Description

Ingudi is a large liana seen extensively in the Western Ghats. An oil is extracted from the seeds. This plant is used widely in Ayurveda.

Characteristics:

Ingudi is a woody climber with branchlets hairless. Leaves are 17-22 x 8-12 cm, oblong-lanceshaped, tip tapering, base rounded or blunt; lateral nerves 8 pairs, netveined; leaf-stalk 5-12 cm long. Flowers are borne in spikes up to 35 cm long, slender, in leaf-axils or from tubercles. Flowers are 3-6 together, yellow; calyx cup-shaped, 2 mm across, 5-toothed; petals 3-5 mm long, oblong, recurved; stamens 5, anthers versatile, staminodes 5; female flowers mostly from old wood, ovary 1-celled, densely hairy; stigma stalkless, discoid; pistillode in male flowers conical. Drupe to 3 x 1.5 cm, ovoid, orange-yellow, hairless. Ingudi is found in Indo-Malesia.

Medicinal Uses:

Fruits are eaten and also used in rheumatism. Seeds yield fatty oil which is esteemed as a cure for rheumatism, but is reported to be injurious to eyes. Powdered bark mixed with honey is given in rheumatism, leprosy, hysterics and ulcers. The bark and leaves are boiled in oil for application in rheumatism.