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 Page no.

Introduction 1

Methodology 2

List of common medicinal plants in alphabetic order 4

Results and discussion 149

Conclusion 149

References 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 pre-

historic 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 umbrella-

shaped 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 elliptic-

oblong, 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, abdominal

tumours, vomiting, piles and blood disorders.

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, oblong-

ovoid, 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 two-

thirds 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, 20-

25cm 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 root-

stock 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 linear-

oblong 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 5-

15 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 glaucous-

green, 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 urino-

genital 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 15-

30 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 long-

petioled, 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 silky-

villous 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 tissue-

building 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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