Ziziphus oenoplia

Ziziphus oenoplia, commonly known as the jackal jujube, small-fruited jujube or wild jujube,in hindi known as मकोरा Makora ,in [marathi]known as तोरण वेल is a flowering plant with a broad distribution through tropical and subtropical Asia and Australasia.

Ziziphus oenoplia
Ziziphus oenoplia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Rhamnaceae
Genus: Ziziphus
Species:
Z. oenoplia
Binomial name
Ziziphus oenoplia
Synonyms[1]
  • Rhamnus oenopolia L.
Leaves and fruits
Flowers

Description

It is a spreading, sometimes climbing, thorny shrub growing to 1.5 m in height. The leaves are simple, alternate, ovate-lanceolate, acute and oblique. The flowers are green, in subsessile axillary cymes. The fruit is a globose drupe, black and shiny when ripe, containing a single seed.[2]

Distribution and habitat

It ranges from the Indian subcontinent through southern China and Southeast Asia to northern Australia. It grows along roadside forests and thickets.[3]

Uses

The berries are edible and the bark is used for tanning.[3]

Medicinal

The plant produces cyclopeptide alkaloids known as ziziphines and has a long history of use as an herbal medicine. In India the root is used in Ayurvedic medicine.[2] The Konkani people of Maharashtra use the chewed leaves as a dressing for wounds.[4] In Burma the stem bark is used as a mouthwash for sore throats, for dysentery, and for inflammation of the uterus.[5] Research in Thailand has found that extracts of ziziphine from Ziziphus oenoplia var. brunoniana show antiplasmodial in vitro activity against the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum.[6]

References
  1. The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species, retrieved 30 January 2016
  2. Ayurvedic medicinal plants.
  3. Ara et al. (2008).
  4. Kuvar & Bapat (2010).
  5. Myanmar Medicinal Plant Database.
  6. Sunit Suksamrarn et al. (2005).

Sources


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.