Coleus aromaticus
It is one of the popular medicinal drugs used by house wives
in kitchen.
Family : Labiaceae
Scientific name : Coleus amboinicus, Coleus aromaticus
Nomenclature in other languages
Sanskrit : Pashanabhedi, Parnayavani, Pashanamedha
Hindi : Patharchoor
Bengali : Patharchoor
Tamil : Karpooravalli
English : Indian rock foil
Distribution : Seen all throughout India grown in houses for
instant remedy for fever.
Botanical description : Plectranthus amboinicus is a large succulent herb, fleshy and highly
aromatic, much branched, possessing short soft erect hairs, with distinctive
smelling leaves. The stem
is fleshy, about 30–90 cm, either with long rigid hairs (hispidly villous)
or tomentose (densely covered with soft, short and erect hairs, pubescent).
Leaves are undivided (simple), broad, egg/oval-shaped with a tapering tip
(ovate) and very thick, they are pubescent (thickly studded with hairs), with
the lower surface possessing the most numerous glandular hairs, giving a
frosted appearance. The taste of this leaf is pleasantly aromatic with
agreeable and refreshing odour. Flowers are on a short stem (shortly
pedicelled), pale purplish in dense whorls at distant intervals in a long
slender raceme.
Uses :
The leaves are strongly
flavoured and make an excellent addition to stuffings for meat and poultry.
Finely chopped, they can also be used to flavour meat dishes, especially beef,
lamb and game. Such use as a flavouring and its geographic spread is indicated
by some of the common names, and documented for Cambodia and South
Africa. It is also used as a vegetable, for
example in South East Asia. The herb is used as a substitute for oregano in the
food trade and food labelled "oregano-flavoured" may well contain
this herb.
The
leaves have also had many traditional medicinal uses, especially for the
treatment of coughs, sore throats and nasal congestion,
but also for a range of other problems such as infections, rheumatism and flatulence.
The plant is cultivated in home-gardens throughout India for use in traditional
medicine, being used to treat malarial fever,
hepatopathy, renal and vesical calculi, cough, chronic asthma, hiccough, bronchitis, helminthiasis, colic, convulsions,
and epilepsy, Shenoy and others refer
to further Indian traditional medicinal uses such as for skin ulcerations, scorpion bite, skin allergy, wounds, diarrhoea, with emphasis
on the leaves being used as a hepatoprotective,
to promote liver health. In Indonesia Plectranthus amboinicus is a traditional food used in soup to
stimulate lactation for the month or so following childbirth. In Cambodia 2 uses are recorded: juice from the
leaves is sweetened and then given to children as protection from colds; and
leaves are applied to the lips. In Bahia, Brasil, people use the
plant to treat skin lesions caused byLeishmania braziliensis. Just to the north, in Paraiba of the same country, the plant was
extremely commonly known for use in home medication. As noted above, medicinal use also
occurs in Southern India, it also documented in
other parts of South East Asia and South Africa.
Other
uses include as an ornamental, and for its
essential oils.
Action _ Leaf—used in urinary
diseases, vaginal discharge, colic
and dyspepsia. Stimulates the
function of liver. Also given in
epilepsy and other convulsive
affections, asthma, bronchitis, cold
and chronic cough. Bruised leaves
are applied to burns; leaf juice to
chapped lips.
The leaf extract has shown regulatory
influence on calcium oxalate stone
formation in experimental rats. In folk
medicine, leaves are used internally for
expelling kidney stone (the herb is also
known as Paashaanbhedi).
Homoeopathic medicine, prepared
from fresh leaves, is used in the affections
of urinary organs, especially in
difficult urination or in burning pains
during and after urination.
The aerial parts from Pakistan yield
an essential oil (.%)
which contains
thymol (.%); whereas in Fijian
sample of leaves carvacrol and camphor
are major constituents. Leaves
contain a large amount of oxaloacetic
acid, flavonoid, cirsimaritin and betasitosterol.
Ayurvedic pharmacological properties
Rasa : tiktha, lavana, kshara
Guna : laghu, rooksha, teekshna
Veerya : ushna
Vipaka : katu
Medicinal properties :
Leaves are diuretic. To evacuate the bladder and to eliminate
the discharge from the cervix this drug is helpful. The juice of leaves help in
curing abdominal pain, cough and cold. It also aids in digestion.
Useful parts : stem, leaves
Therapeutical uses of Coleus aromaticus
-eatables prepared out of grinded flour mixed with juice of
leaves of this plant helps in curing irritable bowel syndrome in children
-for the fevers of children the leaves of this plant heated ,
then if the extracted juice is given three times a day, cures it
-the paste of leaves 6gm-10gm if mixed with water and taken once
at night followed by intake of 6gm of triphala powder mixed with water cures
intestinal worms
-the boiled water prepared out of boiling with leaves of this
plant, cloves and Myristica fragrans when drunk repeatedly is a remedy for
cholera.
Reference :
1.Nesamanis text Vol 2
2.Springers text
3.Wikipedia
im looking for coleus forskholli seeds, where can i get it?
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