99-WITHANIA SOMMIFERA (L.) Dunal.
Local names: Dhor Gunj, Askand (Ashwaganda)
Family: Solanaceae
Location: Near Department of Botany, Botanical garden, beside green room.
Characters: Erect, under shrubs, branches, terete, densely clothed with mealy stellate-hoary tomentum, leaves ovate ellipsoid, alternate, unequal, entire flowers greenish yellow, 6 – 9 together in axillary, fascicles, berries red, smooth and enclosed in inflated calyx.
Cultivated in garden, also materialised along road sides and waste land throughout the district.
General use: tender shoots used as vegetable.
Medicinal use: Decoction of roots as well as leaves is used on cough, dried leaves along with honey is given in general anemic condition. Also it is diuretic, a fomentation of the leaves is used for sore eyes, boils and swollen hands and feet, a paste of the leaves is locally applied to kill lice infesting the body and over curbunales, and syphilitic sores. Roots used in feminine disorders and as a sedative in case of sensile debility.
Veterinary use: Leaves paste is used for removal of lice and used for fever. Fruits used in coagulation of milk and immune, roots used for ulcer.