Description

Royal jasmine also known variously as the Spanish jasmine, Catalan jasmine, among others, is a species of jasmine native to South Asia, the Arabian peninsula, East and Northeast Africa and the Yunnan and Sichuan regions of China. The species is widely cultivated and is reportedly naturalized in Guinea, the Maldive Islands, Mauritius, Reunion, Java, the Cook Islands, Chiapas, Central America, and the Caribbean. It is closely related to, and sometimes treated as merely a form of, Jasminum officinale. The plant is known as "saman pichcha" or "pichcha" in Sri Lanka.

Characteristics:

Royal Jasmine is a climbing shrub, 2-4 m long. Highly fragrant flowers are borne in 2-9-flowered cymes, in leaf axils, or at branch-ends. Flowers are white, opening flat-faced, tube 1.3-2.5 cm, petals often 5, oblong, 1.3-2.2 cm. Sepals are slender linear, 5-10 mm. Flower-stalks are 0.5-2.5 cm, middle pedicel of cymes prominently shorter. Bracts are linear, 2-3 mm. Branchlets are round in cross-section, angular or grooved. Leaves are opposite, pinnately cut or compound with 5-9 leaflets. Leaf-stalks are 0.5-4 cm, leaflet blade ovate or narrowly so (end one usually narrowly rhomboid), 0.7-3.8 x 0.5-1.5 cm, base cuneate or blunt, apex acute, acuminate, or blunt, sometimes mucronate. Flowering: August-October.

Medicinal Uses:

It is popular as an alternative to standard western allopathic medicine for a variety of problems, including cancer (specially of the bone, lymph nodes and breast) stress relief, anxiety as well as depression. Famous Indian figures who have made significant contributions to medicine, such as Charaka and Sushruta, have used  Royal Jasmine for various medicinal purposes. This flower is also given a variety of names in India as it is used for different remedies. Parts of Royal Jasmine, including their sprouts and flowers (dried), have been used for prescriptions. This type of holistic medicine was used to treat various sicknesses such as dermatosis, coryza, and nasal haemorrhage. The leaves Royal Jasmine is utilized as an ingredient for clarified butter, a treatment for infected wounds and cleaning and sterilizing ulcers. In addition, the leaves can be made into an oil as a remedy for infection. The leaves may also be chewed on to aid in toothaches and stomatitis. The root of the plant would be cooked with goat's milk and sugar to relieve pain in urine retention and kidney stone release. The root was also made into a paste to improve the skin and removing freckles or dark shades.