Kantakari, also known as Indian Solanum, is a thorny, branched, perpetual herb. The branches are thickly covered with tiny star-shaped hairs. The plant has yellow, shiny thorns of approximately 1.5 cm in size. It has exceedingly barbed, slightly hairy, egg-shaped leaves, purple flowers, circular fruits, yellow in colour with green veins and several polished seeds. The fruit of the plant makes up the drug.

Kantakari is native to India. The plant occurs all around India, oft in wastelands, on roadsides and in open scrublands. The fruit of the plant produces carpesteral, glucoside-alkaloids and solanocarpine. It also generates glucoside-alkaloids, solamine-S. On hydrolysis it yields alkaloid solanidine-S.

Methods of usage
Kantakari serves several purposes, including severe ones like snake bites, dropsy, and of course perturbs of respiration, abdomen, throat and gum.

Healing Power and Medicinal Properties of Kantakari
The root is one of the essential medicinal ingredients used by Ayurvedic physicians, who use it to treat numerous common ailments. The drug is sour to taste and a mild laxative. Researches have evidenced that the fruits and shoots of the plant possess anti-bacterial attributes.

Respiratory Disorders healed by Kantakari
Kantakari is useful in uncluttering catarrh and phlegm from the bronchial tubes. It is hence used in the treatment of respiratory diseases like asthma, bronchitis and cough.

Stomach Disorders cured by Kantakari
The herb can be used to treat constipation and gas. It fortifies the stomach and encourages its action. It redresses perturbed processes of nutrition by which the organism ingests, digests, absorbs, utilises and excretes food substances and reinstates regular function of the system. The drug also owns anthelmintic (worm destroying) property and is handy in exterminating intestinal worms.

Dropsy cured by Kantakari
Kantakari is useful in curing dropsy, a disease marked by an undue accumulation of fluids in the tissues and cavities or natural hollows of the body. The drug helps boost the secretion and disposal of urine.

Throat Disorders healed by Kantakari
The herb is particularly useful in throat problems, such as sore throat and tonsillitis. A concoction of the plant should be used as a gargle in such cases. This is prepared by constantly boiling the plant in approximately 2 litres of water after washing it exhaustively, till it reduces to half its volume and it should be sieved.

Gum Diseases cured by Kantakari
The concoction of the plant, prepared for throat disorders, is also very constructive in gum sores. For healthier results, black mustard should be boiled together with the plant.

Snake Bites healed by Kantakari
The root of the plant has been customarily used in snake and scorpion bites. A paste of the root can be prepared by mashing it on a stone with lemon juice and administered to the affected part. The patient should be taken to the doctor immediately.

Other Diseases healed by Kantakari
The drug is also useful in treating several other diseases, such as- heart disease, chest pain, specific kinds of fever, muscular pains, gonorrhoea, dysuria, expansion of the liver and spleen. The fruit of the plant is also weighed useful in treating aching throat, bronchitis, muscular pains and fevers.

Dosages - The herb can be used both in the form of infection, decoction or juice. The juice is taken in doses ranging from 2 ml to 8 ml.

Other Uses of Kantakari The yet unripe leaves and fruits are eaten as a vegetable after cooking.