Indian Borage
From DrugPedia: A Wikipedia for Drug discovery
Common name: Indian Borage, Chhota Kalpa (Hindi), Undhanphuli (Gujarati), Katte tume soppu (Kannada), Kallutaitumapi (Tamil), Guvvagutti (Telugu), Chota Kalpa (Marathi), Adhapuspi (Sanskrit)
Botanical name: Trichodesma indicum
Family: Boraginaceae (forget-me-not family)
This is an erect, spreading, branched, annual herb, about 50 centimeters in height, with hairs springing from tubercles. The leaves are stalkless, opposite, lanceolate, 2 to 8 centimeters long, pointed at the tip, and heart-shaped at the base. The flowers occur singly in the axils of the leaves. The sepal tube (calyx) is green, hairy, and 1 to 13 centimeters long, with pointed lobes. The flower tube is pale blue, with the limb about 1.5 centimeters in diameter, and the petals pointed. The fruit is ellipsoid, and is enclosed by the calyx. The nutlets are about 5 millimeters long, and rough on the inner surface. It is found throughout India, on roadsides and stony dry wastelands, upto 1,500 m.
Medicinal uses: The plant is acrid, bitter in taste. In herbal medicine jargon, it is thermogenic, emollient, alexeteric, anodyne, anti-inflammatory, carminative, constipating, diuretic, depurative, ophthalmic, febrifuge and pectoral. This herb is also used in arthralgia, inflammations, dyspepsia, diarrhoea, dysentery, strangury, skin diseases and dysmenorrhoea.
