12. Aconitum lycotonum, Linn.

The medicinal plant Aconitum lycotonum 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. 28.

Habitat:—Himalaya, from Chitral to Kumaon, mostly in forests, locally abundant, from 5,000—12,000ft. Kashmir.

Botanical description:—Root: perennial, elongate, more or less cylindric, ultimately breaking up into separate or anastomosing strands.

Stem: erect, simple, 3-6ft., glabrous or pubescent, much branched.

Leaves: palmately deeply 5-9-lobed, 6-10 in. diam.

Lobes: cuneate-ovate; lower leaves long-petioled, upper sessile.

Racemes: branched, long, tomentose, bracts minute.

Flowers: pale yellow or dull purple, variable in size; helmet with a short beak and long cylindrical dorsal prominence.

Follicles: 3, spreading; testa plaited.

Medicinal uses:—This species also yields much of the aconite of European commerce.

Dr. Stapf writes:—The root does not appear to be used medicinally, and its chemistry is unknown. Dr. Jowett’s notes quoted by Dr. Watt. in Agric. Ledger 1902, No. 3, p. 89, refer to the chemistry of the European A. Lycotonum.