Pedalium murex - Large Caltrops

❏ Binomial Name : Pedalium murex L.

❏ Synonym : Murex burmannii,Rogeria microcarpa,Pedalium microcarpum

❏ Family : Pedaliaceae

❏ Common Name : Large Caltrops

❏ Tamil Name : Yanai Nerunjil

❏ Hindi Name : Bara Gokhru

❏ IUCN status: Not Evaluated

Pedalium murex Botanical Description

A diffuse annual, much branched, spreading, succulent, glandular, up to 60 cm tall. Roots similar to turmeric in colour. Leaves simple, opposite, ovate or oblong-obovate, 1-4.5 cm long, 0.5-3 cm broad, truncate or obtuse, irregularly and coarsely crenate-serrate, glabrous above, minutely scaly below, petiole-l-4 cm. Flowers 1.5-2 cm across; pedicel 1-2 mm long, increasing up to 4 mm in fruit. Calyx c.2 mm long; teeth linear, scaly outside, persistent. Petals connate into a broad tube, 1-3 cm long; lobes obtuse. Stamens included, 0.5-1 cm long; filaments dilated, glandular hairy at the base; anthers kidney shaped. Fruit indehiscent, abruptly narrowed at the base and with a patent spreading spine at each basal corner of the broader part, 1-1.8 cm long, 0.5-1 cm broad, spine 2-4 mm long. Seeds 2 or 1 per locule, oblong. Fl. &Fr.:  November-December.

Pedalium murex Medicinal uses

❀ The leaves and roots have been used in a clinical test with patients suffering from gonorrhoea; it was found to have no effect

❀ The plant is taken as an emmenagogue and oxytocic and the root is considered antibilious

❀ The water in which the leaves have been boiled, or a decoction of the root, is drunk to treat venereal diseases

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