अशुमती - Desmodium gangeticum

Name - शालपर्णी

Botanical name - Desmodium gangeticum

Description - Desmodium gangeticum, An undershrub growing about 24 ft in height with irregularly angled glabrescent, branched stems. Unifoliate leaves, striate at the base, ovate- lanceolate, acute, glabrous and green above, pales and clothed beneath. Purple / white coloured flowers in long lax terminal or axillary racemes. Hairy calyx, with coloured corolla which is standard, broad, cuncate at the base. Fruits are the moniliform, 6-8 jointed glabrocent pods and reniform compressed seeds.

Chemical Constituents- Plant contains alkaloids gangetin, gangetinin, desmodin. Leaflets contain pterocarpan phytoalexin desmocarpin. Aerial parts contain 5-methoxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine, N1 N-dimethyltryptamine, their N-oxides, N-rnethyltetrahydroharman. 6-rnethoxy-2-methyl-Beta-carbolinium cation.

Use - Root, Bark and Leaves. It is Carminative, Rejuvinative, Aphrodisiac, used in fevers, oedema, kidney disorders and post-delivery complications - Roots have febrifuge, expectorant, diuretic properties. It is anti-dysenteric, anti-diarrhoeal and galactogogue. It is useful also in convulsions