Swertia chirayita (Roxb.) Buch.-Ham. ex C.B.Clarke

DeFilipps, Robert A. & Krupnick, Gary A., 2018, The medicinal plants of Myanmar, PhytoKeys 102, pp. 1-341 : 94

Swertia chirayita (Roxb.) Buch.-Ham. ex C.B.Clarke

Names.

English: bitter stick, clearing nut tree, Indian gentian.

Range.

Eastern Asia - Himalayas.

Uses.

A bitter. Plant [part(s) not given] used as an aperient and as a tonic. Dried plant imported to Indo-China and Malaya where it is used as a febrifuge. Used with success in a majority of fevers, especially typhoid.

Notes.

In India the whole plant is used as a bitter, stomachic, anthelmintic, febrifuge, as well as for malarial fever, asthma, and liver disorders. Also taken with sandalwood in a paste to heal internal hemorrhage of stomach. A decoction of the root (with root of Acorus calamus ) is used as a remedy for intermittent fever, leprosy, leucoderma, scabies and other skin diseases. An unspecified plant part is used for gravel in urine, atrophy, bronchitis, consumption, gonorrhea, bleeding gums, emaciation, puerperal fever, and also cooling, and curing thirst, biliousness, and inflammation ( Jain and DeFilipps 1991).

Reported constituents include chiratin, chiratogenin, ophelic acid, resin, and tannin ( Perry 1980).

Reference.

Perry (1980).