18. Aconitum chasmanthum, Stapf.

The medicinal plant Aconitum chasmanthum 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 the Annals Royal Bot. Gard. Calcutta, Vol. X. pt. II., p. 142.

Vernacular:—Mohri (Jhelum Basin); Piun (Jhelum Basin); Banbal-nag (Kashmir.)

Habitat:—Subalpine and Alpine zone of the Western Himalaya from Chitral and Hazara to Kashmir, between 7,000 and 12,000 ft.

Botanical description:—Roots: Biennial, paired, tuberous; daughter-tuber conic to conic-cylindric from a broad base, 2 5 3.7 (rarely 5) cm., 12-18 mm. thick, bearing more or less numerous root-fibres, leaving behind tire indurated bases when breaking off, bark brown to blackish brown, smooth or wrinkled when dry, fracture cartilaginous, hard, white within the cambium ring, brownish without; taste slightly bitter, followed by a very persistent strong tingling sensation, cambium continuous, forming a wide central strand, sinuous in cross-section; mother-tuber shrunk, deeply grooved and wrinkled, black outside, brown right through.

Innovation-bud: conic, short from a very broad base. Stem. erect, simple, inclusive of the inflorescence, 60-120 cm. high, rather stout, crispo-pubescent above, glabrous below, or almost glabrous all along.

Leaves: numerous, usually more distant in the lower part and crowded in the upper, or more equally distributed, the lowest on petioles up to 7.5 cm. long, the upper shortly petioled or subsessile, passing into the floral leaves, quite glabrous, somewhat fleshy, lower and intermediate blades orbicular, reniform in outline, 4-6 cm. high, 5-9 cm. across, 3-palmati-partite almost to the very base, intermediate segment obovate-cuneate, long attenuated at the base, 3-lobed to the middle or beyond, lobes liciniate, or the middle lobe pinnati-partite, ultimate liciniae linear, acute to very acute, lateral segments deeply 2-partite and liciniate with the inner division, similar to the intermediate segment and the outer 2-lobed and smaller, uppermost lobes similar to the preceding, but smaller, relatively longer and more sparingly divided

Inflorescence: a long, narrow, stiff, dense or loose raceme, often over 30 cm. long, often leafy below, and sometimes with slender, erect additional branches from the base, crispo-pubescent; rhachis stout; floral leaves like the preceding leaves, but still less divided or entire, passing into the linear to filiform bracts; bracteoles, if any, small; pedicels slender, the lowest at length 2.5-3 5 cm. long and adpressed to the rhachis when mature.

Sepals: blue or whitish and variegated with blue, crispo-pubescent or almost glabrous; uppermost lielmet-sbaped, helmet more or less depressed into a distinct and often long and slender beak. 15-10 mm. high, 12-18 mm. long, from the tip to the base, 5-7 mm. wide (seen from the side), lateral margin conspicuously concave, lateral sepals not contiguous with the helmet, except near the base, obliquely suborbicular or almost square, shortly or obscurely clawed, 12-15 mm.long and broad, lower sepals oblong, obtuse, 9-12 mm.long.

Nectaries: extinguisher-shaped glabrous, claw 5-6 mm. long, leaning forward in the upper part; hood short, wide, very obtuse, top slightly gibbous on the back, honey-gland occupying the whole top or the gibbosity.

Fillaments: glabrous or very sparingly hairy, winged; wings gradually or abruptly attenuated.

Carpels: 5, glabrous, rarely or sparingly hairy on the back, conniving abruptly, contracted into the short style, back convex.

Follicles: oblong, truncate, 10-16 mm. long, contiguous or with slightly divergent tips, glabrous.

Seeds: brown obovoid to obpyramidal, 3.5 mm. long, equally 3-winged, wings thin, faces smooth.

Properties and medicinal uses:—The root contains, according to Professor Dunstan, aconitine, but in very small proportions. It seems that it is sometimes used in Northern India as a substitute for the imported tuber of Aconitum Napellus (Wall).

Notes on Aconitum Chasmanthum, Stapf.—This was for sometime supposed to be the European Aconitum Napellus, but is now known to be a distinct species.

The plant is known as ‘Mohri.’

The alkaloid which has been obtained from the plant proves to be exceptionally interesting, since it represents a compound intermediate between the aconitine of the European Aconitum Napellus and the pseudo-aconitine of the Indian Aconitum ferox. This alkaloid is named indaconitine.