Botanical Name

Rauvolfiaserpentina

Family

Apocyanaceae

Sanskrit name

Sarpagandha

English name

Rauvolfia root, serpentine

Hindi name

Chandrabhaga, Chota-chand, Sarpagandha

Kannada name

Sarpagandha

Habit

Herb

Habitat

Shady places in moist forests.Sunny or shaded places in well-drained rain forest and secondary thickets. sometimes as a weed in sugar cane fields.

Plant Description

An erect perennial shrub with a long, irregularly, nodular, yellowish root stock.Leaves in whorls of 3, thin, lanceolate, acute, bright green above and pale beneath. The inflorescence with red pedicels and calyx and white corolla.Flowers in irregular corymbose cymes, white, often tinged with violet. Fruits are Drupe, shining black.

Threat Status

Endangered

Distribution

East Asia

Part used

Roots, bark

Medicinal uses

Used in snake bite, scorpion sting, hypertension, joint pain, wounds , herpes and other skin diseases