Botany names

Description - Annual herb, stem straight, smooth, cylindrical, very tall, upper portion branched; leaves light green, thin, oval, narrow pointed, toothed; flowers solitary or on 3 short, thick stalks, small, yellow; capsules short, globose, flattened at the top, wrinkled, ribbed, 5-valved; seeds few in each valve, without transverse partitions.

Chemical Constituents- Leaf: contains glucoside, capsularin which seems to be related to corchorin; corchorin and bitter substance corchoritin isolated from seeds; cardiac aglycon corchartoxm having heart action similar to digitalis group of genins but not as intensely obtained from seeds; corchoroside A and corchoroside 8.

Use - Traditional use: Leaf: demulcent, bitter tonic, stomachic, laxative, carminative anthelmintic, astringent and intestinal antiseptic; Infusion of dried leaf- bitter and commonly used as a stomachic tonic like chiretta, also used in fever, bilious trouble dysentery, liver disorders, intestinal colic, gastric catarrh, skin diseases, atonic dyspepsia! Mild jaundice and disorder of digestive system, for the treatment of dysentery, dried leaves are eaten with rice; Decoction of dried wot and unripe capsule ': good for diarrhoea; Capsule : used as a paste over swellings and abscesses, purgative and contains vitamin C