इक्षुबालिका  – Asteracantha longifolia

 

Name – कॊकिलाक्षः

Botanical name – Asteracantha longifolia

Description – Phytography : Spinescent herb; fascicled, with many roots at the base of stem; stem 60-50 cm, rusty-green, hispid, quadrangular, pith holed, leaves simple, opposite, subsessile, lanceolate, 7.5-17.0 cm, entire, sparsely hispid with long white hairs, whorls of straight stout spines present at nodes; flowers sessile, mostly in axillary whorls-at times in terminal heads, bracteate and bracteolate, tubular, 2.5 cm, pale blue-purple, nearly glabrous; capsules 0.8 cm, 4- to 8-seeded; seeds like the eye of a cuckoo.

Chemical Constituents- It contains phytosterol, and Alkaloid, potassium, mucilage and essential oil.

Use – It is diuretic and cooling. It is used in dropsy, rheumatism, jaundice and diseases of the urinogenital system. The seeds are given in gonorrhoea, Spermatorrhoea and debility.