गॊस्तनी – Vitis vinifera

 

Name – द्राक्षा

Botanical name – Vitis vinifera

Description – Large deciduous tendrillar climbers. Leaves orbicular-cordate, palmately 3, 5 or 7-lobed, toothed, grey-tomentose beneath, membranous. Flowers green, in leaf-opposed dense panicles. Berry ovoid to globose, green, purple, blue or black, sweet.

Chemical Constituents- Fruit contains vitamins, phenolic compounds like pigments and tannins, volatile oils and wax. Seeds contain lipids, semi-drying oil. Anthocyanin pigments – 3-monoglucosides of maldivin, peonidin, delphinidin and petunidin acylated with either p-coumaric acid or caffeic acid, (+) catechin, (-)epicatechin and (-)epicatechin-3-gallate are also found.

Use – Fresh grapes are laxative, stomachic, diuretic, demulcent and cooling. Leaves astringent, sometimes used in diarrhoea. Sap of young branches used in skin affections.