Botanical name : Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.
Family : Cucurbitaceae
SANSKRIT SYNONYMS
Patola, Vanapatola, Tiktapatola, Patola, Kulaka, Raajiphala, Karkashchhada, Karkasha, Bijagarbha
AYURVEDIC PROPERTIES
Rasa : Tikta
Guna : Lakhu, Snigdha
Virya : Ushna
Vipaka : Katu
PLANT NAME IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
English : Serpent gourd
Hindi : Jangali cicinda
Malayalam : Kaypan patolam, Kattupatolam, Peppatolam
Unani : Parwal
Distribution – Throughout India, in wet plants and hill sides, also cultivated.
PLANT DESCRIPTION
An annual, slender tendril climber. Leaves simple, chordate, with irregular margins, acuminate or acute and leathery. Flowers white, unisexual, males in axillary racemes, females axillary solitary; fruits ovoid, fusiform berries. Green stripped with white line when immature, and scarlet red when ripe. Seeds round or ellipsoid, compressed.
MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
Plant pacifies vitiated tridosha, skin diseases, ulcers, constipation, stomach pain, anorexia, flatulence, hyperacidity, hemorrhoids, cough, fever and general debility. Induces emesis and purgation in larger doses. This plant is used as patola by North Indian physicians, instead of Trichosanthes lobata.
Useful part : Whole plant.
CHEMICAL CONTENTS
The fruits contain free amino acids, nicotinic acid, riboflavin, vitamin C, thiamine, 5 hydroxytryptamine. Mature plant and root gave cucurbita-5, 24-dienol. Colocynthin, trichosanthin, hentriacontane have been isolated from the root. Fatty acids from the seeds comprise elaeostearic, linoleic, oleic and saturated acids. The whole fruit and pulp produced significant hypocholesterolaemic, hypotriglyceridaemic and hyper-phospholipidaemic effects in normal and mildly diabetic human subjects. Extracts of seeds exhibit haemagglunating activity.
Dosage _ Leaf—10–20 ml juice. (CCRAS.)
Photo : Dr. Nand Kumar Sahni MD
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Properties 