Description: Under shrubs, Leaves alternate, oblong-elliptic, broadest towards the middle. Flowers red in long purplish-red to scarlet in terminal racemes.
Habit: Shrub
Habitat: Cultivated or found as an escape
Flowering & Fruiting: September-March
Parts used: Root
Properties & Uses: Roots are abortifacient; used in hepatitis, dyspepsia, flatulence, piles, leucoderma, leprosy and anasarca; locally as vesicant in rheumatism, paralytic affections and enlarged glands. Root contains an active principle �Plumbagin� which have got the antifertility properties. Juice is useful in ophthalmia and scabies. Root along with black pepper for jaundice. Leaves are also given in dysentery.