47. Stephania rotundifolia, Lour.

The medicinal plant Stephania rotundifolia 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): 1.103.

Vernacular:—Purha (Dehra Dun).

Habitat:—Tropical and temperate Himalaya, from Sindh eastward to the Khasia Hills and Pegu. Valleys below Simla; in the ravines of Dun and the Lower Hills. Southern Hills of the Western Peninsula. Siam, Cochin-China.

Botanical description:—A tuberous-rooted, large, climbing shrub. Roots subglobose. “Wood soft, spongy, with large, loose pith arranged in wedges, separated by broad medullary rays, and concentrically by a belt of soft similar tissue. The bark gives fibre, sometimes used for fishing lines.” (Gamble).

Branchlets: glabrous. Leaves peltate, with 9-10 radiating nerves, ovato-rotundate, broad-ovate or sub-orbicular, often repand or sinuate-lobed, glabrous, 3-7 in. diam., obtuse, acute or acuminate, pale beneath.

Petiole: 3-9 in.

Peduncle: variable, usually slender, of the females, stout.

Umbels: axillary, compound, in lax cymes; rays of umbels long or stout; bracts subulate.

Flowery: yellow or yellowish-green, ⅙-¼ in. diam. Sepals narrow, cuneate, puberulous Petals shorter.

Drupes: red, pisiform, Endocarp horse-shoe-shaped, sides excavated.

Cotyledons: elongate, flat, scarcely broader than the radicle.

Part used:—The root.

Medicinal uses:—Roxburgh states that the acrid root is used medicinally in Sylhet, presumably for the same purpose as Stephania hernandifolia, Walp.