Chakrani is an Indian medicinal plant, found widely in South India. The plant thrives in the moist, shaded habitats ranging from evergreen to semi-evergreen forests of the Western Ghats. The biological name for this plant is Thottea Siliquosa. In Kannada, this medicinal plant is called Chakranike and Mirsagni while it is known as Alpam, Kotaashari and Thavasimu-Ruaga in Malayalam. In Marathi, the plant is called Chakrani while in Tamil, it is known as Alpom and Puthuluvena. In Telugu, Chakrani is called Tellayeshwari.
Chakrani, a medicinal plant, has been serving as an ingredient for the ointment to promote the healing of chronic sores and ulcers. The mature roots of Chakrani are grinded and its paste with lemon is a reputed, traditional Indian medicine that works as a remedy for diarrhoea, dysentery and cholera. The roots and leaves of Chakrani are used as a sedative for treating snakebites in rural India.
Chakrani is an erect, slender shrub which grows to a height of around 1.8-3 metres with smooth yellowish-grey bark. The leaves of Chakrani tree grow alternately and are 3-ribbed from the base, elliptic-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate. The base is narrowly acute to acuminate and slightly above the pubertal beneath. This area of the plant has a slight aroma when bruised. The Chakrani flowers are purplish, growing in irregular pattern and the few-flowered axillary cymes have small bracts that are linear, acute and pubescent. They grow throughout the year in southwestern India. The pedicels and long, heavily pubescent; perianth are tripartite and the segments are broadly ovate or suborbicular and 5 mm long. The fruits of this medicinal plant grow in a linear pattern, usually 7.5-10 cms long, straight, obtuse and tetra-angled. The seeds enclosed in Chakrani fruits are trigonous, pitted and 2.5 cms long.
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