Kantakari
Description :
Brhati occurs throughout India, often in waste places, on roadsides and in open scrublands. It is a prickly, much branched shrub, usually spreading or diffused, It grows upto 1-5 metres in height. The young branches are densely covered with minute star – shaped hairs . The prickles are yellow, shining, about 1-5 cm long. The leaves upto 10 cm long, their midribs and other nerves with sharp yellow prickles. The flowers are purple, about 2 cm long, in racemose extra – axillary cymes. The fruits round, 1.5 – 2 cm, dark yellow when ripe. The seeds are smooth, minutely pitted.
Details :
Botanical Name: Solanum Indicum
Sanskrit Name: Brhati,sanhika
English Name: Poison Berry, Indian Nightshade, African Eggplant, Bush Tomato, Ntunfulu
Assamese Name : Tilabhakuri,Katvaedana, Kantakar.
Common Name: Kantkhari, Kateli,Yellow-Berried Nightshade, Choti Katheri
Bengali Name : Byakud, Vyakur.
Gujrati Name : Umimuyaringani, Ubhibharingani, Ubhibhuyaringa
Hindi Name : Banbhanta, Vanabharata, Badikateri, Barhanta,
Kannada Name : Kirugullia, Heggulla, Gulla,Nelagulla
Malayalam Name : Cheru Vazhuthina, Putirichunda,Kantakari chunda
Marathi Name : Dorli, Chichuriti, Dorale.
Oriya Name : Dengabheji,Bhejibaugana, Ankarati, Chakada Bhoji
Punjabi Name : Kandiarivaddi
Tamil Name : Chiru vazhuthalai, Papparamulli, Mullamkatti,Kandangatri
Telugu Name : Tella Mulaka
Urdu Name : Kateli
Family: Solanaceae
Part Used :Fruit,Seed
Part Used :Fruit,Seed
Medicinal Uses :
- The decoction of the root is given with honey, to treat cough.
- The root is ground to a paste and mixed with lemon to cure snake and scorpion bites.
- Its stem, flowers and fruits, being bitter and carminative, are used for relieving burning sensation in the feet.
- Kantakari fruits also facilitate seminal ejaculation, alleviate worms, itching, and fever and reduce fats.
- The fruit works as an aphrodisiac in males.
- Its seeds are helpful for treating irregular menstruation and dysmenorrheal in females.
- The herb is beneficial in the treatment of cardiac diseases associated with edema, since it is a stimulant to the heart and a blood purifier.
- Kantkari is useful in treating worms, cold, hoarseness of voice, fever, dysuria, enlargement of the liver, muscular pain, spleen and stone in the urinary bladder.
- Nasal administration of kantkari is beneficial in migraine, asthma and headache.
- Its dried fruit is used in making cigarettes. The smoke from these cigarettes is held in the mouth cavity, to treat dental infections.
- The juice of the berries is used in curing sore throat.
- The fumigation of kantakari is helpful in piles.
- The herb is made to a paste and applied on swollen and painful joints to reduce the pain and swelling in arthritis.
- Roots and seeds are used as an expectorant in asthma, cough and pain in chest.