Withania somnifera, Amukkuram, Winter cherry, അമുക്കരം

Family: Solanaceae
Vernacular names: Amukkuram, അമുക്കരം (Malayalam), Winter cherry (English), Ashwagandha (Sanskrit), Ashwagandha (Hindi), Amukkaramkizangu (Tamil)
Distribution: Paleotropics
Description: A suffruticose shrub, 60-90 cm tall. Branches ascending. Shoots stellate-tomentose. Leaves 4-13 x 2-9 cm, elliptic-ovate to broadly ovate, acute, cuneate or oblique, entire to repand. Petiole 10-20 mm long. Flowers sessile to subsessile, greenish-yellow, in axillary clusters of 2-5.Calyx 2-2.5 x 2.5-3 mm, up to 2.0 x 14 mm in fruit, stellately hairy, becoming glabrescent and membranous; teeth 1-1.5 mm long, up to 8 mm in fruit, acute. Corolla lobes 2-2.5 mm long, triangular, tomentose to the outside. Anthers sub included; filaments 1-2.5 mm long. Berry globose, 6-8 mm broad, red. Seeds sub pyriform to reniform, minutely reticulate-foveolate, yellowish-brown.
Habit: Shrub
Habitat: Cultivated
Flowering & Fruiting: July to January

Parts used: Root
Properties & Uses: Withania somnifera (Ashawagandha) is very revered herb of the Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine as a Rasayana (tonic). It is used for various kinds of disease processes and specially as a nervine tonic. It is commonly used in emaciation of children (when given with milk, it is the best tonic for children), debility from old age, rheumatism, vitiated conditions of vata, leucoderma, constipation, insomnia, nervous breakdown, goiter etc. The paste formed when roots are crushed with water is applied to reduce the inflammation at the joints. It is also locally applied in carbuncles, ulcers and painful swellings. The root in combination with other drugs is prescribed for snake venom as well as in scorpion-sting.
Systems of Medicines: Ayurveda, Folk, Unani,
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