3. Clematis gouriana, Roxb.

The medicinal plant Clematis gouriana is a member of the Ranunculaceae (buttercup) family. This page includes its habitat, botanical descption, medicinal uses (eg., Ayurveda), chemical constituents and history of use in modern and ancient India.

Index in Flora of British India (Hooker): 1. 4.
Index in Flora Indica (Roxburgh): 457.

Vernacular:—Morvel, ranjai (Bomb.), Marathi; Belkun, Belkangau (N. W.).

Habitat:—In the hilly districts, from the Western Himalaya to the Eastern Peninsula, Ceylon, and the Western Peninsula.

Botanical description:—An extensive woody climber.

Stem: thick, striate.

Branches: widespread, purple, pubescent when young.

Leaves: pinnate or bipinnate or biternate.

Petiole: and rachis elongated.

Leaflets: stalked, unequal, 2-3½ in. long, ovate, or oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, shining above, entirely or distantly toothed, cordate or rounded at base, rather coriaceous shining, wholly glabrous above, slightly pubescent beneath.

Flowers: yellowish or greenish white, ¾in. diam., small in dense axillary panicles.

Sepals: ovate or oblong, revolute, puberulous, ⅕-¼in., margins tomentose.

Filaments: narrow-linear.

Achenes: hairy, lanceolate,

Style: 1 ½-2 in. long, narrow oblong, in fruit very slender, hairy.

Medicinal Properties and Uses:—The leaves of the fresh stems, if bruised and applied to the skin, cause vesication. They abound in an acrid poisonous principle. Watt. ii. 369.