MPdb: Melghat Plant Data Bank
MS034 : Crotalaria spectabilis Roth. |
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| Melghat's Flora's Serial No. : | 122 |
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| Plant Location in Melghat : | Stream & River banks & on wet ground | |||||||||||||
| Plant Category : | Shrubs | |||||||||||||
| Plant's Current Status : | - | |||||||||||||
| Plant Family : | Fabaceae | |||||||||||||
| Plant Common Name : | Showy Rattlepod, Greater rattlepod, Showy crotalaria, Showy rattlebox • Hindi: Sanni, Ghungri, Dhundhuni, Jhunjhunia • Marathi: dingala, khulkhula • Kannada: Kaadu senabu • Bengali: Pipuli jhunjhun | |||||||||||||
| Synonym : | Crotalaria altipes Raf. Crotalaria cuneifolia (Forssk.) Schrank Crotalaria cuneifolia (Forssk.) "Schrank, p.p.B" Crotalaria lechnaultii DC. [Spelling variant] Crotalaria leschenaultii Macfad. Crotalaria leschenaultii DC. Crotalaria macrophylla Kurtz Crotalaria macrophylla Weinm. Crotalaria macrophylla Wienmann Crotalaria retzii Hitchc. Crotalaria sericea Retz. |
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| Description : | An erect biennial undershrub upto 1.2 m tall with glabrous, furrowed branches. Leaves 5-15 cm long and variable in width, oblong-lanceolate, apex acute or subacute, mucronate, base cuneate, glabrous above, fine-silky beneath; petioles 1.6-3 mm long; stipules large, ovate-lanceolate, leafy, persistent. Flowers yellow with a purple tinge, borne in elongated 16-50 flowered terminal racemes 25-30 cm long; pedicels longer than the calyx with a large foliaceous ovate-acute bract at the base of each pedicel and a pair of minute bracts on each pedicel below the middle; calyx c. 1.3 cm long, tube campanulate, upper teeth large, triangular, acute, c. 6 mm broad at the base, the lower 3 teeth smaller and less deeply cut, linear-lanceolate, acute; corolla with a broadly ovate standard with a strong midrib at the back. Fruit(pod) stalked, linear-oblong, 2.5-5 cm long glabrous; seeds 20-30. | |||||||||||||
| Curated Medicinal Use / Activity : | The plant is used in the treatment of scabies and impetigo. The seed and other above-ground parts contain the pyrrolizidine alkaloid monocrotaline, which has been shown to lower blood pressure but is also toxic. | |||||||||||||
| Plant's Phytochemicals : | pyrrolizidine monocrotaline a-carotene triacontane 22,23-dihydrostigmasterol sericine |
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| Reference : | ~ Dhore MA and Joshi PA; "Flora of Melghat Tiger Reserve"; Directorate, Project Tiger, Melghat (1988); PMID : |
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