Chandigarh Forests
Department of Forest & Wildlife
UT Administration
Chandigarh
Department of Forest & Wildlife
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Division
|
Angiosperms |
|
Class
|
Dicotyledons |
|
Subclass |
Gamopatalae |
|
Order |
Polemonialea |
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Family
|
Solanaceae |
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Genus
|
Withania |
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Species
|
somnifera |
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Etymology:
|
In honour of T.H.M. Witan, English palaeobotanist. |
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Botanical name:
|
Withania somnifera ( Linn.) Dunal |
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Local/Trade Names: |
Winter cherry, Ashvagandha, Asgandh, Punir. |
|
Description: |
An erect, braching perennial under-shrub upto 1.5 in high, more or less stellately tomentose and the branches are flexuose, terete and densely tomentose. Leaves petiolate, 5-10 cm long, ovate, sub-acute. Flowers greenish or lurid yellow, usually about 5 together in sub-sessile umbelliform cymes. Fruit globose berries, orange when mature enclosed in persistent calyx. |
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Distribution:
|
The plant is found in the dried parts of India, ascending upto 1700 m in Himalayas. |
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Where to see it: |
Nursery, Medicinal Plant garden. |
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Uses: |
The tuberous roots are astringent, bitter, acrid, somniferous, thermogenic, syimulant, aphrodisiac, diuretic and tonic. They are useful in vitiated conditions of vata, leucoderma, constipation, insomnia, tissue-building and nervous breakdown. The leaves are bitter and are recommended in fever, painful swellings and ophthalmitis. A paste of the roots and bruised leaves are applied to carbuncles, ulcers and painful swellings. |
