Strychnos colubrina L.
വള്ളിക്കാഞ്ഞിരം


Family: LOGANIACEAE
Sub-Family: Not available
English Name: Not available
Synonym: Strychnos cinnamomifolia Thw.
Common Name: Modirakanjiram
Flowering & Fruiting Period: February-July
Distribution: Indo-Malesia
Habitat: Semi-evergreen and evergreen forests, along banks of streams
Uses: Although toxic, the plant is often used in traditional medicine. The hard, intensely bitter wood is used for the treatment of dyspepsia and malaria. The root, rubbed down with pepper, is used to check diarrhoea. Boiled with oil, the fruit is used as a liniment for pains in the joints. The fresh leaves, rubbed into a paste with cashew nut kernels, is applied to suppurating tumours.
Key Characteristics: Tendrillate climbers. Leaves simple, opposite, broadly elliptic, abruptly acuminate, shining, green or black when dry; 3-ribbed. Cymes axillary and terminal, peduncled. Flowers many. Calyx lobes ovate, obtuse, ciliate. Corolla greenish yellow, hairy inside, lobes oblong, obtuse. Anthers sessile. Ovary hirsute; ovules many, stigmas bilobed, globose. Berry globose, glabrous, greenish; seeds ovoid, flattened.