Botany names

Description - Phytography : Grows from a stout rootstock, stems woody, pointed, 24-30 m high and 15-17 cm in diameter, internodes may be 45 cm in length, hollow, walls 2.5-5.0 cm thick, nodes solid and prominent, lower nodes may have long horizontal shoots armed with 2-3 recurved spines, branched from the base, stem-sheathes 30-37 cm by 22-30 cm, coriaceous, young orange-yellow, often striped green or red, top rounded, edges plaited, young thickly clothed with golden hairs, blade triangular, outside glabrous, matted within; leaves alternate, up to 20.0 cm by 2.5 cm, tip sharp, stiff; flowers gregariously once in lifetime (25-50 years), inflorescence leafless, large, paniculate, rachis glabrous, shining, hard, flowers green and inconspicuous; caryopsis.

Chemical Constituents- Chemical contents : Plant: Benzoic acid, oxalic acid, cyanogenic glucoside, lupeol, amyrin, p-amyrin, friedelin, tetraxerol, ferneol, 2-furaldehyde, lignin, hemicellulose] holocellulose, miliacin, glutinone, glutinol, cylindrin, crusgallin , cholin, betain,'beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol

Use - AYURVEDA : cooling tonic and aphrodisiac, use of different parts is prescribed as under: (i) Aerial parts (stem and leaf) : as blood purifier, in leucoderma and inflammatory conditions; (ii) Decoction of nodes: for fertility control; (iii) Aqueous extract of leaf: bathing by the same is good for patients of piles; (iv) Leaf-paste : external application is beneficial in gout, wounds and for suppuration of boils; (v) Root: diluent, cures strangury, oedema; (vi) Ash of the basal part of culm and thick root: may be used along with sesame oil in treatment of baldness.