Banafsha

Synonyms : Sweet violet
Biological Source : It consists of dried aerial parts from Viola odorata Linn., belonging to family Violaceae.
Geographical Source : Sweet violet is indigenous to India and found in Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh (Chamba) and Kumaon hills.
The drug benafsha in the market is avilable in different  forms, which constitute various aerial parts of plant.
1. Kashmiri banafsha - Aerial parts like stems, leaves and flowers.
2. Gul-i-benfsha - Only dried flowers.
3. Berg benafsha - Aerial parts without flowers.
Chemical Constituents : The leaves are found to contain an essential oil, alkaloid and a colouring matter. It has a very agreeable flavour and is used for high grade perfumes. Th root stocks contain saponins, a glycoside of methyl salicylate responsible for expoctorant property, an essential oil and alkaloid odoratine. Flowers contain a substance known as violine, volatile oil, rutin and cyanin. It contains 0.1% concentrate responsible for highly pleasant odour of the drug.
Uses : The herb is used as expectorant, diaphoretic and antipyretic. The herb shows antibacterial and antifungal activities, and hence used in the treatment of eczema. It is used in the form of sarbat. The flowers are emollient, demulcent and are said to relieve pain due to cancerous frowth. The leaves in large doses and seeds are cathartic. Violin is an emetic.    
    

Bimbi

Botanical name : Coccinia grandis (Linn.) Voigt
Family : Cucurbitaceae.
Sanskrit Synonyms :Bimbi, Bimbika
Ayurvedic Properties :
Rasa : Kashaya, Madhura, Tikta
Guna : Guru
Virya : Seeta
Distribution: Throughout India cultivated as well as growing wild.
Plant Description :
A perennial tendril climber leaves deltoid or sub rotund, palmately lobed; flowers white and unisexual; fruits ovoid or oblong berries, bright scarlet red when ripe. Seeds ovoid, compressed and grey colored.
Medicinal Properties :
Plant pacifies vitiated kapha, pitta, constipation, burning sensation, leucorrhea, skin disease, fever, asthma, cough and jaundice.
Part Used : Root, Fruit, Leaves.

Gandhpuro Tail_Gaultheria Oil

Synonyms : Betula oil, Sweet birch oil, Oil of Wintergreen, Tea berry oil.

Biological Source : Gaultheria oil is obtined by distillation from the leaves of the Gaultheria procumbens Linn., family Ericaceae.

Geographical Source : The plant is found throughout the Eastern United States of America and Canada.

Cultivation and Processing : Gaultheria is a shrub like perennial with slender creeping subterranean stems and branches. It is an evergreen plant of 5 to 15 cm height, with white axillary flowers, and bright red globular aromatic berries.

The oil is also obtained from the birch bark i.e. the bark of the plant Betula lenta Linn., family Betulaceae.

In India, it is obtained from the leaves of Gaultheria fragratissima Wall, family Ericaceae found growing in Khasia hills, Western ghats, Nilgiris and near Travancore at an altitude of 1600 meters.

Description :
Colour : colourless or pale yellow liquid.
Odour : characteristic, aromatic and strong.
Taste : sweet, aromatic, pungent.
Solubility : slightly soluble in water, soluble in six parts of 70% alcohol.

Standards :
Specific gravity : 1.180-1.187
Optical rotation : 0 to -1'
Refractive Index : 1.537 - 1.539
Ester content : Not less than 98.0% w/v, calculated as methyl salicylate.

Chemical Constituents :
The drug yields about 1.5% of oil.
The oil contains more tha 98% of methyl selicylate, formed by the hydrolysis of glycoside in presence of water by the natuarlly occurring enzyme gaultherase. Additionally, the oil also contains an ester that splits into ethanolic alcohol and an acid.

Ethanolic alcohol (n-heptyl alcohol) and its ester show characteristic odour due to which natural gaultheria oil can be distinguished from synthetic methyl salicylate.

Chemical Tests

(1) To 5 ml oil, add 5.0% solution of vanillin in 90% alcohol, 2 ml alcohol and shake. A blood red colour is produced.
(2) Gaultheria oil is obtained from betula bark or from synthetic source are optically inactive, while natural oil is slightly laevo rotatory.

Uses :

• It is used as a counter-irritant and in the treatment of rhuematism. It is used as very effective vermicide against hook worms.
• Gaultheria oil can be used internally also.
• It is employed as a flavouring agent for candies and also in perfumery.
• It should be stored in well closed containers away from light and cool place.

Storage :
Keep in well closed, well filled containers.

Kokilaksha

Botanical Source : Seeds and whole plant of Astercantha longifolia synonym Hygrophilia auriculate.
Family : Acanthaceae.

Sanskrit Synonyms :

• The Sanskrit word 'kokilaksa' literally means an eye of the cuckoo. The flowers of this plant resemble in the color of cuckoo’s eyes, hence the name.
  
• It has several synonyms in Ayurvedic texts like iksura, srngali, vajrakantaka, picchila, vajra, kokila etc.
  

Classification : Shukra sodhaka (that purifies seminal fluids)- Charak Samhita.

Botanical Description :

• Kokilaksa grows throughout India, in plains, especially in marshy places.
  
• It is an erect, annual, growing 1-1.5 meters in height. The stems are sub quadrangular and numerous.
  
• The leaves are in verticals of 6 at a node, two very large, 10-15 cm in length and 1-2 cm in breadth, bearing 3 straight, sharp yellow spines in each axil. They are lanceolate, tapering at both ends.
  
• The flowers are bluish purple in color in axils of leaves, amidst spines.
  
• The fruits, oblong compressed capsules, with 4-8 seeds inside.
  
• The seeds are slimy to taste.
  
• The plant flowers during October to December. White flowered variety of kokilaksa is found rarely.

Chemical Composition :

• The whole plantcontains lupeol, stigmasterol, an isoflavone glycoside, an alkaloid and small quantities of uncharacterized bases. From the seeds isolation of asterol I, II, III, and IV, asteracanthine and asteracanthicine have been reported. Also, amino acids histidine, lysine and phenyl-alanine have been detected in the seeds.
  
• The fresh flowers contain apigenin – 7 – 0 – glucoside. From the plant collected from Saharanpur, lupeol, betulin and stigmasterol isolated; betulin was found to be absent in aerial parts and stigmasterol in roots.

Ayurvedic Properties :

• Kokilaksa is sweet and bitter in taste, sweet in the post digestive effect and has cold potency. 
• It possesses oily and slimy attributes.
• It alleviates vata and pitta doshas and aggravates the kapha doshas.
  
• It is aphrodisiac and helps to prevent premature ejaculation. It is used in the diseases like urinary stones, rheumatoid arthritis, edema, thirst and gout.

Medicinal Uses :

• Externally, the warmed paste of kokilaksa, dhupa and guggulu is applied on swollen painful joints.
  
• Internally, the plant is used in vast range of diseases. In vata diseases like nervine debility, gout and rheumatoid arthritis, the seeds are used with great benefit.
  
• The seeds are keen stimulant to male genital system and are beneficial for the treatment of sexual debility, premature ejaculation, erectile failure and oligospermia.
  
• To prevent nocturnal emissions, the seeds of Kokilaksa and Lajjalu (Mimosa pudica) along with shatavari (Aparagus racemosus) and Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) roots, powdered together, are given along with milk, sugar and cardamom.
  
• The seeds bestow excellent results in urinary ailments like dysuria, urinary calculi and cystitis.
  
• In anasarca, generalized as swelling all over the body, the decoction of roots or panchanga ksara works well, when given along with cow’s urine.
  
• The leaves help to promote bile secretions and stimulate liver, hence, benevolent in hepatitis and liver diseases. The ksara is the best panacea for ascites and urinary stones.
  
• The whole plant juice reduces the burning sensation and quenches the thirst.
  

Part Used :

The seeds, roots, ksara and the whole plant are used for medicinal purpose.

Classical Formulations :

• Poustik Churna
• Kokilaksha Kshar