joined by intramarginal veins: flowers white, fragrant in axillary 1-3 flowered cymes: fruits
globose or pyriform berries often varying in size and shape pulp yellowish white or red.
Parts used: Roots, leaves, flowers, fruits.
Uses: The roots are useful in haemorrhages, diarrhoea and dysentery especially in children,
ulcers, and vomiting. The leaves are useful in wounds, ulcers, cholera, diarrhea, vomiting,
epilepsy, and gum boils.The fruits are sweet, astringent, sour, cooling, aphrodisiac, laxative and
tonic. They are useful burning sensation, colic diarrhea, dysentery and general debility.
Pterocarpus marsupium
Family: Fabaceae
English name: Indian kinotree
Kannada name: Honnemara
Habit: A medium sized to large tree, 15-30 m in height with dark brown or grey bark having
shallow cracks, exfoliating in thin flakes and exuding a red gummy substance (Gum Kino) on
injury: leaves compound, imparipinnate, leaflets 5-7, coriaceous, oblong, otuse, emarginated or
even biloded at apex, glabrous on oth surfaces, main nerves numerous, prominent: flowers
yellow in terminal panicles, corolla with crisped margins: fruits nearly circular, glabrous, flat
winged pods, convexly curved between stipe and style, wings veined, seeds 1-2, convex bony.
The heartwood is strong, tough, very hard and moderately heavy and is golden brown or reddish
brown on exposure with darker streaks. Aqueous extract of wood is yellowish blue and
fluorescent.
Parts used: Heartwood, leaves, flowers, gum.
Uses: The heartwood is useful in elephantiasis, inflammations, fractures, bruises, leprosy, skin
diseases, leucoderma verminosis diarrhea, dysentery.The leaves are useful in boil , sores and
skin diseases, The flowers are useful in bitter, sweet, cooling, appetizing anorexia and
fevers.The gum is bitter vulerary, antipyretic, anthelmintic and liver tonic. It is useful in
spasmodic boils and diarrhoea.
Punica granatum
Family: Punicaceae
English name: pomegranate
Kannada name: Dalimbe
Habit: A large deciduous undersharb up to 10 m in height with smooth dark grey bark and often
spinescent branchlets: leaves opposite, glabrous, minutely pellucid-punctate, shining above,
bright green beneath: flowers scarlet red or sometimes yellow mostly solitary, sometimes 2-4
together, stamens very numerous inserted on the calyx below the petals at various levels: fruits
globose, crowned by the persistent calyx, rind coriaceous and woody, interior septate with
membranous walls containing numerous seeds, seeds angular with red, pink or whitish fleshy
testa.
Parts used: roots, bark, flowers, fruits, seeds.
Uses: The root and stem bark are good for tapeworm and for strengthening and gums. The
flowers are styptic to the gums and are useful in vomiting, and ulcers. An extract of the flowers
is very specific for epistaxis. The fruits are sweet, sour, astringent, cooling, tonic, aphrodisiac,
laxative and diuretic. They are useful in anaemia, pectoral diseases, bronchitis and. The fruit
rind is good for dysentery, diarrhoea bleeding of piles and excessive thrust. Seeds are good for
vomiting.
Rauvolfia serpentina
Family: Apocynaceae
English name: Rauvolfia
Kannada name: Sarpagandhi
Habit: A small erect shrub or undershrub with red pedicels and calyx: leaves three in a whorl,
thin glabrous, bright green above: flowers white often tinged with violet in irregular corymbose
cymes: fruits drupes, purplish black when ripe. The roots when dry are very hard, less flexible
tortuous with a yellowish brown surface provided with vertical and irregular cracks or wrinkles,
when rubbed with water yields a light yellowish tinged paste. The bark does not separate easily
from the woody portion when dry but separates easily in fresh conditions.
Parts used: roots, leaves.
Uses: The roots are useful in fever, wounds, colic, insomnia, epilepsy, giddiness, dyspepsia,
mental disorder, nervous disorders, intestinal trouble, pain and poisoining. The decoction of the
root is used to increase uterine contractions. The juice of the leaves is used as a remedy for the
removal of opacities of the cornea.
Ricinus communis
Family: Euphorbiaceae
English name: Castor
Kannada name: Haralu
Habit: A perennial, bushy, soft-wooded small tree with a thin greyish brown bark: leaves
palmately lobed with seven or more serrate lobes, petioles with conspicuous glands: flowers
monoecious in terminal paniculate racemes with crowded male flowers on the upper half of the
inflorescence and the pistillate at the basal half, sometimes a few pistillate flowers at the top
also: fruits globose, explosively dehiscent, 3 seeded capsules, when young it is green and
covered with fleshy prickles seeds oblong with smooth, hard mottled crustaceous testa with a
white caruncle at the top enclosing oily and fleshy endosperm.
Parts used: roots, leaves, flowers, seeds, oil
Uses: The roots are sweet, acrid. astringent, thermogenic, carminative, purgative, emollient,
diuretic, aphrodisiac, expectorant and . They are useful in constipation, inflammations, fever,
bronchitis, cough and skin diseases. The leaves are diuretic, and are useful in burns, for bathing
in arthritis. Flowers are useful in glandular tumours. Seeds are acrid, thermogenic, digestive
aphrodisiac. They are useful in dyspepsia. The oil obtained from the seeds is slightly bitter,
acrid, sweet, antipyretic, thermogenic and viscous. It is used as a very effective purgative for all
ailments.
Rosa centifolia
Family: Rosaceae
English name: Cabbage rose
Kannada name: Gulabi
Habit: A small, erect, prickly shrub with unequal, large, hooked prickles and many bristles:
leaves compound, alternate, leaflets usually five rachis not prickly, flowers usually pink, very
fragrant, very double on long slender pedicels, calyx tube globose, ovoid, the mouth contracted,
lobes 4-5, imbricate, petals many, stamens many, inserted on the mouth of the calyx tube: carpels
many in the bottom of the calyx tube, style subterminal, free, stigma thickened, ovules solitary,
pendulous: fruit a fleshy hip enclosing bony achenes: seeds small, pendulous.
Parts used: roots, leaves, flowers.
Uses: The roots are astringent and vulnerary and are useful in intestinal ulcers, and diarrhoea.The
leaves are useful in treating wounds. The flowers are bitter sweet, cooling emollient,
aromatic,digestive, carminative rejuvenating and tonic. They are useful cough, asthma,
bronchitis, wounds, ulcers and skin diseases. The rose water is cooling fragrant, emollient and
ophthalmic, and is good for hyperhidrosis.
Santalum album
Family: Santalaceae
English name: Sandal wood
Kannada name: Srigandadamara
Habit: A medium sized evergreen semiparastic, glabrous tree with slender drooping branches,
reaching upto 18 m in height, bark dark grey or brownish black, rough with short vertical cracks:
leaves simple, opposite elliptic-lanceolate, glabrous, entire: flowers brownish purple, reddish
purple or violet in terminal and axillary paniculate cymes: fruits globose drupes, purple black
with ribbed endocarp: seeds hard, globose or obovoid. The heartwood is light yellowish brown
when fresh, turning dark brown to dark reddish brown on exposure. The wood is highly
scented.
Parts used: heartwood.
Uses: The heartwood is bitter, sweet, acrid, aromatic, deodorant, disinfectant, refrigerant,
depurative, intellect promoting, cardiotonic diuretic, diaphoretic, expectorant, aphrodisiac,
haemostatic, anodyne, antipyretic, restorative and tonic. Burning sensation foul odour due to
hyperhidrosis, skin diseases, leprosy, forgetfulness, hyperacidity cough bronchitis
inflammations, dysentery leucorrhoea, intermittent fever.
Sapindus trifoliata
Family: Sapindaceae
English name: Soapnut tree
Kannada name: Antvala
Habit: A medium sized deciduous tree upto 20 m in height with grey smooth bark, peeling off
in scales: leaves pinnate, leaflets 2-3 pairs, terminal pair being the largest: flowers white,
polygamous, male flowers many, bisexual flowers few, all in the same pubescent panicle: fruits
fleshy drupes, the pulp becoming a saponaceous wrinkled rind on drying seeds black.
Parts used: roots bark fruits.
Uses: The roots and bark are expectorant. The roots are good for hemicranias. A decoction of
the bark is good for cattle suffering from ulcers due to worm infestation after calving. The fruits
are bitter, thermogenic, astringent, expectorant, abortifacient and tonic. They are good for
asthma, diarrhea, cholera verminosis and also for shinning of hairs.
Saraca indica
Family: Caesalpinaceae
English name: Ashoka
Kannada name: Ashoka vriksha
Habit: A medium sized handsome evergreen tree upto 9 m in height with numerous spreading
and drooping glabrous branches, leaves pinnate 30-60 cm long having 2-3 pairs of lanceolate
leaflets, flowers orange or orange-yellow in dense corymbs, very fragrant, fruits flat black pods
leathery, compressed seeds 4-8 per pod, ellispsoid, oblong and compressed. The bark is dark
brown to grey or black with a warty surface fresh cut ends are pale yellowish red. The thickness
of the bark varies from 5 mm to 1 cm. The entire cut surfac turn reddish on exposure to air.
Parts used: bark, leaves, flowers, seeds.
Uses: Bark useful in fever, burning sensation, colic ulcers and pimples. The leaves are
depurative and their juice mixed with cumin seeds is used for treating stomachalgia. The flowers
are considered to be uterine tonic. The dried flowers are used in diabetes dysentery and seeds are
used for treating bone fractures.
Semecarpus anacardium
Family: Anacardiaceae
English name: Marking nut tree, Oriental cashew
Kannada name: goddu geru, gerubeeja
Habit: A medium sized to large tree, 15-25 m in hight, with grey bark exfoliating in small
irregular flakes: leaves simple, alternate obovate-oblong, rounded at the apex, coriaceous,
glabrous above and more or less pubescent beneath, main nerves 15-25 pairs: flowers
greenishwhite, fascicled in pubescent panicles; fruits obliquely ovoid or oblong drupes, 2.5 cm
long, black when ripe, seated on a fleshy receptacle which is yellow when ripe.
Parts used: fruits
Uses: The fruits are used in beriberi, cough, asthma, constipation, colic especially hook worms,
cancer, leucoderma, scaly skin eruptions, inflammations cardiac diseases, fever, diabetes,
tumours and ulcers.
Sesbania grandifloria
Family: Fabaceae
English name: Sesban
Kannada name: Agasi
Habit: A short lived, quick growing, soft-wooded tree,6-9 m high and 0.6 m in girth: leaves 1530 cm long, abruptly pinnate: leaflets 41-61 , linear-oblong, deciduous: flowers 6-10 cm long
with showy, fleshy white, pink or red petals, pods 30 cm or more long, rather flat and somewat
4-cornered, non-rorulose, septate with swollen margins and 15-50 pale coloured seeds.
Parts used: root bark, leaves, flowers, fruits
Uses: The root-bark of the red-flowered variety is useful in vitiated conditions of vata. The
juice of the bark is good for diarrhoea. The leaf juice is used in nasal catarrh. Leaves chewed to
disinfect mouth and throat. The juice of the flowers is applied to the eyes for nyctalopia and is
used for intermittent fevers. The pounded bark is extermally applied to cure scabies.
Shorea robusta
Family: Dipterocarpaceae
English name: Sala
Kannada name: Salamara
Habit: A large deciduous tree, 18-30 m in height with smooth or longitudinally fissured reddish
brown or grey bark: leaves simple ovate-oblong, acuminate, tough, coriaceous, glabrous, base
cordate or rounded, lateral nerves 12-15 pairs: flowers yellowish, in a lax axillary or terminal
panicles, stamens upto 50, connectives with subulate bearded appendages, minutely 3 fid at the
apex: fruits indehiscent, ovoid with 5 equal wings: seeds ovoid with fleshy unequal cotyledons.
Parts used: bark, leaves, fruits, resin
Uses: The bark and leaves are useful in bacterial infections, gonorrhoea, leucorrhoea, leprosy,
cough, hyperhydrosis, haemorrhoids and anaemia. The fruits are useful in dipsia, tuberculosis.
The resin is useful in hyperhydrosis antibacterial, deodorant, constipating, detergent carminative,
stomachic, aphrodisiac, expectorant, ophthalmic and tonic. Wounds neuralgia, haemorrhoids and
gonorrhoea.
Sida cordata
Family: Malvaceae
Habit: A procumbent, diffuse, much branched hairy herb with a very short main stem and long
slender trailing branches that occasionally root at places of contact with the soil: leaves longpetioled, cordate to roundish with stellate hairs: flowers yellow, solitary or in pairs in the axils:
fruits schizocarp located within the persistent calyx: seeds brownish, glabrous.
Parts Used: Whole Plant.
Uses: The roots are used in fever and arthritis, bark is in leucorrhya, and hyperdiuresis. The
leaves are good for diarrhoea. The flowers and ripe fruits are refrigerant and are useful in
relieving burning sensation, pectoral lesions and promoting strength.
Sida rhombifolia
Family: Malvaceae
Habit: An erect, woody, very variable annual or perennial undershrub about 1.5 m high with
strong wiry flexuose branches with stellate hairs: leaves short-petioled, rhomboid-lanceolate to
lanceolate, serrated towards the top: flowers yellow or white, axillary, solitary or in pairs: leaves
are reduced on the flowering branches: fruits a depressed, globose, schizocarp, enclosed within
the calyx, separting into one-seeded indehiscent unit: seeds black, smooth.
Parts used: roots, stems
Uses: The stems are diuretic febrifuge and emollient and are used internally in dermatopathy.
The roots are bitter acrid, cooling, diuretic, constipating and anthelmintic. Diarrhoea,
tuberculosis, leucorrhoea and burning, sensation.
Sida rhombifolia ssp retusa
Family: Malvaceae
Habit: An erect, minutely hairy, branched undershrub with a firm woody stem and intricate
branches: leaves short – petioled, obovate, truncate or more often retuse and serrate: flowers
yellow, solitary and axillary fruits enclosed within the persistent calyx, separating into one –
seeded cocci: seeds black, smooth.
Parts used: roots, leaves
Uses: The roots and leaves are bitter, sweet, emollient, cooling aphrodisiac, unctuous,
strengthening and promote sexual vigour and vital factor. They are good for rheumatism, colic,
seminal weakness, arthritis and diarrhoea.
Sida spinosa
Family: Malvaceae
English
name: Prickly sida
Kannada name: Kadumenthya
Habit: A small, erect, grey, pubescent, branched undershrub with a slender erect stem, the young
shoots being covered over with soft, grey stellate down: leaves with 2 or 4 small, stiff, minute
spiny projections at the nodes adjacent to the place of insertion: flowers pale yellow to cream
white, axillary and solitary on slender peduncles: fruits 5-6 or 3-chambered with one seed in each
chamber, seeds brownish black, smooth.
Parts used: whole plant.
Uses: The roots are diaphoretic, antiperiodic, aphrodisiac and tonic. They are administered in
debility, fever, malarial fever, swellings and in irritability of the bladder. The leaves are
emollient and refrigerant and are useful in gonorrhoea,. The fruits are astringent and cooling.
Smilax china
Family: Liliaceae
English name: China root
Kannada name: Chinipav
Habit: A hard tendril climber with sparsely prickled or unarmed stems and thick tuberous
rhizomes: leaves simple, alternate, elliptic, rounded at the ase, prominently nerved: flowers
many, small, white in umbels: fruits red berries.
Parts used: rhizomes.
Uses: The rhizomes are useful in syphilis, leprosy, skin diseases, epilepsy, insanity, dyspepsia,
colic, constipation, fever and seminal weakness
Solanum indicum
( Solanum anguivi)
Family: Solanaceae
English name: Poison berry
Kannada name: Kadubadane
Habit: A much branched, common, very prickly undershrub 0.3-1.5 m in height leaves simple,
large, ovate, subentire, sinuate or lobed, sparsely prickly on both sides, base cordate, often
unequal: flowers blue in extra-axillary cymes, peduncles stellately hairy and prickly fruits
globose berries, reddish or dark yellow: seds smooth or minutely pitted.
Parts used: roots, leaves, fruits
Uses:
The roots are astringent, thermogenic, resolvent, demulcent, depurative, diuretic,
expectorant, aphrodisiac, and cardiotonic, They are useful in dyspepsia, colic, pruritus, cough,
asthma, bronchitis, , fever cardiac disorders and vomiting. The leaves and fruits are digestive
laxative and antibacterial, and are useful in ringworm.
Solanum nigrum
Family: Solanaceae
English name: Black night shade
Kannada name: Kakihannu
Habit: An erect, divaricately branched, unarmed, suffrutescent annual herb: leaves ovate or
oblong, sinuate-toothed or lobed, glabrous: flowers 3-8 in extra-axillary drooping subumbellate
cymes: fruits purplish black or reddish berries: seeds many, discoid, yellow minutely pitted.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: Plant is useful in viated conditions of tridosa, rheumatalgia, swellings cough, asthma,
bronchitis, wounds, ulcers, flatulence, dyspepsia, strangury, hepatomegaly otalgia, hiccough,
nasal catarrh, opthalmopathy, vomiting cardiopathy, leprosy, skin diseases, fever, splenomegaly.
Haemorrhoids, hoarseness, nephropathy, dropsy and general debility.The leaves are used as
poultice and rheumatic and gouty joints and skin diseases. The leaves and berries are especially
important as a cure for gastrohelicosis.The seeds are useful in giddiness and skin diseases.
Solanum xanthocarpum
(Solanum surattense)
Family: Solanaceae
English name: yellow barried night shade
Kannada name: Haladibadane
Habit: A prickly, diffuse bright green suffrutescent, perrnnial undershrub, woody at the base,
with zigzag branches that spread closed to the ground covered over with strong, broad, sharp,
compressed, straight, yellowish white prickles: leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, stellately hairy on
both sides, armed on the midrib and the nerves with long yellow sharp prickles: flowers blue or
bluish-purple, in extra-axillary cymes: fruits glabrous, globular drooping berry, yellow or white
with green veins, surrounded by the calyx: seeds many, small, reinform, smooth and yellowish
brown.
Parts used: whole Plant.
Uses:
The plant is bitter, acrid, thermogenic, anthelmintic, anti-inflammatory, anodyne,
digestive, carminative, appetizer, stomachic depurative, febrifuge, expectorant, laxative,
stimulant, diuretic, rejuvenating, and aphrodisiac.
Spondias pinnata
Family: Anacardiaceae
English name: yellow mango, hogplum
Kannada name: Amate kayi
Habit: A medium sized aromatic, deciduous tree, upto 27 m in height and 2.5 m in girth: leaves
compound, crowded at the ends of branches, leaflets large having parallel nerves meeting in an
intramarginal nerve, bark thick surface light grey to grayish brown, shallowly furrowed or
cracked longitudinally, brittle, their fracture splintery: flowers many, in terminal spreading
panicles: fruits fleshy drupes with woody endocarp surrounded by longitudinal interwoven
fibres, yound fruits green in colour, turning light yellow or greenish yellow on ripening.
Parts used: roots, bark, leaves, fruits.
Uses: The roots are useful in regulating menstruation. The bark is aromatic, astringent and
refrigerant, and is administered in dysentery, diarrhoea, vomiting and muscular rheumantism.
The leaves are aromatic acidic, astringent and are used in dysentery. The juice of the leaves is
recommended for local application in otalgia.
The unripe fruits are astringent, sour,
thermogenic, appetizer and aphrodisiac. The ripe fruits are sweet, astringent, cooling, emollient,
tonic, constipating and antiscorbuitc. They are useful in bilious dyspepsia and diarrhoea.
Syzygium cumini
( Eugenia jambolana)
Family: Myrtaceae
English name: Jamun
Kannada name: Nerale, Nayi nerale
Habit: A medium sized to large tree, 15-30 m in height with smooth light grey bark having dark
patches: leaves simple, Opposite, variable in shape about 2.5 cm broad and 7.5-15 cm long,
acuminate, nerves joining in a distinct intramarginal nerve, gland-dotted, smooth and shiny:
flowers greenish-white in trichotomous panicles: fruits oblong or ovoid-oblong, dark purple with
pinkish juicy pulp: one-seeded.
Parts used: bark, leaves, fruits.
Uses: The bark is astringent, sweet, sour, acrid, refrigerant, carminative, diuretic, digestive,
constipating, stomachic and antibacterial.
It is useful in diabetes, fever, gastropathy, and
dermatopathy. The leaves are antibacterial and are used for strengthening and teeth and gums.
The tender leaves are used for vomiting. The fruits and seeds are sweet, acrid sour, tonic and
cooling and are used in diabetes, diarrhoea, and ringworm.
Tabernaemonata divaricata
(Ervatomia divaricata)
Family: Apocynaceae
English name: East Indian rosebay
Kannada name: Nandibatlu
Habit: A glabrous, evergreen shrub 2.8-2.4 m in height and silvery grey. Bark and milky latex:
leaves simple, opposite, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, smooth, glossy green, acuminate, margins
wavy: flowers white, sweetly fragrant in 1-8 flowered cymes at the bifurcations of the branches,
lobes of corolla overlapping to right in the bud: fruits follicles, 2.5 – 7.5 cm long, ribbed and
curved, orange or bright red within narrowed into a slender curved beak: seeds dull brown
minutely pitted, irregular, enclosed in a red puply aril.
Parts used: roots, flowers, latex.
Uses: The roots are acrid, bitter, thermogenic, anodyne, astringent, vermifuge and tonic. They
are useful in opacity of the cornea, and paralysis. The flowers are cooling and fragrant and are
useful in bruning sensation. Ophthalmitis and dermatopathy,. The latex is cooling and has an
anti-inflammatory effect on wounds
Tamarindus indica
Family: Caesalpinaceae
English name: Tamarind tree
Kannada name: Hunasehannu
Habit: A Large to very large evergreen tree up to 30 m in height with dark grey bark a having
longitudinal fissures and deep cracks: leaves paripinnate upto 15 cm long, rachis slender,
channeled, leaflets 10-20 pairs subsessile, oblong: flowers yellow, striped with red in lax, few
flowered racemes at the ends of the branchlets: fruits pods, brownish ash coloured, slightly
curved, subcompressed, with a shallow oblong pit on each side of the flat faces: seeds enveloped
by a tough leathery membrane and pulpy mesocarp, testa shining, hard.
Parts used: roots, leaves, fruits, seeds.
Uses: The root bark is useful in asthama, diarrhoea and ulcers. Leaves swellings fever scalding
of urine, gastropathy, wounds, ulcers, jaundice, scabies, tumours, ringworm, boils, smallpox, and
conjunctivitis.The fruits are useful in gastropathy, bilious vomiting, datura poisonming, alcoholic
intoxication, dipsia , scabies, pharynigitis, stomatitis, and constipation The seeds are useful in
giddiness.
Taraxacum officinale
Family: Asteraceae
English name: Common dandelion, blow ball
Kannada name: Kadusevanthi
Habit: A perennial herb with thick tap root and abundant milky juice in all parts: leaves radical,
sessile, variable in shape, narrowly oblong, irregulary pinnatifid, lobes linear or triangular,
toothed: flowers yellow in ligulate heads: fruits glabrous achenes, flattened, ribbed minutely,
spiny on the upper half, crowned with white pappus hairs.
Parts used: whole plant.
Uses: Plant is used in chronic ulcers, tuberculosis, dyspepsia, colic, flatulence, verminosis,
constipation, nephoropathy, fever, skin diseases, leprosy, inflammations, gout, stiff, joints,
insomnia, hypochondria jaundice, calculi and other hepatic diseases.
Tectona grandis
Family: Verbenaceae
English name: Teak
Kannada name: Tegada mara, Sagvni
Habit: A large to very large deciduous tree, 25-35 m in height with light brown or grey bark
having shallow longitudinal furrows, fluted and buttressed base and characteristically
quadrangular channeled branchlets: leaves simple, opposite, broadly elliptical or obovate, acute
ork acuminate, coriaceous, rough above, stellately- grey tomentose beneath, possessing minute
glandular dots, main nerves 8-10 pairs: flowers many, white small, sweet scented, in large erect
terminal branched tomentose cymose panicles: fruit hard, bony, irregularly globose drupes
enveloped by light brown bladder-like calyx: seeds usually 1-3 ovate, marble white.
Parts used: Whole plant.
Uses: Bark is useful in bronchitis, hyperacidity, dysentery, veminosis , burning sensation,
diabetes, leprosy and skin diseases. Fruits are useful in difficult labour vesical calculi, pruritus
and stomatitis. Leaves are useful in burning sensation dipsia, leprosy, skin diseases and diabetes.
Seed oil in skin diseases, seed in poisoning. Roots are useful in anuria, and swelling of eyelids.
Tephrosia purpurea
Family: Fabaceae
English name: Wild Indigo
Kannada name: Koggi
Habit: A much branched suberect herbaceous perennial 30-60 cm in height with spreading
branches: leaves imparipinnate, leaflets 11-21, narrow, oblanceolate: flowers red or purple in
extra axillary racemes: fruits slightly curved pods, 3-4.t cm long seeds 5-10 per pod, grey,
smooth.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The roots are useful in inflammations, skin diseases, elephantiasis, dyspepsia, asthma,
wound healing, bronchitis anameia, verminosis, choronic fever, boils, pimples and gingivitis.
The leaves are useful in dyspenpsia, pectoral diseases, gonorrhoea, and bruises. The seeds are
useful in skin diseases and rat poisoning.
Thespesia populnea
Family: Malvaceae
English name: Portia tree
Kannada name: Arasi
Habit: A fairly large, quick growing, evergreen tree upto 18 m in height with greyish brown
fissused bark: leaves simple, alternate, long petioled, cordate, entire, acuminate, prominent
nerves 5-7 with peltate scales on one or both surfaces: flowers yellow with purple base, slowly
changing to purple on withering: fruits globose or oblong brown capsules covered with minute
peltate scales. Pubescent, channeled along the back.
Parts used: whole plant.
Uses: It is useful in dermatopathy such as scabies, psoriasis, ringworm and guineaworm
leprosy, urethritis, gonorrhoea, haemorrhoids, haemorrhages, inflammations, wounds, ulcers,
diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, diabetes, ascites, warts, dipsia, cough, and asthma. The bark and
fruits possess more curative properties.
Tinosporea cardifolia
Family: Menispermaceae
English name: Tinospora
Kannada name: Amrutballi
Habit: A large extensively spreading glabrous, perennial deciduous twiner with succulent stems
and papery bark: leaves simple, alternate cordate, entire glabrous, 7-9 nerved: flowers yellow in
lax racemes arising from nodes on the old wood, male flowers in clusters, female flowers usually
solitary: fruits drupes, red when ripe. The surface of the stems appears to be closely studded
with varty tubercles and the surface skin is longitudinally fissured. On removal of the surface
skin the dark greenish mucilaginous stem is seen.
Parts used: stem
Uses: Stem is useful burning sensation, asthma, diabetis dyspepsia, intermittent fever, chronic
fevers, inflammations, gout, vomiting cardiac debility, skin diseases, leprosy, anaemia, cough,
jaundice and seminal weakness.
Tribulus terrestris
Family: Zygophyllaceae
English name: Puncture vine
Kannada name: Neggina mullu
Habit: An annual or perennial, prostrate herb with many slender, spreading branches and silkyvillous young parts: leaves abruptly simple, pinnate opposite, leaflets almost sessile, rounded or
oblique at the base, mucronate at the apex: flowers bright yellow, solitary, pseudo-axillary or
leaf-opposed: fruits 1 5-angled or winged spinous tuberculate woody schizocarp, separating into
five cocci, each coccus having two long, stiff, sharp divericate spines towards the distal half and
two shorter ones nearer the base: seeds one or more in each coccus.
Parts used: Whole plant.
Uses:
They are useful in renal and vesical calculi, anorexia, dyspepsia,cough, asthma,
consumption, inflammations, cardiopathy, haemoptysis anaemia, scabies, and general weakness.
They are useful in gonorrhoea, inflammation, leprosy, skin diseases, verminosis and general
weakness.
Tylophora indica
(Tylophora asthamatica)
Family: Asclepiadaceae
English name: Indian or country ipicacuanha
Kannada name: Nipalada beru
Habit: A slender, much branched, tough latriciferous climber with long fleshy, knotty roots:
leaves simple, opposite, somewhat fleshy, ovate to orbicular, cordate, often apiculate, glabrous,
acute or acuminate, more or less pubscent beneath, flowers in umbels, greenish yellow outside,
purplish within, pedicels filiform with a number of filiform hairy bracts at their base: fruits
fusiform, divaricate, glabrous, follicles tapering to a fine point to the apex. Seeds ovate with
long coma.
Parts used: roots, leaves.
Uses: The roots and leaves are sweet, acrid, aromatic, expectorant, vulnerary, diaphoretic,
stomachic and antiviral. They are useful in asthma, bronchitis, whooping cough, dysentery,
diarrhoea, hydrophobia, wounds, ulcers, dyspepsia, flatulence. Haemorrhoids, gout, cancerous
tumours and murine leukaemia.
Vernonia anthelmintica
Family: Asteraceae
English name: Purple fleebane
Kannada name: Kadujirige
Habit: A tall robust, stout, erect annual, 60-90 cm in height with pubescent branches: leaves
long, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acute, coarsely, serate, membranous, more or less pubescent
on both sides, base tapering into petiole, flowers purplish in subcorymbose head, outer involucral
bracts linear and hairy, green with purplish obtuse tips innermost bracts longest: fruits achenes,
oblong, cylindric, 10 ribbed, pubescent, pappus reddish, inner pappus long, outer short.
Parts used: fruits.
Uses: They are useful in inflammation, hiccough, cough, asthma, leprosy, skin diseases, pruritus,
leucoderma, dyspepsia, colic, fever and are very specific for roundworm and threadworm.
Vernonia cineria
Family: Asteraceae
English name: Ash coloured fleabane
Kannada name: sahadevi, karihindi
Habit: An erect or somewhat decumbent annual herb, 12-75 cm in height with cylindric, striate,
more or less pubescent branched stem: leaves simple, alternate, variable in shape, ovate or
lanceolate, shortly mucronate, irregularly toothed or shallowly crenate-serrate: flowers many,
pinkish violet, in small heads, involucral bracts oblong, lanceolate, acuminate, awned, silky on
the back: fruits oblong achenes, slightly narrowed at the base, clothed with appressed white
hairs.
Parts used: whole plant.
Uses: The roots are useful in diarrhoea cough, inflammations, skin diseases, leprosy, renal and
vesical calculi, chronic and intermittent fevers. The leaves are useful in humid herpes, eczema,
ringworm and elephantiasis.
The seeds are useful in roundworms threadworms, cough,
flatulence, leucoderma, psoriasis, chronic skin diseases, colic and dysuria. The plant possesses
anticancerous activities and is good for cancerous malformations.
Vetivera zizanioides
Family: Poaceae
English name: Vetiver, khus-khas,
Kannada name: Lavancha
Habit: A densely tufted perennial grass, with aromatic roots and rhizomes: leaves narrow, linear,
erect, sheaths, compressed, ligules reduced to a scarious rim, midrib slender, lateral nerves close,
spikelets grey, geen or purplish in a panicle of numerous slender racemes, sessile spikelets,
linear-lanceolate, glabrous, pedicelled spiklets 2 flowered: fruits oblong, grains slighty oblique at
the apex.
Parts used: roots
Uses:
Roots are useful hyperdipsia, burning sensation, skin diseases, nausea, vomiting,
dyspepsia, flatulence, colic, anaemia, haemorrhages, haemoptysis, cough, asthma, hiccough,
strangury, bilious fever, gout, sprains, halitosis, insomnia, diarrhoea, hyperhidrosis, amentia,
cardiac debility, amenorrhoea, spasmodic affections on and general debility.
Vitex nigundo
Family: Verbenaceae
English name: Five leaved chaste tree
Kannada name: Lakkigida
Habit: An aromatic large shrub or small tree of about 3 m in height with quadrangular branches:
leaves opposite, exstipulate, long petioled and digitately 3-5 foliolate, all leaflets with petiolules,
the middle one longer, flowers bluish purple in panicles upto 30 cm long: fruits globose or ovoid
or obovoid, four-seeded drupe, black when ripe.
Parts Used: whole Plant
Uses: The plant is bitter, the roots are useful in vitiated inflammations, dyspepsia, colic
verminosis, leprosy, dermatopathy. The leaves are useful in vitiated conditions of vata,
inflammations and ulcers. The flowers are useful in diarrhoea, cholera, fever haemorrhages,
hepatopathy and cardiac disorders.
Vitex trifolia
Family: Verbenaceae
English name: Three leaved chaste tree
Kannada name: Sakki
Habit: An aromatic shrub with smooth, pale, grey bark: leaves simple to trifoliate, the terminal
leaflet sessile, the lateral ones smaller and sessile all glabrous above and white tomentose
beneath: flowers light blue or purple in terminal panicled cymes: fruits globose drupes purplish
black when ripe.
Parts Used: Roots, leaves, flowers, fruits
Uses: The leaves are useful in inflammations, loss of memory, hair loss, leucoderma, cough,
bronchitis, fever, tuberculosis. The leaf extract possesses anticancerous activity. The flowers
are useful in fevers and the fruits are good for amenorrhoea.
Withia somnifera
Family: Solanaceae
English name: Winter cherry
Kannada name: Ashwagandha
Habit: An erect branching undershrub reaching about 150 cm in height usually clothed with
minutely stellat tomentum: leaves ovate upto 10 cm long: flowers greenish or lurid yellow in
axillary fascicles: fruits globose berries which are orange coloured when mature, enclosed in a
persistent calyx. The fleshy roots when dry are cylindrical, gradually tapering down with a
brownish white surface and pure white inside when broken.
Parts used: roots, leaves
Uses: The tuberous roots are astringent, bitter, acrid, somniferous, thermogenic, stimulant,
aphrodisiac, diuretic and tonic. They are useful leucoderma, constipation insomnia tissuebuilding and nervous breakdown. The leaves are bitter and are recommended in fever, and
painful swellings A paste of the roots and bruised leaves are applied to carbuncles, ulcers and
painful swellings.
Zingiber officinale
Family: Zingiberaceae
English name: Ginger
Kannada name: Hasishunti
Habit: A slender, perennial rhizomatous herb: leaves linear, sessile. Glabrous: flowers yellowish
green in oblong, cylindric spikes, ensheathed in a few scarious, glabrous bracts: fruits oblong
capsules. Thje rhizomes are white to yellowish brown in colour, irregularly branched, somewhat
annulated and laterally flattened. The growing tips are covered over by a few scales. The
surface of the rhizome is smooth and if broken a few fibrous elements of the vascular bundles
project out from the cut ends.
Parts used: rhizomes (raw as well as dry)
Uses: The raw ginger is acrid, thermogenic, carminative, laxative and digestive. It is useful in
anorexia, dyspepsia, pharyngopathy and inflammations. The dry ginger is acrid, thermogenic,
emollient, appetizer, laxative, stomachic, stimulant, rubefacient, anodyne, aphrodisiac,
expectorant, anthelmintic and carminative. It is useful in dropsy, asthma cough, colic diarrhea,
flatulence, anorexia, vitiated conditions of vata and Kapha, dyspepsia, cardiopathy,
pharynogopathy, cholera, nausea, vomiting, elephantiasis and inflammations. It is also much
used in serval domestic preparations.
Ziziphus jujube
( Ziziphus mauritiana)
Family: Rhamnaceae
English name: Indian jujube
Kannada name: Bare hannu
Habit: A low, much branched, thorny, deciduous tree with spreading crown, dark grayish black
bark having irregular cracks and strong reddish hardwood: leaves oblong – elliptic, ovate or
suborbicular, minutely serrulate or apex edistinctly toothed, prominently 3- nerved: flowers
greenish yellow in axillary dense fascicles or sessile or short peduncled cymes: fruits oblong,
globose or ovoid drupes, turning from yellow to orange and finally red. The fleshy pulp
enclosing a hard stone.
Parts used: whole plant
Uses: The roots are bitter, cooling, anodyne and tonic and are useful in fever, wounds and ulcers
The bark is astringent, constipating and tonic and is useful in dysentery, diarrhoea, gingivitis and
boils. The leaves are bitter, cooling astringent, anthelmintic, diaphoretic and antipyretic, and are
useful in stomatitis, wounds, syphilitic ulcers, asthma, tyuphoid fever and obesity. The fruits are
sweet, cooling anodyne, purgative mucilaginous, pectoral, styptic, aphrodisiac, invigorating,
depurative appetizer and tonic.
The seeds are acrid, sweet, astringent soporific and tonic,
They are useful in dipsia, cough, asthma wounds.
Results and discussion:
Of common available medicinal plant species used by tribal and rural people of Karnataka in
primary healthcare. More or less all species available profusely in nature have been used by the
tribal and rural people for generations together for primary healthcare. Rural people use
medicinal plants for the relief of various ailments and also to preserve and promote their health
by practicing their own methods. These methods are being considered safe and with lesser side
effects. Hence, there is a need to explore the folk medicine to cure and prevent health related
problems.
Conclusion:
Enlisted common available medicinal plants in and around Davangere are used in various
classic and traditional ayurveda medicine preparations. It is our responsibility to maintain all
medicinal plants for the future by conservation, preservation and cultivation as rural people still
depend on plants for medicinal purposes. It is necessary to characterize the active principles
involved in control of various diseases and use them as markers to avoid adulteration and to
identify and authenticate the genuine crude drug for various medicinal preparations.
Thus the present documentation of traditional knowledge from an area will help in conservation
providing pharmalogical leads for the betterment of human society. It will be more fruitful if a
concerted effort is made to preserve the existing medicinal plants for future generation.
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