Strychnos nux-vomica - Nux-vomica - Flowers of Tamilnadu

❏ Binomial Name : Strychnos nux-vomica L.

❏ Synonym : Strychnos colubrina,Strychnos spireana,Strychnos wallichiana

❏ Family : Loganiaceae

❏ Common Name : Nux-vomica

❏ Tamil Name : Yetti

❏ Hindi Name : Kuchila

❏ IUCN status: Not Evaluated

Strychnos nux-vomica Botanical Description

Trees, to 20 m high, bark thin, yellowish or blackish-grey, smooth or scurfy with lenticels; blaze creamy yellow. Leaves simple, opposite, estipulate; petiole 5-13 mm, slender, glabrous; lamina 5-14 x 2-9 cm, elliptic, broadly elliptic or elliptic-ovate, base acute to attenuate, apex acute or obtuse, margin entire, glabrous, shiny, coriaceous; 3-5 nerved from base, prominent, glabrous; intercostae reticulate. Flowers bisexual, greenish-white, in terminal sessile cymes, sessile, tomentose, bract 5 mm; bracteole 1.5 mm; calyx lobes 4, 1 mm long, triangular, acute, pubescent; corolla greenish-yellow, tube 10 mm long, longer than lobes, slightly hairy near the base within, lobes 4, 4 x 1.5 mm, oblong, acute; stamens 4, anthers sessile inserted at the throat of corolla tube; ovary 2-celled, ovules many in each cell. Fruit a berry, 3-5 cm across, globose, yellowish-red or orange, glabrous; seeds 3 or 4, orbicular, flat, shiny, greenish-white, coin like, 2-2.5 cm diameter. Fl. &Fr.: March-December.

Strychnos nux-vomica Medicinal uses

❀The leaves are used as a poultice on sloughing wounds and ulcers, especially in cases where maggots are present

❀ The wood is used in the treatment of dysentery, fevers and dyspepsia

❀ The leaves are used in the treatment of skin diseases

❀ The seeds are the commercial source of strychnine

❀ The fixed oil of the seeds contains some strychnine and brucine; oleic, palmitic, arachic, butyric acid

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