67. Corydalis govaniana, Wall.

The medicinal plant Corydalis govaniana is a member of the Fumarioideae / Fumariaceae (bleeding-heart) 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): i. 124.

Sans:—Bhutakesi.

Vernacular:—Bhutkis, bhutkesi (H. and B.)

Habitat:—Western Himalayas, 8-120,00 feet, from Kumaon to Kashmir.

Botanical description:—Herbs with a presistent woody rootstock, which latter is often branched, crowded with red leaf-sheaths.

Stem: stont, 1-2 ft., as thick as the thumb, almost naked, or with 1-2 leaves near the top.

Radical leaves: nearly equalling the stem, many oblong, 2-pinnatisect, long-petioled, cuneate, lanceolate, cut into linear segments, 2 near the base.

Cauline leaves: 1-2 or 0.

Racemes: 2-4 in.long, terminal, dense, many-flowered.

Bracts: broadly cuneate, exceeding the pedicels cut about the middle.

Flowers: 1 in. long, bright yellow, posticous petal convex, back wing very broad, limb shorter than the curved slender spur.

Capsule: ½-⅛ in. Style persistent, half its length.

Part used:—The root.

Medicinal uses:—The root is supposed to be tonic, diuretic and alterative, and is prescribed in syphilitic, scrofulous and cutaneous affections, in the dose of from 10 to 30 grains. The drug is also often used in the form of a decoction or tincture. (Watt.).