Asparagus racemosus

Asparagus racemosus Willd. var. javanicus Baker (Liliaceae)






Syn : Asperagus tetragonus.

English name: Asparagus.

Sanskrit names: Shatavari, Shatamuli.

Vernacular names: Asm : Shatamul; Ben: Shatamuli; Guj : Satawari; Hin : Shakakul, Sada bori, Shatamuli, Satwar; Mal: Shatavali; Mar: Shatavari, Shatavarimul; Ori : Shatamuli; Tam: Chattavari, Cadumullam, Shimai shadavari; Tel :Challagadda.

Trade names: Shatamuli, Asparagus.

Traditional use: SOME TRIBES OF INDIA: Root: refrigerant, antiseptic, alterative and galactogogue; roots form a constituent of medicinal oils used for nervous and rheumatic complaints; powder boiled with milk and sugar has been used in different types of neurological disorders, urinary calculi; rub the root of the plant in different diseases of urinary organs; Powder of leaf: enhances breast milk, used for the treatment of colon syndrome.

AYURVEDA : useful in different types of cardiac abnormality; beneficial for intelligence as well as on memory modulatory; Powder of root (boiled with milk) : for treatment of night blindness; .

UNANI : Ingredient of 'Satawar'.

Modern use: Root: used as demulcent, aphrodisiac, diuretic, antidysenteric, in impotency, azoospermea.

Phytography : A slender, scrambling/scandent suffruticose perennial, woody, prickly shoots with reflexed spines; cladode more or less acicular and triquetrous falcate 13-26 mm long; divaricate, finely acuminate; flowers white, sweet-scented, :t 6 mm on filiform articulate pedicels, 6-12 mm long in very short racemes; berries 2.5-6 mm in diameter, scarlet, red on ripening.

Phenology: Flowering: September-December; deciduous or dying back to the root in the hot season; Fruiting: throughout the year.

Distribution: Throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the country,

Ecology and cultivation: Common in scrub jungles and in forests; cultivated as ornamentals.

Chemical contents: Leaf: quercetin-3-glucoronide, sitosterol, stigmasterol, sarsasapogenin, sito-sterol D-glucoside, stigmasterol-B-D-glucoside, two sirostanolic and two furostandic saponins.

Remark: Root is used in veterinary medicine.