Morphology

It is a branched twinning shrub. Flowers are greenish yellow, in many flowered cymes, the follicles are sub woody and turgid. Stem is cylindrical and bent occassionally at places. It is 5 to 10 cm long, 0.5 to 2.5 cm in diameter. The surface is rough, longitudinally ridged, wrinkled and furrowed, transversely cracked and with vertically elongated lenticels at places. Externally whitish brown, internally pale brown, fracture short and splintery. The bark is yellowish brown, corky, deeply cracked. Leaves are ovate to cordate, 4 to 7.5 cm long, 2 to 5 cm broad, entiire, acute, subacute to mucronate, base symmetrical, petiole 1 to 3 cm long, glabrous above and pubescent below. The roots are externally rough, white or buff colored with longitudinal ridges and furrows. The root size varies from 3 to 10 cm in length and 1.5 to 5 cm in diameter.

It is distributed throughout Mauritius, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, the Himalayan region of India and Burma

Diarrhoea, burning sensation, fever, pthisis, cough, emaciation, diseaes of mouth, night blindness, diseases of the eye, bleeding disorder, thrist, pulmonary cavitation, ulcer