Medicinal plant details
Andrographis paniculata(Burm.f.) Nees
(Kiratatikta)
| Common name | Kiratatikta |
| Habit | Herb |
| Habitat | It grows in hedgerows throughout the plane lands, hill slopes, waste ground, farms, moist habitat, seashores and roadsides |
| Parts used | Whole plant |
Synonyms
| Sr. No. | Synonyms |
|---|---|
| 1 | Justicia paniculata Burm.f. |
| 2 | Justicia latebrosa Russell ex Wall. |
| 3 | Andrographis paniculata var. glandulosa Trimen |
| 4 | Andrographis subspathulata C.B.Clarke |
| 5 | Justicia stricta Lam. ex Steud. |
Taxonomical information
| Kingdom | Viridiplantae |
| Phylum | Streptophyta |
| Class | Magnoliopsida |
| Order | Lamiales |
| Family | Acanthaceae |
| Genus | Andrographis |
| Species | Andrographis paniculata (Burm.f.) Nees |
Vernacular names
| Sanskrit | Kalmegha, Bhunimba and Yavatikta |
| English | The Creat, King of Bitters |
| Hindi | Kirayat, Kalpanath |
| Kannada | Nelaberu |
| Marathi | Oli-kiryata, Kalpa |
| Malayalam | Nelavepu, Kiriyattu |
| Bengali | Kalmegh |
| Tamil | Nilavembu |
| Telugu | Nilavembu |
| Urdu | Kalmegh, Kariyat, Mahatita |
Morphology
It is an annual branched, erect and herbaceous plant grows upto an height of 110 cm. Stem is dark green in color with 30-100 cm length, 2-6 mm diameter. The shape of the stem is quadrangular with longitudinal furrows and wings on the angles of the young parts, slightly enlarged at the nodes. Leavers are glabrous, lanceolate, pinnate, acute apex, entire margin. Length of leaves is about 2-12 cm and width of 1-3 cm. Flowers are white with rose-purple spots on the petals. Flowers are small, in lax spreading axillary and terminal racemes or panicles. Seeds are capsule like, linear-oblong, acute at both ends. The size of the seed is about 1.9 cm x 0.3 cm and yellowish brown in color.
Distribution
It is abundantly grows in Southern and Southeastern Asia including India, Java, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Indonesia, while it is cultivated in India, China, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia, the West Indies such as Jamaica, Barbados, and Bahamas, Hong Kong, and the tropical areas in America and also in southwestern Nigeria.
Medicinal uses
Fever, liver diseases, torpid liver and vitiligo
References
| 1 | Hossain, M. S., Urbi, Z., Sule, A., and Rahman, K. H. (2014). Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Wall. ex Nees: a review of ethnobotany, phytochemistry, and pharmacology. The Scientific World Journal, 2014. |