KHADIRA
Khadira consists of dried pieces of heart-wood of Acacia catechu (Linn. f.) Willd. (Fam. Leguminosm), a moderate sized tree, found mostly in dry parts of India.
SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : Gayatri
Assamese : Kharira, Khara, Khayar
Bengali : Khera, Khayera
English : Black catechu, Cutch tree.
Gujrati : Khair, Kathe, Kher
Hindi : Khair
Kannada : Kaggali, Kaggalinara, Kachinamara, Koggigida
Kashmiri : Kath
Malayalam : Karingali
Marathi : Khaira, Khair
Oriya : Khaira
Punjabi : Khair
Tamil : Karungali, Karungkali
Telugu : Chandra, Kaviri
Urdu : Chanbe Kaath
DESCRIPTION
a) Macroscopic
Heart-wood, light red, turning brownish-red to nearly black with age, attached with whitish sapwood, fracture hard, taste, astringent
b) Microscopic
Transverse section of heart-wood shows, numerous, uni-to bi-seriate medullary rays, vessels occurring isolated or in small groups of two to four, xylem fibres with narrow lumen occupying major portion of wood, xylem parenchyma usually predominantly paratracheal, forming a sheath around vessels, wood consists of crystal fibres with 14-28 segments, each having one prismatic crystal of calcium oxalate, a few tracheids with scalariform thickening, some of cells, including vessels, filled with brown content, prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate present in a number of cells throughout the wood.
Powder– Brown coloured, under microscope shows a number of xylem fibres, vessels, crystal fibres, prismatic crystals of calcium exalate.
IDENTITY, PURITY AND STRENGTH
Foreign matter Not more than 2 per cent, Appendix 2.2.2.
Total Ash Not more than 2 per cent, Appendix 2.2.3.
Acid-insoluble ash Not more than 1.2 per cent, Appendix 2.2.4.
Alcohol-soluble extractive Not less than 1 per cent, Appendix 2.2.6.
Water-soluble extractive Not less than 3 per cent, Appendix 2.2.7.
CONSTITUENTS – Catechin, catechu-tannic acid and tannin.
PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Tikta, Kasaya
Guna : Laghu, Ruksa
Virya : Sita
Vipaka : Katu
Karma : Krmighna, Kushaghna, Medohara, Raktasodhaka, Kaphapittahara, Dantya
IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – Khadirarista, Arimedadi Taila, Khadiradi Gutika
THERAPEUTIC USES – Sotha, Kustha, Prameha, Vrana
DOSE – 20-30 g of the drug for the decoction.
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