Barleria prionitis

Barleria prionitis
Barleria pronitis in Hyderabad, India.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Acanthaceae
Genus: Barleria
Species: B. prionitis
Binomial name
Barleria prionitis
L.

Barleria prionitis (Sanskrit kuranta; Marathi vjradanti (वज्रदंती), Tamil: சுள்ளி மலர்),[1] also known as the porcupine flower, is a species of plants in the family Acanthaceae, native to India & Sri Lanka.

It is used for various medicinal purposes in ayurvedic medicine. The juice of the leaves is applied to feet to prevent maceration and cracking in the monsoon season.[2]

Barleria prionitis is often the host to larvae of the Phalanta phalantha and Junonia lemonias butterflies. Its leaves are known to contain 6-Hydroxyflavone, one of the chemical compounds that is a noncompetitive inhibitor of the protein cytochrome P450 2C9.[3]

Leaves

ovate, tapering acute ends, mucronate apex, veins copiously marked by fine striate lines.

Trunk

branchlets cylindrical, swollen above nodes, with very sharp branched spines in axils; B- whire.

Flowers

pale orange-yellow, sessile, large, solitary.

Fruits

capsule ovoid with a long, tapering, solid, compressed beak.

Ecology

monsoon forest fringes.

Culture

Known as "ක‍ටු කරදු - katu karandu" in Sinhala.

References

  1. ↑ Various Indian names in Pharmacographia Indica. A history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin met with in British India, William Dymock, C. J. H. Warden & David Hooper, 1893.
  2. ↑ Pharmacographia Indica. A history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin met with in British India, William Dymock, C. J. H. Warden & David Hooper, 1893.
  3. ↑ Medicinal plants. Chemistry and properties, Dr. M. Daniel, 2005.

Gallery

External links

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