Arjun Tree
The common name is Arjun .Its botaical name is Terminalia arjuna.It belongs to a family called Combretaceae (rangoon creeper family)In Indian mythology, Arjun is supposed to be Sita's favourite tree.. Arjuna is a large, evergreen tree, with a spreading crown and drooping branches. Grows up to 25 m height, and the bark is grey and smooth. Leaves are sub-opposite, 5-14 × 2-4.5 cm in size, oblong or elliptic oblong. Flowers small, white, and occur on long hanging recemes. Fruit is 2.3-3.5 cm long, fibrous woody, glabrous and has five hard wings, striated with numerous curved veins. Flowering time of the tree is April-July, in Indian conditions
Some of its medicinal uses are:
Every part of the tree has useful medicinal properties. Arjun holds a reputed position in both Ayurvedic and Yunani Systems of medicine. According to Ayurveda it is alexiteric, styptic, tonic, anthelmintic, and useful in fractures, uclers, heart diseases, biliousness, urinary discharges, asthma, tumours, leucoderma, anaemia, excessive prespiration etc. According to Yunani system of medicine, it is used both externally and internally in gleet and urinary discharges.
Amaltas
The common name of this medicinal plant is Amaltas, Golden shower tree, Indian Laburnum .Its botanical name is Cassia fistula.It belongs to family called Caesalpiniaceae (Gulmohar family)This native of India,, is one of the most beautiful of all tropical trees when it sheds its leaves and bursts into a mass of long, grape-bunches like yellow gold flowers. A tropical ornamental tree with a trunck consisting of hard reddish wood, growing up to 40 feet tall. The wood is hard and heavy; it is used for cabinet, inlay work, etc. It has showy racemes, up to 2" long, with bright, yellow, fragrant flowers. These flowers are attractive to bees and butterflies. The fruits are dark-brown cylindrical pods, also 2' long, which also hold the flattish, brown seeds (up to 100 in one pod) These seeds are in cells, each containing a single seed. A postal stamp was issued by the Indian Postal Department to commemorate this tree.
Its medicinal uses are: The sweet blackish pulp of the seedpod is used as a mild laxative
Asian Spider Flower
The common name of this medicinal plant is Asian spider flower, Yellow spider flower, Cleome, Tickweed, Bagra (Hindi).Its botanical name is Cleome viscosa/icosandra It belongs to family called Capparaceae (caper family) .It is usually tall annual herb, up to a meter in height, more or less hairy with glandular and eglandular hairs. Leaves 3-5-foliolate, petiolate; leaflets obovate, elliptic-oblong, very variable in size, often 2-4 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm broad, middle one largest; petiole up to 5 cm long. Racemes elongated, up to 30 cm long, with corym¬bose flowers at the top and elongated mature fruits below, bracteate. Flowers 10-15 mm across, whitish or yellowish; pedicels 6-20 mm long; bracts foliaceous. Sepals oblong-lanceolate, 3-4 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, glandular-pubescent. Petals 8-15 mm long, 2-4 mm broad, oblong-obovate. Stamens 10-12 (rarely more, up to 20), not exceeding the petals; gynophore absent. Fruit 30-75 mm long, 3-5 mm broad, linear-oblong, erect, obliquely striated, tapering at both ends, glandular-pubescent, slender; style 2-5 mm long; seeds many, 1-1.4 mm in diam., glabrous with longitudinal striations and transverse ridges, dark brown.
Some of its medicinal uses are:
The leaves are diaphoretic, rubefacient and vesicant. They are used as an external application to wounds and ulcers. The juice of the leaves has been used to relieve earache. The seeds are anthelmintic, carminative, rubefacient and vesicant. The seed contains 0.1% viscosic acid and 0.04% viscosin.
Aloe Vera
The common name of this medicinal plant is Aloe vera, Medicinal aloe, Burn plant ,Hindi: Gheekumari. Its botanical name is Aloe vera. It belongs to family called Asphodelaceae (Aloe family).Its Synonyms are Aloe barbadensis, Aloe indica, Aloe vulgaris. Aloe , a popular houseplant, has a long history as a multipurpose folk remedy. Commonly known as Aloe vera, the plant can be snapped off and placed on cuts and burns for immediate relief. Aloe vera is a clump forming succulent whose fleshy gray-green leaves are arranged in a vase shaped rosette atop a very short stem.
The leaves are up to 18 in long and 2 in wide at the base, slightly grooved on top, and terminating in a sharp point. The leaves have small grayish teeth on the margins. The main rosette gets up to about 2 ft high, and the plant continually produces little offset rosettes. In winter and spring, medicinal aloe bears small tubular yellow flowers on branched stalks up to 3 ft tall. The real Aloe vera has yellow flowers, but many of the clones available have orange flowers. Although Aloe Vera is a member of the Lily family, it is very-cactus like in its characteristics.
Some of its medicinal uses are:
Aloe Vera contains over 20 minerals, all of which are essential to the human body. The human body requires 22 amino acids for good health -- eight of which are called "essential" because the body cannot fabricate them. Aloe Vera contains all of these eight essential amino acids, and 11 of the 14 "secondary" amino acids. Aloe Vera has Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C and E. In India, Aloe vera is believed to help in sustaining youth, due to its positive effects on the skin. Hence it is called ghee kunvar or ghee kumaari.
Eucalyptus
The common name of this medicinal plant is Eucalyptus, Safeda (Hindi) . Its botanical name is Eucalyptus spp. It belongs to family called Myrtaceae (Myrtle Family) .Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of trees (rarely shrubs), the members of which dominate the tree flora of Australia. All eucalypts are evergreen, although some species have deciduous bark. On warm days vapourised eucalyptus oil rises above the bush to create the characteristic distant blue haze of the Australian landscape. Eucalyptus oil is highly flammable (trees have been known to explode) and bush fires can travel easily through the oil-rich air of the tree crowns.
Eucalypts exhibit leaf dimorphism. When young, the leaves are opposite and often roundish and occassionally without petiole. When several years old, the leaves become quite slender and with long petiole. Eucalyptus flowers typically vary from white, cream, pink, yellow, or red depending upon the species. The flower petals and stamens are fused into a cap called an operculum — as the flower opens the cap is shed. The flowers appear as a fuzzy, cream-yellow ball of stamens. After flowering, hard, woody seed pods develop and are often key to identifying the plant species. Typically, these seed heads remain on the tree until released by fire or the plant's death.
Some of its medicinal uses are:
Eucalyptus oil has medicinal properties - the well known Vicks vapo-rub is made out of eucalyptus oil. Traditionally, eucalyptus oil is known to be a good medicine for relieving nasal congestion in cold.
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