Linn.
Habitat: The alpine zone of the Himalayas from Gilgit to Kumaon.
Ayurvedic: Vatsanaabha (related sp.).Folk: Tilia Kachnaag, Dudhia.Action: Nervine tonic.
Air-dried roots of the plant are reported to contain 1% indaconitine.
Habitat: The alpine zone of the Himalayas from Gilgit to Kumaon.
Ayurvedic: Vatsanaabha (related sp.).Folk: Tilia Kachnaag, Dudhia.Action: Nervine tonic.
Air-dried roots of the plant are reported to contain 1% indaconitine.Habitat: Wild and cultivated throughout India in damp marshy places from 900 to 1,800 m; common in Manipur and Naga Hills.
English: Sweet Flag, Calamus.Ayurvedic: Vachaa, Ugragandhaa, Ugraa, Golomi, Shadgranthaa, Shataparvaa, Tikshnagandhaa, Kshudra-patra, Maangalyaa, Ghor- bach.Unani: Waj-e-Turki, Waj.Siddha/Tamil: Vasambu.Action: Rhizome—nervine tonic, hypotensive, tranquilizer, sedative (with neuroleptic and antianxiety properties), analgesic, spasmolytic, anticonvulsant; used for bronchial catarrh, chronic diarrhoea and dysentery.
Along with other therapeutic applications, The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India indicates the use of the dried rhizomes as a brain tonic in weak memory, psychoneurosis and epilepsy.Four types of Calamus are used in herbal medicine: type I—Acorus calamus L. var. americanus, a diploid American var.; type II—var. vulgaris L. (var. calamus), a European triploid; type III and type IV—var. augustatus Bess. and var. versus L., subtropical tetraploids.Beta-asarone is carcinogenic in animals. Volatile oil of types II, III and IV—major constituent is usually beta- asarone (isoasarone), up to 96%. Indian calamus oil contains asarone up to 82% and its beta-isomer. In type I, beta-asarone and other phenylpropa- noids are absent. It is superior in spasmolytic activity to the other types.Indian practitioners mostly use A. calamus externally. Shveta Vachaa (Haimavati, equated with Acorus gra- mineus Scoland. Ex Ait., a diploid, is used internally. Unani physicians use Paris polyphylla Sim. as Khuraasaani Bach.The essential oil-free alcoholic extract of A. calamus possesses sedative and analgesic properties.Alpha-asarone potentiates pento- barbital, accounts for some, but not all, neurodepressive activity. Beta-asarone is reportedly hallucinogenic. (Francis Brinker.)The ethanolic extract of rhizomes show significant antisecretory and an- tiulcerogenic activity; also, protective effect against cytodestructive agents, experimentally.Dosage: Rhizome—60-120 mg powder. (API Vol. II.)
Health Encyclopedia