 |
Kathurumurunga |
| Vernacular Name:
San: Agastyah: Eng: Swamp pea, Sesban; Hin: Hathya, Agast, Basna, Haddga;
Kan: Agasi; Mal: Akatti, Agatti, Atti, Argatti; Tam: Attikkirai; Tel:
Avesi, Avasmara. |
Description: 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 somewhat 4-cornered, non-torulose, septate with swollen margins
and 15- 50 pale coloured seeds.
|
| Propagation:
By seeds. |
|
Parts Used: Root bark,
leaves, flowers, fruits. |
| Chemical
Constituents: Grandifloral, arginine,
cystine, histidine, isolcucine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, valine,
threonine, alanine, aspargine, aspartic acid and a saponin yielding
oleanolic acid, galactose, rhamnose and glucuronic acid. |
|
Uses: The root-bark of the red-flowered variety is useful in
vitiated conditions of vata and arthralgia. The bark is astringent,
cooling, bitter, tonic, anthelmintic and febrifuge. The pounded bark is
externally applied to cure scabies. The juice of the bark is good for
dyspepsia, diarrhoea and gastralgia. The leaves are acrid, bitter,
sweet, cooling, aperient, tonic and diuretic, and contain a
non-poisonous saponine-like substance. The leaf juice is used in nasal
catarrh, nyctalopai and cephalalgia. Leaves are chewed to disinfect
mouth and throat and are useful in stomatalgia. The flowers are cooling,
bitter, astringent, acrid and antipyretic. The juice of the flowers is
applied to the eyes for nyctalopia and is used for intermittent fevers.
The fruits are sweet, bitter, laxative and alexiteric and are useful in
flatulant-colic, anaemia, emaciation and vitiated conditions of tridosa. |
