Description

Indian sarsaparilla is a species of plant that is found in South Asia. It is a slender, laticiferous, twining, sometimes prostrate or semi-erect shrub. Roots are woody and aromatic. The stem is numerous, slender, terete, thickened at the nodes. The leaves are opposite, short-petioled, very variable, elliptic-oblong to linear-lanceolate. The flowers are greenish outside, purplish inside, crowded in sub-sessile axillary cymes. It occurs over the greater part of India, from the upper Gangetic plain eastwards to Assam and in some places in central, western and South India.

Characteristics:

Indian Sarsaparilla is a vine, which trails on the ground and climbs by means of tendrils growing in pairs from the petioles of the alternate, orbicular to ovate, evergreen leaves. The vine emerges from a long, tuberous rootstock, and can reach up to 1-3 m. The hindi name Anantamool literally means, endless root. The small, greenish flowers grow in auxiliary umbels. The flower cymes are stalkless. Flowers have 5 petals, greenish on the outside and purple to yellowish orange on the inside. The flower petals are fleshy, typical of the Oleander family to which it belongs. Now the Oleander family has been incorporated in the Oleander family. Flowering: October-January.

Medicinal Uses:

It is one of the Rasayana plants of Ayurveda, as it is anabolic in its effect. It is used for venereal diseases, herpes, skin diseases, arthritis, rheumatism, gout, epilepsy, insanity, chronic nervous diseases, abdominal distention, intestinal gas, debility, impotence and turbid urine.