42. Coscinium fenestratum, Colebr.

The medicinal plant Coscinium fenestratum is a member of the Menispermaceae (moonseed) 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. 99.

Synonyms:—Menisperum fenestratum, Gaertn,

Vernacular:—Jhar-ki-haldi, or Jhadi baladi (Dec.); Haldi-gach (B.); Mara-Manjal (Tam.); Manu pasupu (Tel.); Marada-arishina (Kan.) Veniwel. (Mar.; and Sinhalese).

Habitat:—Western Peninsula, Central and South India. Malacca, Singapore, Ceylon.

Botanical description:—A woody climber, bark smooth, young shoots densely but finely yellow-tomentose,

Leaves: large, 4-8 in., broadly ovate or rounded, suddenly acute, truncate, rounded, subcordate or slightly peltate at base, entire, glabrous above, densely felted, with fine yellow tomentum beneath, strongly 5-7-nerved; nerves and reticulated veinlets very prominent beneath.

Petioles: 3-4 in.

Flowers: sessile in small dense rounded heads, which are long-stalked and umbel lately or racemosely arranged in the axils of the leaves.

Pedicels: yellow-tomentose; bracts beneath the flowers numerous, small, imbricated.

Sepals: rounded, persistent. Petals ovate, spreading.

Female fl: . Carpels hairy, styles filiform, reflexed.

Ripe carpels: (Drupes) 1-3, globose, f in., densely tomentose, brown.

Part used:—The root.

Medicinal uses:—The root is extensively used in the hospitals of the Madras Presidency as an efficient bitter tonic. A writer, quoted by Christie, says of Ceylon that this root is viewed “as a very good substitute for Calumba. I have used it with good results in the form of tincture and infusion. It has also antiseptic properties to a great extent, and can be used for dressing wounds and ulcers.” The wood is of a bright yellow colour, and is valued as a bitter tonic by the Sinhalese.

Dr. Moodeen Sheriff considered the action of the drug to be “antipyretic, antiperiodic, tonic and stomachic,” and useful “in slight cases of continued and intermittent fevers, debility, and certain forms of dyspepsia. It may be used in place of Cinchona, Gentian or Calumba, called “False Calumba.” A yellow dye is also obtained from it.—Trimen. “Used in diabetes, and also in cases of suppression of lochia.” (Watt.).