English: King of Bitter; Green chiretta; Kalmegh.
Indian: Kalmegh.
Indonesian: Sambiloto; Creat.
Dutch: Godin van de bitterheid.
Region: India, Sri Lanka; introduced in northern India, Southern and Southeastern Asia, Java, Malaysia, Indonesia, West Indies, Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, Brunei, Singapore, Americas.
Habitat: moist, shady places, plains, hillsides, coastlines, disturbed and cultivated areas, roadsides and farms; in isolated patches; press a sunny location; altitude up to 500 m.
Content: Andrographolide, a bicyclic diterpenoid lactone; 14-Deoxy-11-dehydroandrographolide; 14-Deoxy-11-oxoandrographolide; 5-Hydroxy-7,8,2',3'-Tetramethoxyflavone; 5-Hydroxy-7,8,2'-Trimethoxyflavone; andrographine, neoandrographolide; panicoline, paniculide-A, panicoline-B, panicoline-C; terpenes.
Use: Ayurveda.
Use: in Ayurvedic, Siddha, Unani, Tcm medicine
Tcm: cools and relieves internal heat, inflammation and pain and also used for detoxication.
BotanyHerb; perenneal; 30 to 110 cm tall.
Stem: erect; slender; dark green; square in cross-section; with longitudinal furrows; wings along the angles; vascular bundles of lignified spiral; scalariform and reticulate xylem vessels in the upper part; lignified phloem in the lower part; small acicular calcium oxalate crystals; layer of wavy-walled lower epidermis cells; dense collenchyma at the corners; layer of thick-walled endodermis cells; parenchyma contains chloroplastid.
Leaves: dark green; simple; opposite; lanceolate, lance-shaped; glabrous, hairless; acute apex, entire margin; up to 8 cm long, 2.5 cm wide; diacytic stomata at leaf’s lower epidermis; glandular and non-glandular trichomes; fairly large cystoliths; columnar palisade cells; collenchymas in midrib beneath epidermis; spongy parenchyma cells.
Inflorescence: lax spreading racemes or panicles.
Flowers: small, linear; flowering from September to December.
Fruit: capsule; 2 cm long, few millimeters wide; contains many seeds.
Seeds: yellow-brown; subquadrate, rugose and glabrous.
Calyx: tube narrows.
corolla: about 6 mm long white with violet markings.
Androecium: 2 stamens, inserted in the throat.
Gynoecium: ovary, two celled, superior, 1 to 2 cm long, 2 to 5 mm wide, linear-oblong, compressed, erected capsule.
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