This Piper longum started its journey as a volunteer

[ushadi Micromini]

Dear All:

Hers is another example of Piper longum...

Name:   * Piper longum*

Family:      Piperaceae

Fruits:  Sanskrit:              पीपली

Gujarati:              પીપલી

Bengali:       পিপুল

 

Roots in Gujarati : પીપળી મુળ ના ગંઠોડા

In a wildlife preserve in southern fringes of Calcutta...
one day we spotted these bright yellow candle like fruits...

This particular plant is a volunteer... among a large number of other volunteers
vines and ferns and herbs...
this small patch of land ...left mostly wild is less than a mile from a well tended
well researched Herbal Garden where they had been growing
 piper longum for several years..
so I surmise that source of this volunteer (among other herbs) 
is from that herbal garden...
but the truth?.... god only knows...

This vine  was all of about 6 feet tall, climbing up the trunk of a neem tree ...
fruits are about 1.0 to 1.5 inches long... 1/4 inch wide...
Leaves are about 3 to 4 inches long...
picture 1 and 2 have several non-piper-longum leaves that
 I do not presume to know what they are...

Piper longum is an important Ayurvedic medicine...
the fruits obviously... for various repiratory and gastrointestinal disorders...
but the roots are used extensively as powder in various herbal mixtures
and as household grandma remedies for monsoon related digestive aids ,
 in Deepan Pachan.. in respiratory disorders,    in various mixtures for pain
relief, and even as massage mixtures for plegia..  muscle weaknesses..

Usha di...
=====

[Balkar Arya]

Nice Information and Pics Usha Ji

--
Regards

Dr Balkar Singh
Head, Deptt. of Botany and Biotechnology
Arya P G College, Panipat
Haryana-132103
09416262964