Strychnos nuxvomica L.

(LOGANIACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Hemmushti, Kasaraka.
Tulu: Kayar.
Malayalam: Kanjiram.
Sanskrit: Dirghapatra, Vishamushti.
Tamil: Etti, Kanjirai.
Telugu: Mushti, Mushidi.
Description: Large deciduous trees, up to 30 m tall with short sharp axillary spines; bark thin,
grey, smooth or rough with lenticels. Leaves broadly elliptic or orbicular, 7-15 x 4-8 cm,
attenuate at base, obtuse or acute at apex, glabrous and shining; basal nerves 3-5; nerves
distinctly looped along the margins; petioles 0.6 1.3 cm long. Flowers numerous in 2-5 cm
long terminal pedunculate pubescent compound cymes, greenish white, scent of fenugreek.
Calyx pubescent outside, lobes 5. Corolla-tube cylindric, lobes 5, hairy inside below. Stamens 5;
filaments short. Ovary ovoid, 2-locular; style glabrous; stigma capitate. Fruit a berry,
globose, ca 5 cm in diam., smooth, orange-red. Seeds 3-4, flat, discoid, ca 1.8 cm in diam., much
compressed, grey.
Flowering & Fruiting : March June.
Distribution: India: Almost throughout. Western Ghats, W. Coast, Deccan in deciduous forests,
up to 1300 m. Sri Lanka.
Uses: Wood white, turning yellowish grey, hard, close grained, used for various purposes.
Nuxvomica is useful as an insecticide to kill vermin in fields. Root febrifuge, anticholerin; stembark and wood anticholerin, used in epilepsy, dysentery, fever and dyspepsia; leaf applied as a
poultice on wounds and ulcers; fruit diuretic emmenagogue, appetizer, tonic, antiparalytic,
astringent, antirheumatic, used in fever, jaundice, leucoderma, diseases of blood, piles, ulcers,
anaemia, lumbago, ringworm; seed tonic, stimulant, febrifuge, emetic, used in nervous disorders,
colic and forms a constituent of medical preparations for the scalp. It is used in Samirgaja
Kesari prescribed in the diseases of nervous system, in Shul Heran Yoga prescribed for
diarrhoea and in Vishva-tapa Haran Ras given for fevers. The seeds are deadly poisonous but
are not used as such. In indigenous systems, for internal use, the seeds repeatedly boiled in cows

urine or milk, the seed-coat and embryo are removed and the dry powdered kernel is
incorporated in the medicine.