Gardenia Turgida
Family : Rubiaceae
Common Name : Karumba
English Name : Karumba
Hindi Name : Safed Phetra
Tree Characteristics :
Deciduous trees, grows upto 6-8 m. Bark: thick, soft, yellowish in young branches only. Branches: numerous, stout, straight, terminating into 0.5-1.0 cm long spines. Leaves: stipules 0.2 cm long, triangular, caducous; lamina acute at the base, broadly obovate or sub-orbicular, Fruits: grey, rough or smooth berry. Flowers & fruits appears during April-May and November.
Nursery Practice :
Data Deficient
Economic Uses :
The tribal traditional healers used Kharhar as single drug or in combination with other herbs like Smilax zeylanica L., Piper longum Linn., Cordia macleodii (Griff.) Hook. F. & Thoms, Cassia fistula L. etc. to enhance the efficacy of preparation.Traditioonal healers use this herb for a variety of ailments such as Leucorrhoea, Dogbite, Scorpion string, Epilepsy, Stone, Stomachache, Snake bite, Diminished breast milk secretion (Lack of Lactation), Tuberculosis and Gout. During the course of study 72 preparations of Kharhar root for various ailments were recorded from tribal areas resides in the Chhattisgarh state.
Roots: indigestion in childern. Fruits: eaten after cooking, used against eye ailments of cattles, pulp pounded and applied to forehead in fever, used as lep in abdominal colic, also used in affections of mammary glands.
