Justicia adhatoda

Justicia adhatoda L. (Adulsa, Malabar Nut); syn. Adhatoda vasica Nees , is a medicinal plant native to Asia.

The plant grows wild in abundance all over Nepal, India, and the Pothohar region of Pakistan, particularly in the Pharwala area, within Pakistan it is the Provincial flower of the Punjab (Pakistan).

Adhatoda consists of the fresh or dried leaves of Adhatoda Vasica, Nees (N.O. Acanthaceae), a shrub growing in India.

The leaves vary from 10 to 15 centimeters in length, and are about 4 centimeters broad; they are opposite, entire, lanceolate, and shortly petiolate, tapering towards both apex and base.

When dry they are of a dull brownish-green colour; odour, characteristic; taste, bitter. They possess well-marked histological features, which can easily be seen in fragments of the leaf cleared by chloral hydrate.

The stomata are elongated-oval in shape and surrounded by two crescent-shaped cells, the long axes of which are at right angles to the ostiole. The epidermis bears simple one- to three-celled warty hairs, and small glandular hairs with a quadricellular secreting gland.

Cystoliths occur beneath the epidermis of the under surface. Both hairs and cystoliths vary in number in different specimens.



Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justicia_adhatoda


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