Snakeroot

A concotion of the root is hypnotic, sedative and reduces blood pressure; it is also employed in labours to increase uterine contraction.

The roots are used as a sedative and in the treatment of hypertension. The bark, leaves, and roots are used against snake and scorpion poisoning.

A small shrub 50-60 cm high, branches simple and glabrous. Leaves whorled, usually 3, ovate-lanceolate, elliptic-lanceolate, 7-16 x 2.5-5 cm, acute or acuminate, entire, dark green above and pale green beneath, membranous, with 8-12 pairs of lateral nerves, petiole 5-15 mm long, with glands in the leaf axils. Inflorescence of terminal or axillary, many-flowered much branched cymes, peduncle 2.5-10 cm long, pedicel c. 5 mm long, red, bract minute, acute, triangular, bright red. Flowers pink, c. 1 cm across. Calyx c. 2.5 mm long, ovate or lanceolate, acute, equalling the tube. Corolla tube 8-12 mm long, inflated in the middle, throat hairy, lobes spreading, 4 mm long, overlapping to the left in bud, stamens inserted in the middle of the corolla. Disc conspicuous, cupshaped, style filiform, stigma capitate. Fruit c. 8 mm in diameter, 2 separate or in two lobes, red, ovoid, pointed, turning shining black when fully mature.

Shrubs to 1 m tall, erect, glabrous. Stems usually unbranched, slender, straw colored. Leaves grouped near stem apex, in whorls of 3-5; petiole 1-1.5 cm; leaf blade narrowly elliptic or obovate, membranous, 7-17 X 2-9 cm, base cuneate, apex acuminate or rarely obtuse; lateral veins 7-15 pairs. Cymes congested; peduncle 5-13 cm, red or reddish. Pedicel and calyx red or reddish. Corolla white, tube cylindric, 1-1.8 cm, inflated at middle and pilose inside distal half; lobes obliquely suborbicular, 1.5-3.5 mm. Stamens inserted at middle of corolla tube. Ovaries connate in basal half. Drupes ellipsoid, ca. 8 mm, connate for half their length. Fl. Feb-Oct, fr. May-Dec. 2n = 22.

Tropical Himalaya, India, Ceylon, Malaya.

Distribution: Tropical Himalayas to Sikkim, Assam, Deccan Penninsula, South East Punjab. Cultivated in Karachi.

S Yunnan (Gengma, Jing-hong), cultivated in S Guangdong, S Guangxi, Hainan [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand].

100-900 m

Fl. Per.: July-September.

Montane forests; 800-1500 m.

Ophioxylon serpentinum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 1043. 1753; O. majus Hasskarl.