Folk Paashaanabheda (southern India), Gorakhagaanj aa.
Action Anticalculus (used in lithiasis), diuretic, demulcent, anthelmintic, antidiarrhoeal, anticholerin, bechic; leaf used in hepatitis, root in strangury. A deco ction of the plant is used in catarrh of bladder. The flowers and roots are used for headache.
Key application As diuretic and lithontriptic. (The British Herbal Pharmacopoeia.)
The plant contains palmitic acid, beta-sitosterol and alpha-amyrin.
Aerva scandens Wall., synonym A. sanguinolenta Blume, is also known as Paashaanabheda in the south.
Species used as Paashaanabheda:
Bergenia ligulata (north), Aerva lanata
(south), Coleus amboinicus (east) and
Bryophyllum pinnatum (west).
Dosage 50—100 ml decoction. (CCRAS.)
Aesculus hippocastanum Linn.
Family Hippocastanaceae; Sapindaceae.
Habitat Endemic to the mountains of Balkan Peninsula and western Asia. Introduced into India; occasionally grown as an ornamental
tree.
English Horse Chestnut tree.
Unani Baloot. (Quercus incana and Q. infectoria have also been equated with Baloot in National Form ulary in Unani Medicine.)
Folk Pu.
Action Anti-inflammatory, vasodilator, astringent (used for rheumatism, venous congestion, haemorrhoids), febrifuge. Leaf— used in whooping cough.
Key application In chronic venous insufficiency, varicosis, nocturnal systremma (cramps in the calves) and swelling of the legs. (Non- invasive treatment measures should also be followed.) (German Commission E, ESCOP, The British Herbal Pharmacopoeia.)
Aframomum melegueta (Rosc.) K. Schum. 23
Horse Chestnut contains triterpenoid saponins (especially aescin, a complex mixture composed of acylated glycosides of protoaesigenin and barringtogenol-C, including hippocaesculin), coumarins and flavonoids. Aescin has been shown to eliminate oedema and reduce exudation. It antagonizes the effect of bradykinin, although it is not a direct bradykinin antagonist. It causes an increase in plasma levels of
