Premna serratifolia - Ganakasika

Ganakasika, Premna serratifolia

Ganakasika or Premna serratifolia is a small tree/shrub in the Verbenaceae family. It flowers and fruits between May and November. During flowering season, it attracts a large number of butterflies and bees.

Description

Trees, to 7 m high. Leaves simple, opposite, estipulate; petiole 4–14 mm, slender, pubescent, grooved above; lamina 2.5-8.5 x 2-7.2 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, base acute, obtuse, subcordate or rounded, apex acuminate, mucronate, obtuse, margin entire or subserrate, glabrous above except along the appressed midrib, chartaceous; lateral nerves 3-5 pair, pinnate, prominent, puberulous beneath; intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers bisexual, greenish-white, in terminal corymbose panicled cymes; bracts small; calyx small campanulate, 2 lipped, 5 lobed; corolla tube short, villous inside, lobes 5; stamens 4, didynamous, inserted below the throat of the corolla tube; anther ovate; ovary superior, 2-4-celled, ovules 4; style linear; stigma shortly bifid. Fruit a drupe, seated on the calyx, globose, purple; seeds oblong.

Uses

1. The leaves and roots are used in traditional medicine as a diuretic, stomachic and febrifuge.
2. The root has a warm bitter taste and agreeable smell, it is prescribed in decoction as a gentle cordial and stomachic in fevers.
3. The leaves are used as a galactagogue, and also to treat rheumatic arthritis; colic and flatulence; coughs, headaches and fevers. The leaves,combined with those of morinda citrifolia, are squeezed into water and the solution drunk twice a day to treat severe malarial fevers.A steam bath made from the leaves and young stems is breathed in as a treatment for fevers. The cooled solution is then used to bathe the body.
4. The leaves are boiled into medicinal tea that is reputed to have analgesic effects. This home remedy is used mostly in the treatment of backaches.
5. A tea made from the boiled bark is used to treat neuralgia.

External Links

• Premna serratifolia-Wikipedia