Kalmegh

La description

·        Botanical Name: Andrographis paniculata wall. Ex. Nees.

·        Family Name: Acanthaceae

·        Common Name: Kalmegh, Bhunimba, Creat, Chirayita Desi

·        Part Used: Dried Leaves and Tender Shoots

Habitat:

·        Kalmegh is a bitter annual (perennial, if maintained) herb, erect, *0 cm to *0 cm in height, with upper part of the stem quadrangular while the lower part is a nearly rounded stem.

·        Leaves are opposite sessile or subsessile, linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, **8 cm long, acute, glabrous or minutely puberulous beneath and base cuneate, margin slightly undulate.

·        It is widely distributed throughout plains of India from Uttar Pradesh to Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Uses:

·        The whole herb is bitter in taste and is source of several diterpenoids of which a bitter water soluble lactone “andrographolide” is important.

·        The plant is bitter, acrid, cooling, laxative, antipyretic, antiperiodic, anti-inflammatory, expectorant, sudorific, anthelmintic, digestive and stomachic.

·        It is useful in burning sensation, chronic fever, malaria and intermittent fever, inflammation, cough, bronchitis, skin diseases, intestinal worm, dyspepsia, flatulence, colic, diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhoids and vitiated condition of pitta.