Bara Gokhru
From DrugPedia: A Wikipedia for Drug discovery
Common name: Large Caltrops, बड़ा गोखरू Bara Gokhru (Hindi), Ane neggilu (Kannada), Ananerinnil (Malayalam), Yanai nerunjil (Tamil), Gokhara (Oriya), गोखुर Gokhura (Marathi), कड़वा गोखरू Kadva gokhru (Gujarati)
Botanical name: Pedalium murex
Family: Pedaliaceae (sesame family)
A shrubby stiff stemmed herb, native to India, grown for reputed medicinal and other uses. It is diffuse annual, much branched, spreading, succulent, glandular, up to 60 cm tall. Roots similar to turmeric in colour. Leaves simple, opposite, ovate or oblong-obovate, 1-4.5 cm long, irregularly and coarsely crenate-serrate. Yellow flowers 1.5-2 cm across, stalk 1-2 mm long, increasing up to 4 mm in fruit. Sepals 2 mm long; teeth linear, scaly outside, persistent. Petals fused into a broad tube, 1-3 cm long; lobes obtuse. Stamens 0.5-1 cm long; anthers kidney shaped. The four angled seed is with 5 extremely sharp spines. It is an important famine food - leaves eaten as vegetable.
Medicinal uses: Leaves are antibilious. Seeds are demulcant, diuretic, tonic, muscilaginous and aphrodesiac. Used in male impotence, gonorrhoea, and incontinence.
