संस्कृत नाम- विष
Botanical name - Aconitum ferox
Description - Perennial erect herb growing up to 2 m in height; roots look like the navel of children; leaves alternate, simple, rounded or oval, may be palmately 5-lobed; flowers borne on branched racemes, bracts and bracteoles present, large helmet-type, helmet vaulted with short sharp beak, pale dirty blue in colour, zygomorphic, floral parts arranged spirally on an elongated receptacle; follicles erect, usually densely villose, sometimes glabrous. Phenology: Flowering and Fruiting: July-November. Distributin: Alpine Himalaya including Nepal; endemic
Chemical_Constituents- Though the drug is poisonous and has a depressant action on the heart and associated organs, After mitigation or purification, it has marked stimulant action on these organs as shown by experiments. Cow Milk gives better purification results than cow urine. The Drug contains alkaloids, aconitine, neopelline and pseudoaconitine. Drug collected from altitudes higher than 600 Meters is less potent. The drug is collected from the alpine Himalayan regions.
Uses - Traditional use: AYURVEDA : Root: used in the Mrutyunjaya rasa (used to treat the fever caused by deranged vayu, i.e., wind, sannipatika jvara , i.e., remittent fever, hingulesware rasa, anandabhairav agnitundi vati, etc. Vatsanabha has been used in medicine from a very remote period. It is regarded as healing and stimulant. It is used in a great variety of affections, but is specially recommended in fever, cephalagia, affections of throat, dyspepsia and rheumatism. HOMEOPATHY : remedy for clotting of blood in heart or in lungs, pneumonia, lymptisis, pleurisy, eye trouble, earache, toothache and urinary trouble. Modern use : Extremely poisonous; used in leprosy, fever, cholera, nasal catarrh, tonsillitis, sore throat, gastric disorders, debility, etc., also used as a sedative and diaphoretic; applied in the form of paste in cases of neuralgia and rheumatism