MEDICINAL PLANTS OF SIKKIM

 

 

Basic Information

 

 

Species                       : Zizyphus mauritiana Lamarck.

Local Name                : Bayer (Nep)

Synonym                    : Z. jujuba (Q. Gaertner non-miller)

Family                         : Rhamnaceae

Habitat                       : A small, evergreen tree of variable size found both wild and cultivated. Grows

                                     in comparatively dry regions. It thrives on sandy or shingly alluvium and on arable land,

                                                                                                 but it can grow also on a variety of other soils.

Distribution                 :

Sikkim                         :

Outside                       : Bhutan (Samchi district and Phuntsoling district), Darjeelling (tista, Siliguri, Sivoke, Terai. Roadsides and dry hot river banks,

                                     Rajasthan, Gujrat, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab.

General                       : Tropical Africa, Afghanistan, Himalaya, India, Malaysia, China, Australia.

Morphological information

Shrub or tree 0.5-10 m, branches densely woolly tomentose; spines usually paired, one straight, ascending, 4-8 mm, one recurved 3-6 mm. Leaves broadly ovate-elliptic to suborbicular, 2-7X1.5-5 cm, obtuse, base cuneate or rounded, margin serrulate, glabrous above, densely pale wooly beneath; petiole 2-4 mm, woolly. Flowers in short woolly axillary cymes. 1-2 cm diameter. Pedicels 3-7 mm, tornentose, elongating in fruit. Calyx lobes triangular, 1.5 mm, woolly outside. Petals spathulate, equaling clayx. Disc 10-grooved and lobed. style 2-lobed divided nearly to middle. Fruit a fleshy drupe. C1.5X1 cm red 2- seeded.

Flowering                   : July-September

Fruiting                       : December-March

History                        :

Parts                           :

Status                         :

Medicinal

 A decoction of root is used in fever and the powder is applied on old wounds and ulcers. The fruit is mucilaginous, pectoral, styptic, considered to purify blood and helps in digestion. Plaster made out of leaves is used in stangury. Bark is considered to be used in diarrhoea.

 


Reference

1. Anonymous (1998). The Wealth of India (Vol. XI). Raw materials. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. 112-115.

2. Grierson, A.J.C and D.G. Long (1991). Flora of Bhutan including a record of plants from Sikkim (Vol. 2, part 1). Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh. 138-141.     

3.   Progress Report of the Project "Studies on Medicinal Plants of Sikkim" (1998-2001). State Council of Science and Technology for Sikkim.