Nirgundi

Botanical Name - Vitex negundo

Category - Medicinal

Form - Dry

Part Used - Whole Plant

General Information - Vitex negundo Linn., belonging to family Verbenaceae (which comprises 75 genera and nearly 2500 spe-cies), commonly known as Five leaved chaste tree (Eng), Nirgandi (Hindi), Nirgundi (San-skrit), is a deciduous shrub, occur in tropical to temperate region. The leaves have five leaflets in a palmately arrangement, which are lanceolate, 4 - 10 cm long, hairy beneathand pointed at both ends. The bluish purple flowers are numerous. The fruit is succulent, black and rounded when ripehaving about 4 mm in diameter. Vitex negundo (Linn.) is one of the common plants used in traditional medicine and reported to have variety of pharmacological activities. Although, all parts of V. negundo are used as medicine in theindigenous system of medicine, the leaves are the most potent for medicinal use. The decoction of leaves is used fortreatment of inflammation, eye-disease, toothache, leucoderma,enlargement of the spleen, ulcers, cancers, catarrhal fever,rheumatoid arthritis, gonorrhea, sinuses, scrofulous sores,bronchitis and as tonics, vermifuge, lactagogue, emmenag-ogue, antibacterial, antipyretic, antihistaminic, analgesic, in-secticidal, ovicidal, feeding deterrence, growth inhibition and morphogenetic agents.

Phytochemicals - V. negundo have several types of compounds,such as volatile oils, lignans, flavonoids, iridoids, terpenes (triterpenes, diterpenes, sesquiterpenes), andsteroids.