Vangasena, Vakrapushpa, Kumbha. Siddha/Tamil Agatti.
Action Plant—astringent, antihistaminic, febrifuge. Used for intermittent fevers, catarrh, cough, consumption, glandular enlargement.
The aqueous extract of flowers has been found to produce haemolysis of human and sheet erythrocytes even at low concentration due to methyl ester of oleanohic acid. Flowers also gave nonacosan-6-one and kaempferol-3- rutinoside.
The seed gave kaempferol-3,7-diglu- coside, (+)-Ieucocyanidin and cyanidin-3-glucoside. Seed also contains galactomannan.
A saponin present in the leaves on hydrolysis gave an acid sap ogenin oleanoic acid, galactose, rhamnose and glucuronic acid. Besides saponin, the leaves contain an aliphatic alcohol, grandiflorol.
Seseli sibiricum Benth. ex C. B. Clarke 601
The bark contains gum and tannin. The red gum is used as a substitute for Gum arabic. An infusion of the bark is given in first stages of smallpox and other eruptive fevers (emetic in large doses).
Dosage Whole plant—lO— 20 ml juice; 50—100 ml decoction. (CCRAS.)
Sesbania sesban (Linn.) Merrill.
Synonym S. aegyptiaca Pers.
Family Papilionaceae; Fabaceae.
Habitat Cultivated and wild throughout India.
English Common Sesban.
Ayurvedic Jayantikaa, Jayanti, Jayaa, Jwaalaamukhi, Suukshma-muulaa, Suukshma-patraa, Keshruuhaa, Balaamotaa.
Siddha/Tamil Sembai, Karumsembai (leaf).
Folk Jainta.
Action Seed and bark—astringent, emmenagogue. Used in menorrhagia, spleen enlargement and diarrhoea. Leaves—anti- inflammatory. Bark—juice applied to cutaneous eruptions. Unsaponifiable matter of fixed oil from seeds— cardiac depressant, antibacterial.
The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India recommends the use of the leaf in dysuria.
The pods and leaves contain cholesterol, campesterol and beta-sitosterol. Flowers contain cyanidin and delphinidin glucosides. Pollen and pollen tubes
contain aipha-ketoglutaric, oxaloacetic and pyruvic acids.
Dosage Leaf—3—6 g powder. (API, Vol. II.)
Seseli indicum W. &A.
