Medicinal plant details
Piper retrofractumVahl
(Chavya)
| Common name | Chavya |
| Habit | Climber |
| Habitat | Grows in western ghats, nilgiris and hills of southern kerala |
| Parts used | Stem |
Synonyms
| Sr. No. | Synonyms |
|---|---|
| 1 | Piper palawanum C.DC. |
| 2 | Piper maritimum Blume ex C.DC. |
| 3 | Piper parvifolium Blanco |
| 4 | Amalago antillana Raf. |
| 5 | Amalago malamiri Raf. |
| 6 | Chavica arnottiana Miq. |
| 7 | Chavica chaba Miq. |
| 8 | Chavica labillardierei Miq. |
| 9 | Chavica maritima Miq. |
| 10 | Chavica officinarum Miq. |
| 11 | Chavica parvifolia Hassk. |
| 12 | Chavica retrofracta Miq. |
| 13 | Cubeba chaba Miq. |
| 14 | Piper chaba W.Hunter |
| 15 | Piper officinarum C.DC. |
| 16 | Piper arnottianum (Miq.) C.DC. |
Taxonomical information
| Kingdom | Viridiplantae |
| Phylum | Streptophyta |
| Class | Magnoliopsida |
| Order | Piperales |
| Family | Piperaceae |
| Genus | Piper |
| Species | Piper retrofractum Vahl |
Vernacular names
| Sanskrit | Cavika |
| English | Cubeb |
| Hindi | Chavya |
| Kannada | Kadumenasinaballi, Chavya |
| Marathi | Chavaka |
| Malayalam | Kattumulaku, Kattumulakunveru |
| Bengali | Chei |
| Tamil | Chavyam, Chevuyam |
| Telugu | Chevyamu |
| Urdu | Peepal Chab, Kababah |
Morphology
It is a climbing plant. Leaves are round, lanceolate, and wide; green to dark green. The fruit has varying shapes and sizes ranging from small lengths (cylindrical), flat length (filiform), elliptical (conical), and short round (globular). The stem is round and large; has a diameter of ± 5-7 cm; length of the main stem 2.93-9.82 cm; The color of the stem varies greatly from black, brown to blackish brown
Distribution
It is found in China, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya and Philippines
Medicinal uses
Digestive function disorders, asthma, hypertension, influenza, and for treating flatulence
References
| 1 | Leliqia, N. P. E., and Wardani, N. A. (2021). Review of phytochemical and pharmacological studies of Piper retrofractum Vahl. J. Pharm. Sci. Appl. 3, 40. |